Eli5. Why do military groups (101st airborne for example) seem to be numbered in random order
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I don’t speak Army, but I’ve read some seemingly good explanations here that fit with my general military knowledge. And I really have no idea how the Navy and Air Force are organized, let alone Space Force.
But I can say, in the Marines, the numbers are generally meaningful, and mostly sequential. Ground side, numbers like 1/8, refer to 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Infantry Regiment. And the entire regiment is generally just referred to as 8th Marines, and you just have to know that it’s an infantry regiment, as opposed to an artillery regiment. So, if you see 1/8, or 2/5, or, generalized, x/y, that’s x battalion, y regiment (which may or may not be an infantry regiment, but also an artillery regiment, like 11th Marines). And there are decommissioned units in the Marines, just like in the Army, so 8th Marines no longer exists as an active regiment. AFAIK, gaps are all just due to decommissioned units and not deception. Regiments generally have three battalions, numbered 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, repeating within each regiment, but lettered infantry companies or artillery batteries are continuous within a regiment, so 1st battalion would generally have A, B, and C companies, 2nd battalion would pick up with E, F, and G companies, etc.
There are also MEUs, Marine Expeditionary Units, and they have numbers like 11th MEU. But there, the first digit refers to which MEF (Marine Expeditionary Force) the MEU belongs to, and the second digit is the unit. So 11th MEU is part of I MEF, and is the first of three (for some reason, the digits are either both even, or both odd, so you get 11th, 13th, and 15th MEUs in I MEF, and 22nd, 24th, and 26th MEUs in II MEF, and then 31st MEU in III MEF).
The MEFs generally have subordinate units with corresponding numbers (eg, II MEF contains 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, and 22nd, 24th, and 26th MEUs, as above). I and III MEFS generally also follow this pattern, except 1st and 3rd MAWs got swapped somehow, so I MEF has 3rd MAW, and III MEF has 1st MAW. I have no idea the origin of this, you just have to remember it. And, generally, Anything above the battalion level with I, 1st, or 1x, is based on the West Coast, II/2/2x is East Coast, and III/3/3x is overseas (Japan, or Okinawa), and IV/4th are reserves.
I’m less familiar with Marine Air Wing and Marine Logistics Group unit number designations. It seems the air units’ numbering is just a hodgepodge, given some were numbered sequentially, but others took part of their numbers from their superior units, similar to how all the MEUs in the 10s, the 1 corresponds to I MEF.
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