[Sola Veritas]

“Get a grip! Romney can’t win! He’d be blown away by Hillary...he’s making a dopey concession speech right now—100,000 troop increase in the armed forces (but, of course, none of his sons will be among them) and where does he think he’s going to get the money for almost a full Army division? China?”

Good point about the new division. However, it also shows his ignorance about how the Army has reorganized in the last few years. Divisions don’t really exist anymore, per se, except of paper. Division staffs act as command and control (C2) for 2 or more Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs). On paper a division has about 3 to 4 BCTs assigned to it, but the divison HQ only acts as as C2 for its BCTs when stateside. All BCTs are modular now. The idea being that they can grab 2 to 3 BCTs of various types to produce a tailor made AD HOC division and assign some Division (any) HQ to serve as C2. You could see a BCT from the 101 (Air Assault) combined with one from 1rst Armour (Mech/Armour Heavy) and one from 10th Mountain (light infantry) combined together and placed under the C2 of HQ 1st Cav Division. So, units deploy as BCTs now, not divisions. They only maintain Divisional alignment for heraldic reasons and somewhat to define the main purpose for the BCT. BTW - A BCT is self sufficient and has its own organic artillery and support units. A BCT is pretty much what an old Separate Brigade was before, except it has a Colonel in command instead of the Brigadier that commanded a separate brigade.

[meandog]

Good point about the new division. However, it also shows his ignorance about how the Army has reorganized in the last few years. Divisions don’t really exist anymore, per se, except of paper. Division staffs act as command and control (C2) for 2 or more Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs). On paper a division has about 3 to 4 BCTs assigned to it, but the divison HQ only acts as as C2 for its BCTs when stateside. All BCTs are modular now. The idea being that they can grab 2 to 3 BCTs of various types to produce a tailor made AD HOC division and assign some Division (any) HQ to serve as C2. You could see a BCT from the 101 (Air Assault) combined with one from 1rst Armour (Mech/Armour Heavy) and one from 10th Mountain (light infantry) combined together and placed under the C2 of HQ 1st Cav Division. So, units deploy as BCTs now, not divisions. They only maintain Divisional alignment for heraldic reasons and somewhat to define the main purpose for the BCT. BTW - A BCT is self sufficient and has its own organic artillery and support units. A BCT is pretty much what an old Separate Brigade was before, except it has a Colonel in command instead of the Brigadier that commanded a separate brigade.

You appear real versed in the Army's new field manual and doctrine...I'm a former Navy guy who worked with Marines. I believe, however, that the new alignment you speak about streamlines the C3 aspects of warfare and works well in the global war on terror. Most folks who've never experienced military service (Hillary, Obama, Edwards, Romney and Huckabee) do not understand the complexity involved (Bill Clinton's fiasco in Somalia stands out as an example).