First, for DUReader:
Lesson 1: What Is The Army? And what is not the Army?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=666522Lesson 2: Echelons (very long)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=668741Lesson 3: The Staff
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=670535- - - - -
All Army units, whether they be a squad or a corps, are organized under one of two documents, the Table of Organization and Equipment or the Table of Distribution and Allowances. Tactical units, the ones who do the fighting, use the TO&E. Units that are more administrative in character use the TDA.
If you were to organize a unit exactly like the TO&E says, it wouldn't work. The document (which you need a hand truck to move) describes an "ideal" division. There's no such thing as an ideal division, as the writer of the TO&E knew, because on about page three of this tome is a sentence "units may modify this document to suit their mission with the approval of Headquarters, Department of the Army." The modified document is then known as a Modified TO&E, or MTOE.
The 8th Army shows just how "modified" you can get.
8th United States Army (known as "8th Imperial Army" by non-8th Army units because they think they're God over there) has one mission: to keep the North Korean People's Army on the north side of the Han River. Headquarters is on Yongsan Army Garrison, Seoul, Korea. It is commanded by a four-star general.
8th Army consists of the following units:
19th Theater Support Command: This is the supply-and-maintenance branch of 8th Army.
8th Personnel Command: From 8th Army's website:
The mission of 8th PERSCOM is to sustain personnel readiness and exercise command and control over assigned theater-level personnel units. The theater PERSCOM manages critical personnel systems and synchronizes personnel network operations throughout the theater. The command is headquartered in Yongsan with subordinate units located throughout Korea. The 516th PSB is headquartered in Yongsan with detachments located at Cp Humphreys and Cp Henry. Also, the 516th PSB, Delta Co, is responsible for controlling all incoming mail to Korea. Postal platoons are located in Yongsan, Kimpo Airport, Cp Humphreys and Cp Henry. The 1st Replacement Company, located in Yongsan, is responsible for controlling and processing all incoming soldiers entering Korea. The EUSA Band in Yongsan, performs throughout the Korea. The 509th PSB at Cp Casey has subordinate unit, the 19th AG Company (Postal) with platoons located at Camp Casey and Camp Red Cloud. Translation: all personnel actions, mail and new troops come through this unit. They also run the band. This unit is massive.
2nd Infantry Division. These people need a whole section; that's below.
1st Signal Brigade. This unit is subordinate to the US Army Information Systems Command. It handles all long-haul communications, is responsible for all computer systems, and runs the American Forces Korea Network radio and television stations.
17th Aviation Brigade: I can't figure out who decided how to garrison this unit, or what he was thinking. Its headquarters is in Seoul. Its airfield is over an hour away. Ya'd think they would have put the colonel out where the airplanes are, huh?
501st Military Intelligence Brigade. The 501st is the unit I was in. It is not subordinate to 8th Army, but to the Intelligence and Security Command. It is the only unit in INSCOM that has grenade launchers.
6th Cavalry Brigade
8th Military Police Brigade
19th MP BN Criminal Investigation Division
18th Medical Command
129th Medical Detachment (Veterinary Service). This unit does far more than just care for the military's working dogs and soldiers' pets (on a space-available basis); the US Army Veterinary Service also performs food inspection. Someone has to do it, and the Army assigns it here.
175th Finance Command
Combat Support Coordination Team 3
Eighth United States Army Non Commissioned Officers Academy
UNC Security Battalion-Joint Security Area. This is a weird one. Its mission is to support the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom, Korea. Its most famous (infamous?) period was in 1976, when two JSA officers went out to trim a tree that was blocking the JSA troops' view of North Korea and were beaten to death by North Korean forces.
Special Forces Detachment-Korea
Special Operations Theater Support Element
Logistic Support Element Far East
Joint U.S. Military Affairs Group-Korea
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Far East District
Fleet Activities Chinhae: This supports the Navy.
* * * * *
Now let's talk the 2nd Division, America's most weirdly-organized division. It has two maneuver brigades. One would think "light infantry." First Brigade has two tank battalions and one mechanized infantry battalion with Bradley fighting vehicles. Second Brigade has a Bradley battalion and two air-assault battalions, plus the division Long Range Surveillance Detachment. (There is no doctrine that states where to put LRSD. Officially it belongs to the MI battalion. Some divisions put it there, some put it right at division headquarters, one division puts it in the aviation brigade, and the 82d Airborne put it in the cavalry squadron, which is where I think it should go. The Second D put it in an infantry brigade. I guess it works there; after all, they are all infantrymen.
The rest of the Second D is pretty conventional looking--division support command, division artillery, aviation brigade, bastard brigade.
Where it gets fun is at battalion level. Remember when I said division was as low as a civil affairs staff got? Not in Second D--they have a civil affairs person at battalion level.
Another fun fact: Many of the soldiers in the Second D--for that matter, many of the soldiers in US Forces Korea--are Koreans. Welcome to the KATUSA program. Means "Korean augmentee to the United States Army." Anyplace the mission can be enhanced by adding a Korean soldier, one is added. The highest concentration of KATUSAs is in Military Police units; half of the MPs in Korea are KATUSAs, and for obvious reasons: if two American MPs walked in to arrest a KATUSA, the first thing they'd hear would be "I don't speak English." That doesn't work when a fluent Korean speaker is standing next to you.
* * * * *
Now that I've described 8th Army, know that there are three other commands a soldier will belong to. At the top of the heap is United Nations Command. The UN Command ran the North Koreans back across the Han in the 1950s and will do it again if the balloon goes up. Today, they're basically one building with 300 troops from many nations in it who do parades. If the war breaks out, they're in charge.
Combined Forces Command ties the US and South Korean units together. They do some exercises but that's about it. The neat thing about CFC is the binationality of it. The commander is a US general (the 8th Army commander); his deputy is a Korean general. Each staff section has either an American or a Korean as chief, with an equal-rank officer from the other nation as his deputy.
US Forces Korea is in charge of all the troops in Korea no matter what service they're in.
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