What are your opinions on 19D (Cavalry Scout)?

I enjoyed my time with the CAV scouts. They appreciated and preferred to use forward observers like myself to call for mortars, artillery, and close-air support. Some of the leadership gave me crap for being an artilleryman, but the SCO, the XO, and the CSM liked what I did, they liked that I was often outside the wire with them (unlike my peers and seniors who were too scared to do anything and lived the FOBbit/TOCroach life), and they liked that no scouts were lost because of me...though they lost a few because of my peers and leadership.

My son just reported to Ft. Benning for OSUT last week as a PFC and his MOS was changed from 19U to 19D, so I am very interested in seeing these opinions about Cav Scouts. Thank you all for your service!

Both my son, who passed away from COVID on November 11, 2021, and my grandson were Cav Scouts I was so proud of both of them.

I was a 19C in 3-7 Cav when it was 3ID's DIVCAV during the Iraq invasion. Before we cut the berm, the squadron commander told us we were intended to effectively destroy the Medina Division, Saddam's best tank division, while taking 70% casualties ourselves. As it turned out, the Air Force destroyed the Medina Division in column on the highway (shades of 1991) because they thought this huge sandstorm would hide them while they deployed from garrison into a blocking position. But those magnificent bastard 19Ds didn't flinch. They were like "a squadron for a division? We'll be immortal!" They had élan like you'd associate with the French Foreign Legion.

Worked with the Scouts of 2/11 Cav for my annual hands-on requal for 13F (for anyone that remembers SQT testing) because that is who my unit supported.

I was assigned to CSC 2/30 IN 3ID in 1972. WE had a cav platoon that had M114 vehicles. I believe the platoon had 14 of them. If 2 or 3 of them ran at the same time it was a miracle. My mortar platoon vehicles were always towing them. hope cav vehicles have improved over the years. By the way the M114 vehicles were powered by a 283ci chevy engine with a 4 barrel carb.

MOS 190? "Calvary Scout"?.

Adding to the discussion because somebody else asked a similar question and it was merged here.
I’m PMOS 19D, SMOS 11B. I’ve completed OSUT for both and served as both, and these are probably the two jobs that excite those with fire in their heart the most. First, I’ve only been 19D in Hawaii, so my experience is limited to one organization. It’s a light unit with Humvees, and because of the terrain and vegetation, you can’t really use them, so you’re walking everywhere anyway. In areas like this, there is a very large amount of overlap between the two jobs. If you want to kick in doors and clear buildings, be infantry. Being a scout is fun, but I miss the excitement of the Infantry at times. Scouts are very proficient at fighting in the wilderness, they’re creative in their tactics, and they can and often win when outnumbered. Until it comes to urban ops. It’s just a lack of training on it, really, and from my understanding scout units will get more urban ops training pre-deployment, but I’ve still seen plenty of scouts with multiple deployments be terrible at it. The infantry trains it regularly, and scouts do not. Another issue with being light, as much as I do recommend it, is that you’re in a Cavalry Squadron. You will likely get armor officers. You can be lucky and get an infantry officer, which is usually ideal when you don’t actually have armor. There are great armor officers that are adaptable and pick it up easily, but I’ve also had a finance officer on branch detail who was not good at all. As a light scout, your unit is smaller, and you need to be very careful not to compromise yourself, every decision needs to be very well thought out or your mission will fail, you don’t have the firepower to always fight and win. All of that may seem negative, but it feels great to watch the enemy try to fight an invisible force. A five man team of well trained scouts can potentially destroy an entire company of infantry. A platoon easily. All without being seen or firing their weapon, IF every aspect of their mission is executed perfectly. Often times we’re called to assist the Infantry, not because they couldn’t do it alone, but rather just because more firepower is always better. Scouts are up front until the infantry comes, we pass our information and positions to them, and we wait for our next mission. In my experience, that mission is usually to swoop in with our vehicles and catch the enemy off guard after the infantry has secured the roads and begun engaging the enemy. The mission set is entirely different if you’re in a unit with different vehicles. I have zero knowledge of how it is being a heavy scout. Because there are less people in my unit, we’re much closer. There aren’t cliques, discipline (in some aspects), customs and courtesies, and rank mean less in the cav than they do in the infantry. Also, since there are less people, it’s easy to stand out if you can carry your weight, a little extra, and prove yourself to be good at your job.

Get ready to pull security

So far so good. Being Cav is a awesome experience. What was your previous MOS?