Field Force Concept in Insurgencies subject logo: WarPr0n
2010-03-29
Posted by: badanov

The first glimpse of an Americanized insurgency force organization appears.

The concurrent raids against private militias which started a few days ago has led me to some of the My Space pages of some of those state militias.

Now, these raids, somewhat reminiscent of the Clintonian domestic playbook: arrest radicals with guns then smear their ( the government's )non-violent opponents, the ones who could potentially end the Obamanation with the same broad brush.

I didn't pay much attention to it then in 1994, going through a nasty divorce and other things, but the one image I do recall from seeing news reports at the time was the single image of a paper cup and plastic lid with a plastic bottle of coke sitting atop a railing at a militia compound.

My first impression was: how serious were these guy to begin with? At the time, little then did spark any interest in me personally, mainly because I had no idea what they were about.

But later, much older and maybe a tiny bit wiser, married to a beautiful Chinese woman and reading about how the People's Liberation Army got their start, the military organization of this new American insurgency has caught my attention.

Every state fields a force. In my case, Oklahoma has the 46th Field Force with each county having a corresponding battalion number, again, in my case the 109th Battalion.

According to the above link, field forces can be combined into a single corps command over a geographic area. The 46th Field Force is part of a desert corps.

According to the link:

The main purpose of a Corps is to allow Field Forces in an area to more easily integrate and use their troops to the best advantage, considering terrain, climate and population, while segregating units on paper to keep them from mixing up with each other and fouling each others' missions.

For inferior grade units: Battalions can be further broken down into Companies. Usually, a company is assigned to a specific city, or (in the case of big cities) a specific Burroughs or section of a city. Companies are assigned letters of the alphabet by their parent Battalion, but the letters are not predetermined.

The company receives a letters in order of its creation. First come, first serve. (A, then B, then C, etc.) Alternatively, you can use the date of a city's (or suburb's) official legal creation to determine who gets what alphanumeric designation.

Companies can be broken down into Platoons. Platoons vary in size depending on purpose, but 40-60 personnel (plus 4 to 5 vehicles and various pieces of equipment) is the average. Platoons can be broken down into teams or squads, from which individual soldiers and pieces of equipment can be derived. Platoons are given numeric designations in order of creation. (For example, the 3rd platoon of the 2nd company in 77th Bn 24th FF would be "3rd Plt B Co 77/24".)

Platoons are different size and populated with different personnel and equipment depending on their role. Each Platoon's purpose is decided by its parent Company.

What isn't very unique about this force structure is that it is geographically oriented: most nations have units drawn up from specific geographic areas. Men who were raised and schooled in much the same way make better recruits, can be a more effective force.

I am pretty sure that American Civil War forces were formed in this way, by area. If you look at whom the Russian fought in Chechnya, those forces were very much organized "Russian style" owing to the fact many of the Chechen insurgents were formerly in the Soviet Army at the time.

If there really is an American insurgency arising, the force organization of the insurgency will be uniquely American.

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