Even though I served for years in the USAF, there’s one thing I never quite understood, and that was the numerical designations assigned to various units.
I was in the 313th Supply Squadron (and many others for that matter) and at times I’d wonder how Uncle Sam arrived at the number 313?? (Were there 312 other supply squadrons scattered elsewhere across the country?) Actually, I knew that sounded a bit silly, but I still wondered what their reasoning was behind their numbering system.
(How about the 4077th MASH?)
Numbering systems vary from unit to unit. No, there probably weren’t 302 supply squadrons in front of yours.
Numbering systems usually come in one of three ways:
Actually counting. There is a 1st Infantry Division, and a Second. And a Third. Right on up to the 44th. Most of them are Reserve divisions.
So where did the 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne come from, you ask? Same way; by counting. During WWII various numerical ranges were assigned to newly formed divisions; divisions created solely for the war, IIRC, started at 51 and went up from there, up to the mid 100s. The 82nd and 101st were kept around when most of the others were disbanded because the Army needed some paratroopers, and those divisions were the most famous.
Numerical subgroups. A good example was my old unit, which was the “763rd.” We were a part of 76 Group, which included the 761st, 762nd, 763rd, 764th, up to (IIRC the 766th.) Meanwhile, 76 Group was part of a bunch of groups that included 70 Group, 71 Group, 72 Group, etc., all under the 7th of something or other. So it was like hotel rooms; Room 2015 isn’t the 2015th room, it’s the 15th room on the 20th floor. 763 Squadron wasn’t the 763rd Squadron, it was the 3rd Squadron of the 6th Group of the 7th division (sort of.)
Sheer random chance. During the Civil War many regiments were formed by states, and were assigned numbers that had no bearing on any sort of unified system. The result was a hopeless mess of numbers with no rhyme or reason to them, which have been further confused in the years since by having the various regiments and squadrons combined under different divisions. Obviously, warfare has changed since 1865, so if it happens that the 46th Armor Regiment servers under the First Armored, it’s probably not because of any numbering logic; the 46th got its number one way and then got shifted to the 1st Armored when they reorganized.
Currently, in the USAF, a lot of the bases serve one or two Wings, and their subordinate units carry their same numerical designation (*i.e. the 5th Bomb Wing, 5th Mission Support Group, 5th Civil Engineer Squadron all in Minot AFB; 341 Space Wing, 341 Operations Group, Malmstrom AFB).
A lot of them are just resurrected numerals, intended to bring back a historical tie to WWI, WWII, Vietnam units, such as the 23 Bomb Squadron (ties to WWII), the 819 RED HORSE (ties to Vietnam), etc.
It’s 50/50. If you know of a particular squadron that’s numbered differently than it’s superior organization (i.e. the 10th Missile Squadron works for the 341 Space Wing), there’s chances it’s got a tie back to a WWI/WWII unit.
This link is for USAF, and will give you a good idea of specific unit’s lineage. Keep in mind though, that a year or two ago, the USAF went under a ‘renaming and realignment’ campaign that merged Supply Squadrons and Logistics Squadrons into Logistics Readiness Squadrons, and Support Groups into “Mission Support” Groups.
Tripler
Give that site a spin. You might find some of the lineages interesting. . .