[Wolfstar]

The problem is, Armed Forces is an entity as a whole. Troops has traditionally referred to individual but multiple soldiers/sailors/airmen, and Troop -- at first a strange term, but you get used to it -- has traditionally referred to a single soldier/sailor/airman.

While I truly mean no disrespect to you, Laz, you couldn't be more wrong. In the noun form, a troop is collective term defined by Mirriam-Websters Dictionary as follows:

1 a : a group of soldiers b : a cavalry unit corresponding to an infantry company c plural : ARMED FORCES, SOLDIERS
2 : a collection of people or things : CREW 2
3 : a flock of mammals or birds
4 : the basic organizational unit of Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts under an adult leader

A trooper is the singular form, as in:

1 a (1) : an enlisted cavalryman (2) : the horse of a cavalryman b : PARATROOPER c : SOLDIER
2 a : a mounted police officer b : a state police officer

Just because so many in our dufus media use the term "troop" when they refer to an individual soldier, doesn't make the usage correct. Just means they are the products of our pathetic education system.

[Lazamataz]

They called me a troop in basic and in the NYG.

So that's where I got the idea. Besides, you don't know what it's like, I'm the one out there everyday putting his ass on the line, and I'm not out of order! You're out of order! The whole freakin' system is out of order! You want the truth? You want the truth?! You can't handle the truth! when you are in a hot, flea-infested foxhole with morters whistling overhead and bullets cracking overhead, and when you put your hand into a bunch of goo, that a moment before was your best friends face, WHO BOTHERS WITH DICTIONARIES! You'll know what to do! Forget it Wolfstar, it's CHINATOWN!