"Presence patrol" was often the task in the mission statement handed down to us in Bosnia. This drew the ire of many senior officers who were schooled in the Fulda Gap school of warfighting and who rose through the ranks in the 1990s Army of training for CTC rotations. Some of us began using the more doctrinal-sounding (perhaps even doctrinally correct?) term of "administrative movement." This, too, was objectionable.

Our response was always, "okay, if the task of 'presence patrol' or 'administrative movement' is an improper 'tactical task,' then please tell us whether raid, ambush, or movement to contact is more appropriate for my 'patrol' to meet with the local police chief." The real question that we wanted to ask was even more cynical: why do we need to hand in typed copies of our FRAGOs to BN? Are you that paranoid that we're not doing our jobs and are you incapable of verifying by conducting on-the-spot checks, rather than having a pile of paperwork handed to you at your desk? But I digress...

We never got a good answer about why presence patrol was such a problem or what the more appropriate term should be. The gist of it was that we were in Bosnia, largely, to maintain a presence. We did that by driving around and making ourselves highly visible. Hence, the term (task) "presence patrol." It wasn't in 101-5, so it made certain people uneasy.

That is my understanding.