tankersteve,
If we're going to wish, we might as well wish big because it doesn't cost a thing. As long as we're wishing, let's just wish for the 13 man USMC squad with it's three four-man fire teams.
The 2nd Marine Raider Battalion tried a squad with three three-man fire teams in the early days of WWII. Later the three fire team squad was adopted by the entire USMC but they found it necessary to add a man to each fire team for sustainability. So, I believe the basics of the squad organization that you propose have already been tried and found to be lacking in sustained combat.
But let's be realistic: the Army light infantry isn't going to get a bigger squad. So, it seems to me the question shoud be how to best organize and use the nine men (on paper) that the squad has. This has been pretty well hashed out in other threads.
Maybe it's because of Army personel issues, or maybe it's because of Army vehicle size considerations, but I think that brigades will get a third battalion before squads get more men.
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