React to Contact: Squad
The first drill every Infantryman burns into muscle memory. When the enemy opens up, there is no time for a planning process — the squad executes a rehearsed sequence: return fire, seek cover, get on line, report, and decide. Here's the whole drill, step by step, exactly how it runs on the ground, ending on the squad leader's call: frontal assault, bold flank, or break contact. If the call is an assault, the squad is running Battle Drill 2A, Conduct a Squad Assault, which has its own page.
Interactive Walkthrough
Hit play and watch the drill unfold from above, or step through it at your own pace. Gold is A Team, blue is B Team, white is the squad leader, red is the enemy. Every movement on the map matches the written steps below.
The Ranger Handbook (TC 3-21.76) is the source for every drill on this page — mandatory kit for any military leader.
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Task · Conditions · Standards
React to direct fire contact while moving as a squad, transitioning immediately from movement formation to fire and maneuver.
Squad moving tactically (wedge/column). Enemy engages with direct fire from a concealed position. Squad has not been effectively suppressed.
Soldiers in contact return fire and take cover within seconds. Squad locates the enemy, achieves fire superiority, and the squad leader makes a maneuver decision — attack or break contact — and reports to the platoon leader.
The Full Sequence
Squads that walk this drill on a terrain model before stepping off run it clean the first time live — build the objective, talk every phase.
React to Contact ends when the squad leader decides. Each call is its own drill:
Comms & Reports
The 3 D's — First Words After Contact
Whoever sees the enemy shouts it so the whole squad hears it. No radio required.
- Distance — “200 meters!”
- Direction — “Right front!” / clock direction / TRP
- Description — “MG in the treeline!”
- Ranger U rule — the man with a clear sector on the shooter returns fire first, then gets down; men without a sector get behind cover
Fire Commands (ADDRAC)
Team leaders control fires — point with tracers or M320 rounds.
- Alert — “Gun team!”
- Direction — “Left front!”
- Description — “Bunker, base of treeline”
- Range — “Two hundred!”
- Assignment — “SAW, cyclic!” to win it, then “rapid” to keep them down; “Grenadier, 40 mike-mike on the gun”
- Control — “FIRE!”
SALT Report — to the PL
The contact report sent up to higher while the base of fire works:
- Size — “Two-man MG team”
- Activity — “Suppressing us from the treeline”
- Location — grid, or direction & distance (“~200m, our 1 o'clock”)
- Time — time observed / now
The Call — One of Three
From behind the team in contact, where the SL can see. Said once, then the plan:
- Frontal assault — weak, close, no covered flank: the squad goes straight in. Battle Drill 2A
- Bold flank — a covered route to his flank: “A base of fire, B assault right.” Battle Drill 2A
- Break contact — outgunned: direction, distance, rally point. Battle Drill 3A
- Whatever the call, the SALT report goes up first
SALUTE, ACE, and every report above gets written, not memorized — in the all-weather leader book that’s standard issue for a reason.
Where Squads Fail This Drill
Freezing Instead of Firing
The single most common failure. The first response to effective fire is violence of action — immediate, aimed return fire — not waiting for instructions. Seconds of hesitation hand the enemy fire superiority.
Maneuvering Without Suppression
If the enemy can still place accurate fire, the flank gets eaten alive. The base of fire must win the firefight before the assault element moves. Tracers walking into the position, enemy fire dropping off — that's your cue.
The SL Fighting Instead of Leading
A squad leader glued to his rifle isn't assessing, isn't reporting, and isn't making the maneuver decision. Your weapon system is the squad. Run it.
Crossing a Lane to Get On Line
The two men without a sector run in front of the men who are firing. Getting on line means moving behind the line, never through it. Clean lanes first, then more rifles.
Deciding Late, or Not at All
A squad that keeps shooting after the firefight is won has handed the choice to the enemy. Once the fire is superior and the report is up, the SL makes one of three calls: assault, break contact, or support by fire. Say it once.
Everybody Shooting at Nothing
Nine rifles emptying magazines at a treeline suppresses nobody and burns the basic load before the decision is even made. Team leaders mark the gun and call the rate; men without a sector get behind cover and wait for a lane.
