Eli5 – how many airborne divisions were there? Why is the 101st so famous?

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Recently reading the headlines about Band of Brothers coming from HBO tho Netflix and it got me thinking:

– how does the US military divide up it’s soldiers? (Eg regiment vs troop vs platoon vs squadron)

– are there different rules for each branch of the military?

– I’ve only ever heard of the 101st airborne division but not other ones… Was there a 100th division? 99th division, etc? Why is the 101st so famous?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

A minor aspect of the numbering I haven’t seen mentioned is ancient tradition/superstition (obviously not an official reason anymore).

The Romans used numbers up to 30 for their legions even though they usually didn’t have that many. They considered it a bad omen to reuse the number of a disgraced legion. Most famously 17, 18 and 19 were left untouched after the Teutoburg forest wipe in 9 CE until whenever you place the fall of the empire.

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