what's the difference in size of a squad, a unit snd a platoon/ Are there smaller groupings than these? if so, what are they?
Posted by JeffBarton (Member # 5693) on :
When and in which country? Infantry, right?
Generally, a squad is the smallest organized unit, and a platoon is 3 or 4 squads.
When I was in the US Army, a squad was 10 soldiers. It occasionally maneuvered as two fire teams, so that could be a smaller unit, but only some of the time. Today a squad has around 6 soldiers.
The number of squads in a platoon has varied more often, but the US Army hasn't gone outside the range of 3 to 4 for am infantry platoon.
A company is made of 3 or 4 platoons, one of which is a 'heavy weapons' platoon that has the mortars and heavy machineguns.
That already went past your question, so I'll quit.
Posted by debhoag (Member # 5493) on :
thanks, Jeff, that was exactly what I wanted to know. It was for the tale end of the asteroid story. I was thinking about how the guys would have been divvied up into groups for the choppers. I just sent you the inquisition piece, by the way. Happy reading!