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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1) In the US Army, the hierarchy of unit organization is:
* a squad, of roughly 10 men, depending on unit purpose, led by a sergeant.
* a platoon, of roughly 3-4 squads (20-50 men total), led by a 2nd lieutenant, assisted by a platoon sergeant.
* a company (or battery if an artillery unit, or troop if a cavalry unit), of roughly 3-4 platoons, plus a headquarters section, 80-200 men total, commanded by a captain, assisted by a first lieutenant and first sergeant.
* a battalion of roughly 3-4 companies, plus a headquarters company containing multiple supporting platoons (medical, scout, mortar, supply, intelligence, nuclear/biological/chemical, communications, etc.) depending on unit function for 400-1000 men total, commanded by a lieutenant colonel, assisted by a major and sergeant major and a battalion staff consisting of multiple sections of officers and sergeants (personnel, intelligence, operations, supply).
* a regiment of 3-4 similar battalions (eg all infantry battalions), or a brigade of 3-6 dissimilar battalions (eg two infantry battalions, an armor battalion, a field artillery battalion, a cavalry battalion, and a support battalion) commanded by a colonel, with proportionally larger support, headquarters, and staff components, (2000-5000 men)
* a division of 3-6 regiments/brigades commanded by a major general, plus extensive support/headquarters/staff (10-20k men).
* a Corps of 3-6 divisions, commanded by a Lieutenant General (>50k men).
* a field Army of several corps, commanded by a general (100s of thousands of men).
Most constituent units are numbered (1st squad, 2nd platoon) but companies/batteries/troops are lettered (C Company, 1st Battalion). Companies are often referred to by the phonetic name for their letter (Charlie Company). Note that during WW2 an earlier version of the phonetic alphabet was used (Baker for B, Easy for E, etc); after WW2 a less ambiguous/semantic phonetic alphabet was introduced (Bravo for B, Echo for E, etc). Regiments and above (not including brigades) have numbers that are unique for the whole army (501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division); these numbers were assigned basically sequentially as units were first activated. Many units have been subsequently deactivated (wars end and the army shrinks) and so there are gaps in the numbering. The numbers themselves have no inherent meaning beyond order of activation.
2) Yes.
3) The 101st is famous because it is still active, fought with distinction in the major battles of the Western European theater of WW2, and has served in most subsequent American wars (Vietnam, Iraq, etc.). Note that these days the 101st is an airmobile rather than airborne division, which means they are organized to be transported into battle by helicopter, rather than jump out of a plane with a parachute.
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