Ask An Expert- LAND Forces.

**tankie** · 09 Mar 12,, 10:36

ref number 2 , brits , all military are basic trained but not all are combat troops , in fact lots would be a liability needing to be cared for , as Ben says , desk jockies frinstance , mind tho , they can tell more war stories than real soldiers, and what they dont know they make up

**Albany Rifles** · 09 Mar 12,, 13:52

1) Did the US armed forces shrink after the Cold War

Yes, the US Army went from 18 active duty divisions in 1991 to 10 a few years later. The National Guard and Army Reserve picked up some missions but they also reduced in size overall. The same happenned in the other services.

2) Are all members of the armed services qualified to go into combat?
Define "go into combat" All members of the armed services qualify in basic rifle marksmanship and basic combat skills. Depending on your specialty you receive additional traininig. Now an Infantryman's job is to close with the enemy and destroy him by fire and maneuver. Tankers focus shock action, firepower and protection into a direct fight. The artillery provides cannon support. Combat engineers operate under fire to clear and breach obstacles. But all of these folks are one big parade without the supply, maintenance, signal, transportation, MP, etc. support personnel. And you will find some of these support personnel on the edge of the battlefield recovering damaged vehicles while under fire, delivering ammunition, food and water and operating convoys. That is why the supply truck, maintenance vehicle and mess truck all have machine guns mounted on them....and they have been used, a lot. These same folks are also expected to provide a certain level of self defense when attacked. This true in the Army and Marines (the Marines like to say every Marine is a rifleman and they take it seriously).

In the Air Force it is a little different. Support personnel work to get the aircraft into the air and keep them mission ready. So are they "in the fight?" Damn straight. They keep them flying.

In the Navy and Coast Guard, EVERYONE on board a vessel is in the fight. Doesn't matter if you are quartermaster at the wheel, a radarman in the combat information center, a hull technician in the engineroom, a mess attendant in the galley or a gunners mate on a gun mount, everybody is in the fight. Because you all share the same fate.

3) Is a deployment of thousands of troops considered a "minor deployment" (this is in regards to the planned US troop deployment to Israel) - I said it wasn't , please correct me if I'm wrong.
1,000 is minor for the Army; its very big for the Coast Guard. But if I put those 1,000 sioldiers in the Antarctic and have to sustain them for a year then that ramps up th elevel of complexity. So it is a relative term and we tend not to use terms like that. As for your specific question, I do not know what deployment your are speaking about. If it is about the Patriot ABM then a 1,000 troops is about a battalion with all of its support structure. Not very big but a lot of capability.

4) Is the US military stretched thin at the moment?
Not as bad as it was in 2007 & 2008 but it is still stretched.

**dan m** · 10 Mar 12,, 04:12

Thanks for the answering my questions guys. @Albany Rifles- I don't know which deployment I was referring to but it was one I read about recently. It must be the Patriot battalion then.

**ArtyEngineer** · 11 Mar 12,, 04:13

Originally Posted by dan m

Thanks for the answering my questions guys. @Albany Rifles- I don't know which deployment I was referring to but it was one I read about recently. It must be the Patriot battalion then.

I think you must be thinking of Exercise - Austere Challenge 12

Link: Thousands of US troops deploying to Israel — RT

Exercises like this hapen quite regularly and are planed at least 12 to 18 months out....I wouldnt read too much into it happening now when tensions are high in the ME, because lets be honest...when are tensions NOT high in teh ME?

Regards

Arty

**dan m** · 11 Mar 12,, 05:53

Thats the one. I remember reading about that one a few months ago and was like "O SHIT" but I'm glad to hear this isn't something out of the ordinary. I have another question that is completely unrelated to my last one: What is the difference between a Marine and Army infantry fire team?

**ArtyEngineer** · 11 Mar 12,, 06:50

Originally Posted by dan m

Thats the one. I remember reading about that one a few months ago and was like "O SHIT" but I'm glad to hear this isn't something out of the ordinary. I have another question that is completely unrelated to my last one: What is the difference between a Marine and Army infantry fire team?

Bottom line not a whole lot. Both USMC and US Army use the fire team as the building block of the Infantry.

Both are 4 man teams consisting of a Team Leader (M4/M16) 2 Riflemen (M4/M16 equipped, one with an M203 attachement and the other tasked as teh assistant to the next guy listed) and a Squad Automatic Rifleman (M249 Equipped).

But im an Artillery guy so hopefuylly a "Grunt Type" will be along to correct where I am wrong shortly.

Regards

Arty

**dan m** · 21 Mar 12,, 01:29

Hey I hope you guys don't mind but I have another question. In OIF why didn't the more heavily armored (and larger) US Army 5th corp go the direct route to Baghdad along the Tigris river instead of the 1st Marine division? From what I understand most of the resistance was expected to be on this route , so why send the lighter force?

**Officer of Engineers** · 21 Mar 12,, 02:02

The axiom of maneuver warfare is force on weak, not force on strong. The Marines were the fixing force so that strong Iraqi forces could not move to counter V Corps movements.

**Stitch** · 21 Mar 12,, 06:40

To back up what OE said (not that I'm an expert at land warfare), I get the impression the 1MD was the "fixing" force (as OE said), and the the V Corp was to attack the Iraqi forces from an "unexpected direction" (i.e.: the west). In the process, V Corp took out a HUGE number of Iraqi tanks (in the hundreds, I believe). See map below for more detail:

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**kato** · 21 Mar 12,, 07:49

Hinge and Lever.

**dan m** · 22 Mar 12,, 02:58

Thanks for your answers guys. Just to clarify : the 1st Marine division was the screening force for the V corps (in other words)?

**Officer of Engineers** · 22 Mar 12,, 03:01

No. They were the fixing force. V Corps is the envelopment force

**sourkraut115** · 23 Mar 12,, 02:22

Originally Posted by dan m

Thats the one. I remember reading about that one a few months ago and was like "O SHIT" but I'm glad to hear this isn't something out of the ordinary. I have another question that is completely unrelated to my last one: What is the difference between a Marine and Army infantry fire team?

There are very few significant differences; one that I am aware of is that the Marine Corps uses the "Ready-Team-Fire-Assist" approach to organization, wherein the four team members are assigned as follows: "Ready", armed with a rifle/carbine, is the team "point man", providing security and situational awareness; "Team", the fire team leader, is armed with the rifle/M203 grenade launcher, and controls the team; "Fire" is the automatic rifleman, armed with an M-249 squad automatic weapon; and "Assist" is the junior member of the team, also armed with a rifle/carbine but primarily tasked to assist the auto-rifleman by carrying ammunition, the tripod, etc.... Some Army units also use this approach, but it is not doctrinal. In most Army fire teams, the M249 is treated as an individual rather than a crew-served weapon, and the team leader carries a rifle.

The rank of a Marine Corps fire team leader is, nominally, a Corporal (E-4), whereas an Army team leader is nominally a Sergeant (E-5). There are plenty of exceptions, and many Army fire teams are in fact led by corporals or specialists (both grades are also E-4's) but this is the general rule. Marine Corps rifle squads are also larger, including three fire teams, led by (again, nominally) a Sergeant, while the Army squad contains two fire teams led by a Staff Sergeant (E-6). Again, there will be exceptions, with many squads in both services lead by lower ranking NCO's (I had my first squad in Korea a couple of decades ago as a young Army corporal filling an E-6 billet).

Hope this helped.

**gunnut** · 22 Jun 12,, 20:48

I have some quetions if you guys don't mind.

Why were the Soviet rifle divisions in WW2 so small in terms of man power? At 7200 men standard, they were like a brigade of 2 infantry regiments in the western militaries.

I was reading about the battles in China between IJA and Nationalist forces. It appeard that Chinese divisions are about the same size, or even smaller. Often I read about an entire army consisted of only 50,000 men.

How come western armies, especial the US Army, had huge divisions in terms of man power? They often exceed 12,000 men each.

**Doktor** · 22 Jun 12,, 22:18

To my knowledge, during WWII, Soviet division's full strenght was 10-12k. However, that strength was lost during first few contacts with the Germans and the size of the division after month or few after deplyment was at 5-60%.

For post WWII era, Soviets reduced the size of their division.

Here is an interesting read for Soviet division in Europe during 1960s: http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_000...0000969826.pdf

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