I have asked a few people, but have not gotten a straight answer. It all started when I became curious as to how the numbers got created/used within the military in general.

When someone says they are part of or used to be part of say the 101st paratrooper regiment. Does that mean there was a 100th paratrooper regiment at one time and if so what happened to it?

What designates the number of any military unit/regiment and why?

I have been told that once there is a unit it makes the support units all have that same number. Is this the case?

As usual I get all my hard facts from this great source of knowledge on the web DTR

Help

 

your question is too long to be answered on this site

many units were not kept active during peacetime

this site just deals with the Army, you still have the Navy, Air Force and Marines out there

http://www.history.army.mil/unitinfo.html

 

101st would actually refer to an infantry regiment that is designated as paratrooper or airborne. There were that many regiments and divisions during the war. Don't forget about all the divisions used in the Pacific as well as in Europe. A regiment would be made of about 5 battalions such as 1st of the 1st, 2nd of the 1st and so on. Over the years, A division would normally have 4 brigades. A brigade would be made up of a combination of 4 battalions. If an armor division, there might be 3 armor battalions normally from a common regimental dessignation, such as 4th of the 70th armor regiment (4/70AR), 2/70AR, etc. with a battalion of mechanized infantry for support, such as 6/6Inf. A Mech Infantry Division would be the opposite. Infantry heavy with tank support. Light infantry would be all infantry. Some are desiganted airborne, air assault, mountain, etc. and would have certain dedicated support assets. Such as 101st use to have a battalion of sheridan tanks, because they were air mobile. All usually have a 4th brigade made up of Air assets. Now, you also have Armored Cavalry Regiments. Made up of 4 Squadrons (close to battalion size). Each squadron made up of 5 troops (company size). 1 headquarters troop and 4 line troops made up of a combination of tanks and bradleys which are set up specifically for cav scouts instead of an infantry squad. The Cavalry is set up to be a fast response force of heavy fire power. In the cavalry all support assets are integrated and dedicated at local level. 4th being avaiation again. The large divisions have always had the support units (artillery, mortars, engineers, etc.) at brigade or division level and they would break off and attach to the line units at training or combat. That said, it looks like the Army is currently expermenting with dedicated Brigade Combat Teams now, which is a dedicated set up like the cavalry has used.

There, more than you wanted to know.

 

Redleg. Your answer was great.....thank you. It was much better than WIKI. I always wondered what the numbers meant.