How is the US military divided? Where do brigades, divisions, platoons, troops, etc. all fit in? In other words a group of platoons composes a brigade, a group of brigades composes a division - obviously this is not right, but what groups are composed of what?
AFAIK, it breaks down like this:
Solider/troop–>3-4 soldiers form a fire team
Fire Team–>2 fire teams form a squad
Squad–>3-4 squads form a platoon
Platoon–>3-4 platoons form a company
Company–>3-4 companies form a battalion
Battalion–>3-4 battalions form a brigade
Brigade–>brigades make up a division (I’m not sure how many make it up)
Division–>divisions make up corps, the corps make up the Department of the Army
One note though, I get confused between corps and divisions, so the last 2 might be switched. This is only for the Army, I have no idea how the other branches are set up, so you will have to wait for others.
Minor correction, two or more corps make up an army, not neccessarily the whole Dept. Of The Army. For example, the 8th Army is in Korea. Patton had command of the 3rd Army. Air Force vets might want to weigh on the whole flight, squadron, group, wing, etc. thing. Navy vets: Task Forces and such.
slackerboss, yer pretty close. The Marines follow the same pattern, but tend to use “Regiments” a lot also (IIRC: 3 - 4 Brigades).
Air Force (going downhill):
- MAJCOM (Major Command)
- Numbered Air Force
- Wing
- Group
- Squadron (analagous to a Company)
- Flight (ie Platoon)
- Element (ie Section)
Because different Squadrons have different missions, you really can’t tie exact numbers of bodies to them. For example, my Civil Engineer Squadron has 300 people, but a Missile Squadron may have only 40 or so people. Depends on the job. Make sense?
Tripler
In the US military, a regiment is roughly analogous in size to a brigade. However, a Marine regiment is a single fighting unit, usually with three battalions named after the regiment (e.g. 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment). US Army regiments are more like British Army regiments in that they’re traditional or ceremonial formations, with battalions that fight independently as part of mixed-arms brigades. For example, one hypothetical armoured brigaed might have the 1st Battalion, 4th Armour, the 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry (Mechanised) and the 2nd Battalion, 17th Infantry (Mechanised).
There are exceptions (of course), but that’s roughly right, I think.
My understanding, in ascending order:
Infantry: 3 or 4 squads form a platoon, and 3 or 4 platoons plus supporting arms (such as heavy weapons) form a company. Three or four companies form a battalion, which is usually the highest single integrated unit unless you’re a Marine. Three or four battalions form a brigade (Army) or regiment (Marines), and usually three brigades form a division - in peacetime a division might have two regular brigades and one “round-out” National Guard brigade in times of war. Any number of divisions, but usually three or four, form a corps, and corps are grouped into armies and then into army groups (but not in recent years!). For example, XVIII Airborne Corps contains the 82nd Airborne, the 101st Air Assault and the 24th Infantry (Mechanised) Divisions, IIRC.
Armour units are similar but have individual tanks in a platoon. Armoured cavalry units use the traditional cavalry designations of a squadron for a company and a troop for a platoon.
British designations are different again.
Apologies if any of my facts are incorrect. I don’t keep up to date as much as I used to.
In the Nav, it’s a bit more arcane:
You have Fleets, which cover large geographical areas (ie: SEVENTH Fleet, East Pacific); you have “Type Commands”, consisting of all the ships of one functional type with in a region (SUBPAC: Submarine Forces, Pacific Fleet), major subdivision (SUBGRU 5: Submarine Group FIVE); and squadron (SUBRON 11: Submarine Squadron ELEVEN); You have Battle Groups, made up of a variety of combatants from various Squadrons or Groups, which are very flexible in their make-up; you have Carrier Battle Groups, much less flexible in their makeup, as the central combatant is so damn expensive; You can have Task Forces, consisting of multiple Battle Groups; You have the Fleet Marine Force, consisting of the Marines loaded aboard their Naval transport, broken down into smaller Amphibious Readiness Groups (ARGs) and Marine Expiditionary Forces(MEFs), similar to Battle Groups and Task Forces. The Marines out there can fill in the gaps: I’m no Gator Navy puke.
There are numerous miscellaneous combatants, such as Patrol Combatants, Mine Counter-Measures, and the like.
There are a wide variety of auxilliary units (repair ships, stores and refuelling, etc.), special operations units (SEALS, Special Boat Units {Brown-water Navy}), and legions of craft and ships too diverse to classify easily.
This is by no means exhaustive: The Naval Forces are the most flexible of our military organizations in day-to-day operations, and as such, the structure of any group of ships is largely ad-hoc, depending on what you wish to do with it.
Naval Avaiation is similar in structure to Air Force, with squadrons and wings, and so-on. The major difference is that the Carrier Air Wings get to take their airbase with them. I’m sure that some member of the Brown-shoe Navy will now flame me to a well done crisp for comparing them with the Air Force, but what the hell: I’m a Submariner first, a Surface Sailor second, and don’t have much contact with the Wing-Nuts at all.
Based on my strictly civilian experience, I believe Slackerboss, and Soccerhooligan have the U.S. Army organization right. I would just add three details:
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In World War II, multiple Armies were sometimes combined into Army Groups. Example: U.S. 1st Army and and British 2nd Army were combined into 21st Army Group under Montgomery for the D-Day landing. The Russian term for a combination of armies was “front” rather than “army group.” I am not sure if fronts and army groups were ever used again after World War II.
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Although it is correct to say that squads are made up of fire teams or “sections,” platoons out of squads, companies out of platoons, etcetera, each unit tends to be more than the sum of its parts. Most companies, in addition to their three or four platoons, have a “headquarters squad.” The typical U.S. infantry battalion has all sorts of goodies attached besides its three infantry companies: a mortar section, a special weapons section, a medical section, a recon squad, a support platoon, a signal platoon, a huge headquarters platoon, and possibly even engineers. The larger the unit, the fewer of its personnel are involved in the actual butcher’s business of killing and dying. Thus Patton’s estimate that a division which has taken only 10% casualties has lost about 40% of its riflemen.
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Above the “division” level, units tend to become impermanent. Corps, armies, and army groups are usually slapped together for a specific purpose and disbanded when that purpose is achieved. 21st Army Group, U.S. 1st Army, and its V Corps were all assembled for the D-Day invasion and are now no more than fading history, but the V Corps’ 1st Infantry Division, lovingly known as the Big Red One, had been around since World War I, has fought in four or five wars, and was still in service last time I looked.
You may find this thread of some interest.
Sure they were- NATO has(had?) 3 Army groups- NORTHAG, CENTAG and SOUTHAG, correspondng to the 3 major theaters of battle expected in Europe.
The Soviets had several fronts- I believe the GSFG was one, and then there were a couple in Western Russia, etc…
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Well, that’s not entirely true. The army staffs & corps staffs may still be active and have units assigned for administrative purposes- the First Army & Fifth Army come to mind- apparently every part of the US is under some Army or other. Lots of Corps are still around from WWII days too.
http://www.first.army.mil is the website for the U.S. First Army in case anyone’s interested.
Army groups are something we don’t currently have organized in the U.S. army I think.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by bump *
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I beg your pardon; I had thought that the First Army was deactivated after World War II, and thus bore no relation to the modern unit of that name, but according to the web page you provided, it apparently has continuously existed since 1933. I withdraw my statement.
Thank you also for the information on modern army groups and fronts.
Oh… I wasn’t meaning to be a smartass! Don’t apologize- I’m not upset.
Anyway, you’re right in that since WWII, an Army hasn’t actually been a field formation except maybe during Korea. None of the wars have been big enough to warrant it- even Vietnam would have been a one Army show.
I think formations of that title & size are generally used for geographic administration these days, but Corps were still used as field formations as recently as Desert Storm(weren’t there 2 corps involved?)
The following is a list of the units the U.S. sent to Desert Storm, I am not sure what unit belongs to what corps though, sorry.
U.S units involved in Desert Storm:
1st Cavalry Division
1st Infantry Division (mech)
1st Armored Division
1st Marine Division
2nd Marine Division
2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment
3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment
3rd Armored Division
24th Infantry Division (mech)
82nd Airborne
101st Airborne
Tiger Brigade (I have no idea what this is, if anyone could fill me in, it would be greatly appreciated.)
Special Forces (I am not sure which special forces were used, although the Navy SEALs were used as a distraction force.)
I just now noticed that the VII corps was used, but I do not know which unit belongs to this corps.
While we’re on the subject, I have a few questions related to that other type of military heirarchy – rank.
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Navy Admirals - I know of Rear Admirals, Vice Admirals, Admirals, and Admirals of the Fleet. The problem is that there are 5 ranks of Admiral. Which one am I missing? I don’t think it’s Commodore - my understanding is that Commodore is a title a naval officer assumes on certain tasks, but isn’t a rank per se.
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Army specialists - Where, exactly, do specialists fit in the NCO ranks? Above or below private, etc.?
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Warrant officers - as I understand it, they are between NCOs and commissioned officers. Are they stuck there? Seems a bad deal to me ;).
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naval NCOs - titles like “bosun”, “chief quartermaster”, and sundry other specific titles. From my readings, it seems like quartermasters for example, whose name means they’re involved with logistics, are in the SEALs, etc. Are these just traditional titles, or is there still a relationship to the NCO’s actual job? On a related note, what the hell is a “bosun”?
Sua
The specialists, I believe from what I’ve heard, get paid as E-4’s, which are Corporals, but still have the responsibilities of an E-3, Private 1st Class. What makes them specialists though are they have not completed the leadership course needed to become the leader of a fire team (half a squad). When they have the leadership requirements, they become a Corporal.
An Army warrant officer, usually, is a previous enlisted solider. After 15-18 years or so they can go to Warrant officer school and become one. The difference between a warrant officer and a commissioned officer is that a commissioned officer is a jack-of-all-trades. They branch off to one branch, i.e. Armor, but they have knowledge of infantry, engineering, etc. After 6 years or so they learn another branch. After that they take turns in each branch. I.E. An officer gets commissioned into the Armor Branch. After 6 years he goes to finance school. His next duty station would be an Armor job, the one after that would be finance, and it would keep going until that officer retires. A warrant officer however already has been in a branch for 15 years, so there is no use in training them in another branch seeing as he will be eligible for retirement in 5 years. Basically the warrant officers are experts in one field, whereas the commissioned officers have a couple fields under their belt.
I don’t know much/anything about the Navy, so I am not able to address the other two questions.
There are two types of Rear Admirals–Rear Admiral (Lower Half) and Rear Admiral (Upper Half). A few years back they tried to rename the rank of RADM (LH) to that of Commodore, but as I understand it, these officers complained about the lack of the term “Admiral” in their rank.
Currently, “Commodore” is not a rank, but is used for the “job title” of an officer commanding a squadron of ships (who usually has the rank of Captain).
Similarly, the commanding officer of a ship may be referred to as the “Captain” of the ship, though his actual rank may only be that of “Commander.” This case is more confusing, as “Captain” is being used both as a job title and as a rank. (Not to mention being mixed up with Army, USAF, or USMC captains!)
A Boatswain’s mate (pronounced bosun’s mate) is a Navy rating, or specialty. Actually, this particular rating is probably the least specific rating, responsible for the general “seamanship” type things one would probably associate with the traditional Navy. A Quartermaster Chief (QMC) is a chief petty officer whose rating is Quartermaster. Primarily, QM’s are responsible for navigation duties.
By the way, Navy sailors are not called NCO’s; they are Petty Officers or Chief Petty Officers.
An excellent point. Tables of organization (T/O) can be confusing.
This gives me a chance to plug my old unit, Marine Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron 3, Marine Air Group 11, 3rd Marine Air Wing. (Which, in turn, is part of the 2nd Fleet Marine Force). But nowhere on my DD214 is mentioned the actual unit I was under: Headquarters & Maintenance Squadron 11. Sadly, VMFP-3 no longer exists.
Point well take about the confusion between regiments and such that have been continuously active and those that have been activated-deactivated-activated and so forth. There are numerous websites by military buffs for further details.
Of course at the pinnacle of the military hierarchy is the President.
Interesting trivia about rank. According to some alamanac, there is a rank above 5 star General or Admiral. John J. Pershing (WWI) was given the rank “General of the Armies” and authorized to devise any rank insignia he wished, although he never wore more than 4 stars. George Washington was posthumously granted this rank by President Ford.
Ah, the old “what is the equivalant of a 1 star Army General in the Navy.” The rank of “Commodore” has gone in and out of usage. A 1 star Admiral is still called a Rear Admiral, but on rank structure charts it’s referred to as “Rear Admiral-lower half.” This means the lower 1/2 of the peomotion list. There might be info more current than this, as I said the Navy toys with the “Commodore” Rank once in a while.
Sua -
There are 5 ranks of admiral in the USN:
Rank - Paygrade - insignia
Rear Admiral (lower half) - O7 - one star
Rear Admiral (upper half) - 08 - two stars
Vice Admiral - O9 - three stars
Admiral - O10 - 4 stars
Fleet Admiral - O11 - 5 stars (war time use only)
For more info:
http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/allhands/ranks/officers/o-rank.html
As far as enlisted grades and rates go, that’s a little more complicated. Everyone has a paygrade, E-1 to E-10 --Seaman Recruit, Seaman Aprentice, Seaman, Petty Oficer Third Class, then Second and First Class, the Chief Petty Officer, the Senior Chief, Master Chief and Master Chief PO of the Navy. More senior E2s, E3s and all Petty Officers have a job specialty called a “rate,” such as Quatermaster, Bosun’s Mate, Electrictian Mate, etc. The rates are known by a two or three letter abbreviation. Thus an E-5 electrician would be called EM2 Jones. His pay grade (or rate) would be Petty Officer Second Class, and his rating would be Electrian’s Mate.
Quartermasters (QM) in the the navy are actually the enlisted personell who assist the navigator (an officer) They take care of the charts, and operate the navigation equipment. They stand watch on the bridge while underway plotting course positions on the chart and tending to the GPS and such. I think the Army calls logistics specialists quartermasters also, but that doesn’t have much to do with what they do in the Navy.
Bosun’s Mates (BMs), (actual spelling is"Boatswain’s Mate", Bosun is from Bo’s’n, the contraction) are the petty officers who supervise the seaman in the Deck Department of the ship. They handle lines, tie knots, repair and maintain the anchor equipment, paint everything outside the ship, and generally do everthing you think of a Sailor as doing. No a lot of high tech stuff, but they work thier behinds off.
Enlisted Navy SEALs come from a variety of rates, QM, and BM among them, but most enlisted rates can apply to be SEALs.
I usually don’t contribute to military-themed threads because I’ve been away from the service for 15 years, and as an enlisted man 15 years ago I didn’t have much reason or care to know about official hierarchies or policies outside of my own sphere of activities. Having said that…
On the subject of Warrant Officers (WOs), I agree with most of what slackerboss said. Enlisted men who demonstrate that they are more than usually proficient in their specialties can apply to become WOs once they reach the rank of E-5 or above. As a WO, they have most of the privileges of commissioned officers but, because they aren’t college grads, they are technically below the rank of the lowest commissioned officer. Nonetheless, the rank carries a lot of prestige. Having been sergeants, they are assumed to be tough as nails; and given that they are–or become–super-specialists in their given field, no one messes with them in their field of knowledge. They tend to walk around like they’re the biggest dog on the block, and junior commissioned officers will generally steer clear of them. (When a junior commissioned officer and a WO get into a dispute, the commander of the unit will decide in favor of the WO every time because of the WO’s greater experience, time in service, and expertise in his field.)
slackerboss said that 15 years of military service are required before one can become a WO. However, in the Marines I saw people in certain niche specialties become WOs after only 5 or 6 years in the service, which meant that they still had quite a lot of service left in front of them (and I believe they do stay in the same specialty throughout their entire service, as slackerboss mentioned). In the Marines, at least, there are four WO ranks which they progress through. Once they reach WO4, it’s my understanding that they can indeed be promoted to Second Lieutenant (the lowest of the commissioned officer ranks). I don’t know if it’s a routine progression in rank or a special procedure taken on an individual basis, but I understand that it can be done (see below). This promotion represents an increase in pay but a dramatic decrease in prestige, and it’s also my understanding that most WO4s refuse the promotion if it is offered to them. WO4 is a prestige-heavy position, and a WO4 probably has 20 or more years of service in at that point. In other words, he’s a pretty crusty old bastard with an empire of his own within his particular specialty, and hence a lot of power of a sort. The last thing he wants is to join the ranks of a bunch of fresh-faced, green 22-year-old Second Lieutenants who are still trying to figure out how to tie their combat boots.
Incidentally, a WO4 in my unit died of a heart attack rather suddenly one day, and they posthumously promoted him to Second Lieutenant in order to help his widow out and give her some extra death benefits and survivor’s pay. I heard through the grapevine that this WO4 had been considered for the promotion for some time previously but had refused the promotion for the reasons I mentioned above. And it was assumed that the promotion would have him rolling in his grave, because of the pride he took in his WO4 status and because of his absolute hatred for the junior commissioned officers who technically outranked him but didn’t have a fraction of the knowledge and experience that he had.