[wideawake]

I think the practice among the US Marines was to subdivide squads into even smaller groups called "fire teams" consisting of four of five men.

[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)

[TomB]

I think the practice among the US Marines was to subdivide squads into even smaller groups called "fire teams" consisting of four of five men

Yes, I was discussing that with a devil dog recently and he informed me the Marines have groups of 4 or 5 men called fire teams, and the Navy call them "foursomes" (that number doesn't include the caddies).