Question on Military Unit Sizes

[thoughtomator]

Can someone with some experience explain to me what the different unit descriptions mean in terms of manpower?

E.g., a company is what, 120 men? And 3 companies to a brigade? How many brigades in a division, etc.

Someone who knows this stuff please spell it out for me!

Thanks

[BushMeister]

Those numbers from about.com are off. A Corp can be as big as 150,000 troops (see VII corp in GWI).

[farmfriend]

This brought to mind a picture that is I'm sure NOT what you were talking about!

Thank you. I needed a laugh today.

[Tallguy]

a brigade is two or more regiments... Brigades & Regiments are, administratively speaking, equivalent in todays army. Brigades are generally composite in nature, ie. 2 Mech Battalions, plus 1 Tank Battalion.

Today Regiments largely live on paper, except with the Marines, Cavalry and Airborne units which are "purer" formations (think regimented). For example, an Airborne Regiment of the 82nd Abn Div. is almost all light infantry. Armored Cavalry Regiments are composite units that function like mini-divisions.

[wideawake]

Thanks for the detail.

[WhiskeyPapa]

I believe that the Navy generally has larger "Units" than any of the other services and especially compared to "Units" owned by Marines :<) ... USN

You're mistaking your swab for something else, swab jockey. ;-)

Walt

[frodolives]

Too bad your Dad wasn't a Colonel. We got this stuff with the pablum. Right, Bill?

[snooker]

>>> These numbers vary widely.

yep. I believe there are now 10 active divisions in the US Army.

About the only thing you can really count on is what belongs to what.

I saw a news report where the 4th division was 33,000 troops total. May not have been right.

snooker

[clamper1797]

LMAO .... :<)

[Terriergal]

Oops I just realized I posted that from my hubby's laptop where he was still logged in... that was my post. :-) I don't know if that's OK or not.

[Tallguy]

yeah, I know but if the guy is asking a basic question like this, you gotta keep the answer as straightforward as possible. :)

Task organization is the rule in combat units. It really gets complicated with the Marines because their expeditionary units can vary all over the place.

[Terriergal]

Just so's ya know, I forgot to log out on my hubby's laptop first, so that was my post - right now he's rebuilding our windows partition on our main computer and I forgot he was logged in to FR on this laptop before I fired off that line.

I am continuing to work on getting him to UNLURK but he's always so busy doing other stuff and figures someone already has said whatever he would say anyway. *sigh*

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Bad link, try this one: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,74845,00.html

[AgentEcho]

Click on the links. Not all services have the same chain:

Air Force
Army
Marines
My applogies though, I can't find the Navy info. Hopefully someone out there can help.

Æ

[Tallguy]

is there any consistent difference between a battalion and a squadron, or between a brigade and a regiment? (Caution a Generalization follows) The US Army organizes by Battalion. Battalions are the largest "pure" formation in the combat arms: Cavalry, Artillery, Infantry, etc. The army is very tradition bound so the Infantry uses Platoon/Company/Battalion, while the Cavalry uses Platoon/Troop/Squadron, and the Artillery uses Section/Battery/Battalion. Others will correct me, I'm sure.

There is more information being added to this thread that answers your other questions.

[AgentEcho]

You're right, further down the page it states that the numbers can change due to mission and type of unit. It states as well that Calvary units use different terms as well (battalions are called "squadrons" and companies are called "troops.")

Æ

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Question on Military Unit Sizes

"That's a rather personal question, sir."

[Michael Barnes]

When I was in it was as follows:

Two Fireteams (4-5 men)to a Squad(10 men, Plus Squad Leader
. Two Squads to a Section.(22 men Plus Section leader.
Three Sections to a Platoon.(69 men, Plus Platoon Leader and Lt.
Three Platoons to a Company (May have been 4 if "Company" HQ/Supply is added).
4 Companies to a Battalion. (may be 5 if Batalion HQ/Supply was considered seperate entitites)
4 Battalions to a Regiment. Then the Regiment also had it's HQ/Supply chain, not to mention Motor Pool as well.This is excluding any arty attachments or light/heavy attachments.

Honestly, I can't recall how many Regiments made up the First Mar Div. I was with First Marines at the time (Not Division, Regiment)

[Britton J Wingfield]

We have one unit smaller than a squad, the fire team. 3-4 fire teams make up a squad, usually.

[Britton J Wingfield]

Navy Seabees take their structure from the Marine Corps. Fleet structure is completely different from everyone else.

[Tallguy]

Honestly, I can't recall how many Regiments made up the First Mar Div. I was with First Marines at the time (Not Division, Regiment)

Hasn't the 1st Mar Div traditionally (since WW2) been composed of the 1st, 5th & 7th Marine Regiments?