How Are Army Divisions Numbered?

MSN, explainer Answers to your questions about the news. ^ | march-29-2003 | By Phillip Carter

[Charlie OK]

thanks! bookmarking for later read...

[wideminded]

Today's Army has eight infantry divisions: the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, along with the 10th, 25th, 82nd, and 101st

I worked for a defense contractor in the 80's that did a lot of work for the 9th infantry division. They seemed liked a pretty large concern back then. I wonder what happened to them.

[green team 1999]

I worked for a defense contractor in the 80's that did a lot of work for the 9th infantry division. They seemed liked a pretty large concern back then. I wonder what happened to them.

clinton,remember how proud he was that he cut 200,000+ federal jobs?,but forgot to tell the people that was military cuts.

[wideminded]

Looks like it was GHWB, not Clinton.

Found this at: www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/9id.htm

"The Ninth Infantry Division (Old Reliables) was finally inactivated at Ft Lewis, Washington by Order #201-29 on June 16th, 1991."

[green team 1999]

still,clinton destroy the military for eight years.
hhmmm,i should say" the clintons"

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

This helps somewhat. My understanding is that a 1st Lt commands a Platoon, a Captain commands the Company, a Lt Col commands the Battalion, a full Col commands the Regiment, and a two-star commands the Division. I guess a three-star commands an Army? What does a 2nd Lt command? Or a Major??

[Britton J Wingfield]

squad = phalanx?

[Poohbah]

A brigade has more organic combat support and combat service support than a regiment, making it more capable of independent operations.

[cymeckajax3]

A Second Lt. can also be a platoon leader. a Major can be an Xo/ second in comand of a Bn. In some istances a Major can also command a unit depending on it's make up.(Army)

[cookcounty]

"Posted by Centurion2000 to cookcounty; BlueLancer On News/Activism 03/31/2003 11:18 AM PST #36 of 49 "Point of note: The term Regiment is used almost exclusively in the Marine Corps. You will never heard about a permanent USMC Brigade."

The term is still used in many cases in the army, but it has no organizational significance (different battalions of the same "regiment" can be in differing brigades. ) There are a few exceptions to this, esp regarding some Cav units.

[Little Bill]

At the time of WW1 the Divisions were numbered, 1-25 Regular Army, 26-50(?)National Guard, 51(?)-Top Number, National Divisions, this continued through WW2. the Regimental numbering it is not based on longivity as a military unit, Three regiments of the 26th Division are among the oldest military units in the world, 1680's, descended from the Essex, Middlesex, and Norfolk, Mass Militia Regiments, correct me if I am wrong.

[Ga Rob]

Those types of diffrences only exsist betweent the navy and the rest of the forces.

A Captain in the Army/Air Force/Marines is a Lieutenant in the navy

A 2ND LT in the Army/Air Force/Marines is a Ensign in the Navy

A Full Bird Colonel in the Army/Air Force/Marines is a Captain in the Navy. Not to be confused with a "Captain" of a navy vessel which could be any number of ranks from a LT to a Admiral

Several other instances...not enough time to list them all.

[jackbill]

There are, of course, gaps in the sequence. Today's Army has eight infantry divisions: the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, along with the 10th, 25th, 82nd, and 101st. What happened to the rest of them?

I believe that a lot of them still exist - as Army Reserve or National Guard divisions.

For instance, the 29th Infantry Division (Light)of the Army Reserves, has units in five different states: Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The 40th Infantry Division is the California National Guard.

In addition to disappearing, some have been changed. The 45th Infantry Division has been reconstituted as the 45th Infantry Brigade and is attached to the 7th Inf. Div..

[the bottle let me down]

bump for later

[Taliesan]

OK, I've read the whole thread and I still don't have a clear picture.

[No Truce With Kings]

Originally there were three types of Army Divisions: Regular Army, National Guard, and War Emergency.

The Regular Army Divisions were allocated numbers 1-25.

National Guard Divisions started at 25 and ran to either 55 or 56.

Anything higher was a war emergency division.

These distictions were set up in WWI and maintained through WWII. So, the famous 42nd (Rainbow) Infantry Division was a National Guard unit made up from independent brigades of several states. The 45th was built from the OK, NM, and AZ National Guard units.

War Emergency Units also tended to be drawn regionally -- the 83rd Division came predominantly from Ohio, and has the letters O H I O in gold on a black background (the letters are stacked on each other). Some of these were retained as training divisions following WWII.

Changes occured during WWII. In WWI there was only one kind of division (Infantry) as cavalry was limited to regiments. In WWII specialized division began to appear. First Cavalry (1st and 2nd Cav Divisions) then Armor. Armor had its own numbering system using a triangular patch with the division number and a division name underneath. I WWII there were 16 Armor Division, numbered 1-20 with gaps after 12.

Following WWII some National Guard units became Armor, which is why the TX NG has the 49th Armor Division. This keeps the old NG numbering, but abandons the old 36th Div used for the TX NG during WWI and WWII.

Another phenomena of WWII was the mountain and airborne unit. Initially the Airborne Divisions were raised by converting two war emergency divisions -- the 82nd (Alvin York's outfit in WWI) and 101st. By the end of WWII there were three RA airborne units -- the 11th, 13th and 18th Airborne. Initially the 11th was retained as the peacetime airborne unit, but due to the war records of the 82nd and 101st, these were substituted, and converted to RA units.

The only mountain unit in WWII was the 10th Infantry, and it was reactivated in the 1990s as a light (Mountain) unit to maintain the tradition.

Other famous RA division include the 23rd (Americal), 24th, and 25th (Tropical Lightning). All three made their bones in the Pacific in WWII, and were activated for service there for the Japanese Occupation, Korean War or Vietnam War. The 24th sat out Vietnam. It was deactivated following Korea (in part because it lost most of a regiment and was viewed as "unlucky") but was reactivated during the Reagan buildup, and served with distinction in the Gulf War.

[No Truce With Kings]

"National Guard Divisions started at 25 and ran to either 55 or 56."

Oops, I mean that the National Guard Divisions start at 26, not 25. The 26th Division is the Yankee Division. Two guesses what states it is drawn from. (Don't use the Dixie definition of "Yankee.")

[peeve23]

Division, regiment, battalion

He's wrong here, actually. It's generally, "division, brigade, battalion."

In cavalry units it's "troop, squadron, regiment, division" if I remember correctly.

As he said, other than with Cav units "regiment" is almost impossible to pin down.

[cebadams]

OK All, this is real interesting but confussing. Is there a special unit that deciphers orders for each unit and tells them where to go and what to do in English?

[Junior]

Regiments are not really used any more; the regiment's number is retained, but it has no headquarters elements, and its constituent battalions are farmed out to other units. Brigades have pretty much supplanted regiments and may actually contain bits and pieces of regiments. It's generally quite confusing.