# An easy question for military types **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 20, 2001, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-easy-question-for-military-types/82899 "2001-09-20T23:11:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Malice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/278dde/32.png) [@Malice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malice)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-easy-question-for-military-types/82899/1 "2001-09-20T23:11:26Z")
I’m just curious about the relative sizes of military units. Near as I can tell, from the smallest to the largest, it goes: Squad\ **Author:** ![Tr8rJake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/97f17d/32.png) [@Tr8rJake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tr8rJake)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-easy-question-for-military-types/82899/2 "2001-09-20T23:25:13Z") A company is the intermediate unit bridging squads and battalions. Size varies ALOT. This is b/c both the size of a unit and the number of units in the next classification can vary. For example. I was a medical radiographer in the Army and was a member of the “tech squad” in second platoon, Charlie Company, 501st Forward Support Battalion. At times this squad only had five or six troops, the company–25-30. Some infantry squads may have more than a dozen troops, making only a couple of them as big as my entire company. My battalion was about 400 troops but, support battalions are on the small side as they contain specialists who can provide their services to many troops. There was only one slot for a radiographer in my unit and we supported over 1200 personnel. In Bosnia I felt really important for about two days and wanted to go back to being unimportant for the next ten months. ---
**Author:** ![Tr8rJake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/97f17d/32.png) [@Tr8rJake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tr8rJake)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-easy-question-for-military-types/82899/3 "2001-09-20T23:28:11Z")
My old unit structure: 5-9 troops – squad 4 squads – platoon 3 platoons – company 3 companys – battalion don’t remember after that pretty typical though if a little on the small side ---
**Author:** ![Malice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/278dde/32.png) [@Malice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malice)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-easy-question-for-military-types/82899/4 "2001-09-20T23:42:36Z")
Cool, thanks 🙂 Basically, I was wondering because I’m reading stories now about Regiment X and Y Battalion being activated for overseas duty. Then came the realization I’ve been hearing unit size terms in movies all my life and had no idea how to define any of them. I’d still be curious to know how many people those units have in more typical outfits – say in general army infantry units… Anyone else want to weigh in with their experiences? ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2001, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-easy-question-for-military-types/82899/5 "2001-09-20T23:42:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tr8rJake \* > \*\*My old unit structure: > > 5-9 troops – squad > 4 squads – platoon > 3 platoons – company > 3 companys – battalion > don’t remember after that > pretty typical though if a little on the small side \*\* Pretty accurate in my personal experience, except some units don’t have squads, per se. Granted during formation sometimes we’ll refer to the ranks as squads, but there was no formal designation of squads. For example my company was broken into three platoons. IIRC they were to the effect “HQ” (us), “Tactical,” and “Control” platoons (something like that). In my HQ platoon, the first rank would always be the administrative guys, with some of the motor pool spill-over, then the motor pool, then Communications-Electronics, with more of the motor pool spillover. I’d gotten to _un_-used to the idea of squads, I’d always thought of it as something exclusive to those combat-type units. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-easy-question-for-military-types/82899/6 "2001-09-21T00:33:00Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m just curious about the relative sizes of military units. If you have the guts, you could always sneak into a military shower room to find out. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-easy-question-for-military-types/82899/7 "2001-09-21T01:46:19Z")
And just to make sure we’re clear here, a “troop” is an idividual soldier, right? I’m coming from a Boy Scout background here, where a “troop” is about 30 boys plus leaders. ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-easy-question-for-military-types/82899/8 "2001-09-21T02:13:34Z")
Old joke. In the Army a rifle infantry squad is made up of 10 soldiers—one squad leader, two team leaders and seven riflemen. In the Marine Corps a rifle infantry squad is made up of eleven Marines—one squad leader, two team leaders, seven riflemen and one press agent. ---
**Author:** ![Crunchy\_Frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-easy-question-for-military-types/82899/9 "2001-09-21T02:25:20Z")
If memory serves, for the US Air Force it goes: Airman \ **Author:** ![Mr\_Carpenter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@Mr\_Carpenter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Carpenter)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-easy-question-for-military-types/82899/10 "2001-09-21T02:39:41Z") That is accurate all right! I will never forget my old Company, “Charlie”! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-easy-question-for-military-types/82899/11 "2001-09-21T02:46:59Z")
Oftentimes, the regiment level is skipped completely so that the chain of command goes directly from battalion to brigade. I believe it’s due to the type of unit. A “heavy” division may include 4 brigades of artillery whereas an airbone division may only contain two or three (one or more being “light”). Depending on mission, infantry, artillery and armor (plus support) may be configured into a regiment temporarily. Then again, some regiments are “free standing.” ---
**Author:** ![Xgemina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/b5e925/32.png) [@Xgemina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xgemina)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-easy-question-for-military-types/82899/12 "2001-09-21T03:46:57Z")
There was a thread about 2 weeks ago where this was also discussed and has some information about military units and designations (and information concerning regiments: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=85199](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=85199) **Rysdad** whether a unit is “heavy” or “light” depends on what type of equipment the unit has. Thus Armor divisions (such as 2AD and 1st Cav) are “heavy” and then there are “light” Infantry division (such as the 82nd Airborne, 101st Air Assault, 10th Mountain, and 25th Infantry) are “light” because they are not mechanized.