Re: [OT] A variety of terminology/history questions

>
>US Army: Officers only.  Warrent officers are entitled
>to it, but usually are adressed as "Chief".
>

I believe that in Canadian (army) service, Warrent Officers (all 3
types)
are entitled to being called "sir", though most/all prefer to be called
by
their appointment name.  So, for example, the Master Warrent Officer who
is
a company senior NCO would be called "Sar'n't Major" and not "sir".  A
platoon senior NCO (a Warrent Officer, or WOIII) would be "Warrent", and
a
Chief Warrent Officer (WOI) would be "RSM", or something like that.

I have no idea about the AirForce, though...

>US Army:
>
>Troop is company.  Squadron is batallion.  All cavalry
>regiments use this breakdown, even those which are
>really infantry or armored units (ie--1st Cav Div's
>maneuver batallions which are allegedly cavalry but
>organized and equipped as either armor or mech
>infantry).

Whereas in Canadian/British service, a Troop is a platoon-size formation
and a Squadron is a company-size formation.

Both the Canadian and British armies don't have armoured units (or
cavalry
for that matter) larger than a battalion - and are called as such
"Regiments".  Wait - they can/do have armoured brigades/divisions (well,
the Brits have divisions - Canada hasn't had a brigade size *exercise*
in
years, let alone an actual formed division...) but in an armoured
brigade,
you'd have two or three armoured regiments (battalion size forces).  So,
the Royal Canadian Dragoons, one of our armoured regiments, is a single
armoured battalion.  The US, of course, does this stuff on a larger
scale,
so you have multiple-battalion units like the "Armoured Cavalry
Regiments"
- which are basically pocket divisions (seriously reinforced brigade
size
unit, IIRC).  Speaking of which, are any of them still around?

********************************************

Adrian Johnson
adrian.johnson@sympatico.ca