How many soldiers in a roop?

Factual Questions
1

When they tell us that X amount of troops are in a given place, what exactly do they mean?

The definition of troop implies more than one person but is not specific.

2

Troop!..sorry.

3

Um, you raise a question that raises more.

What branch of the military? What type of “troop”? Are you speaking of a typical US Army Company, or a US Air Force Civil Engineer Squadron?

I’m not trying to pick on you, but specifics–in this case–help.

Tripler
819 RED HORSE, U.S. Air Force

4

I mean, when the newsman gives me the numbers of troops in a certain location ,without himself being specific, how am I to know how many soldiers are deployed to said location?

5

One soldier is one troop. A thousand soldiers are a thousand troops. Why they don’t just say “soldiers” instead of “troops” I don’t understand.

6

Troop(s), like many words in the English language, has a number of (related) meanings. In some branches of the military (cavalry and modern descendants of cavalry units, like tank units) a “troop” is a unit equivalent to an infantry platoon or an infantry company, so I guess “a troop” might contain somewhere between a few dozen and one or two hundred soldiers. However, “troops” can also just mean “soldiers”, and a sentence like “There are currently 150,000 American troops in the country” simply means “There are currently 150,000 individual members of the American military forces in the country”.

7

Saying “soldiers” might piss off any airmen, seamen, or–God help you–Marines included in the total, whereas I don’t think “troops” will cause those kinds of issues.

8

God bless the Marines.

But when the news jackass reads from the teleprompter (not that he knows anything BTW, he’s paid just to sit there, read, and look pretty for the camera), the “troops” typically include a lot of people: support people, engineers, infantry, pilots, tank crews, mechanics, admin, etc.

I wouldn’t take any news as Gospel [sub]as already evidenced[/sub]. But missions vary, and thus, the number of people supporting them vary as well.

Tripler
I despise the media.

9

Just to confust the issue, the speculative United States Order of Battle, as of February 19, 2004, can be found here. Amongst the units deployed, you will find the 2nd and 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiments, which are still (I think) subdivided into “tank troops.” I don’t think it would significantly affect the estimate if you estimiate if you accidentally included the ACV “troops” as individual soldiers.