Strategy and Tactics

Having served five years of my life in the United States Marine Corps, I have had many discussions on the topics of tactics and strategy.  As I delve deeper into improving my chess game, I am seeing that this is probably one of the biggest things that I have been studying to increase the level at which I play.   

I continue to spend most of my time doing chess tactics because most of the advice that I have seen says tactics will help my game more than anything else.  This led to an interesting conversation with someone that I met at a local chess club where he basically expressed his opinion that tactics might not be the best way to study chess.  I inquired why he felt that way and he explained that it often led players to become tactical players who never see a tactic play out on the board.  I politely disagreed with him and said that with my tactical training, I am more apt to recognize certain patterns play out on the board.  I feel that tactics have been the best thing for my game over the past two months.   

That being said, I also feel that I am completely lost at times when it comes strategy.  Many times during a game, I look at the board state and I have no clue what I should do.   I definitely feel that Strategy is the next big thing for me to tackle in order to become a better chess player.  

If you have any advice on how I can improve my strategical thinking, feel free to share your opinion in the comments.