Regimental Systems

[Paul in Qatar]

Is there any way to preserve the linage and history of the storied US Army regiments?

 

First off, even the current system ought not to change, by one way of reasoning. We have been changing too much stuff for the last fifty years, so more changes are just more disruption. Let us put that aside.

 

Is there any way for a large army to allow (at least most) soldier to serve their entire careers in one regiment? How? Does any army do this? The US Marines?

[Richard Lindquist]

If you make the regimental system rigid enough, it will be effective, but you will lose flexibility.

 

The US has gone so far that any regimental system would just be a paperwork drill.

 

In an ideal regimental system, a battalion commander would have joined the regiment as a newly commisssioned 2LT in the same year the battalion SMaj joined as a new recruit.

 

Even the storied Brit regimental system has decayed as the old county regiments have been combined and recombined into rather meaningless blobs.

 

If I was to design a meaningful regimental system, it would have a regiment consisting of two or three active battalions and an OSUT training battalion with three linked ARNG/USAR battalions and a USAR OSUT battalion. The battalions would all serve in different brigades (by policy). The three different infantry/cavalry/tank regiments, the artillery regiment, and the engineer regiment represented in a brigade would all share rotations of officers through brigade staff positions and provided enlisted details to proivide personnel for brigade HQ. Regiments would have quotas to support service schools and other "non-line" type admin activities with officer and enlisted personnel.

[Guest aevans]

The US Marines?

 

Spending more than three years in any unit is considered "homesteading" and is pretty seriously frowned upon. Also, Marines generally don't want to be stuck in Camp Lejeune or Twentynine Palms longer than necessary, so the whole Corps has to keep rotating around to avoid this. Also, the Marine's "regimental" identity is tied up in the history and traditions of the Marine Corps overall.

[67th Tigers]

Yes, the Canadians have it about right. They have 3 regular infantry regiments, each of 3 Bns. It gives them the necessary flexibility.

 

Personally, I think the 3 Bn Regts we (the British) formed in the late 60's were the way forward, and it should have been mandated that the British form 15 Regiments*, averaging 3 battalions each (with the Foot Guards and RGR being larger). We could have saved a lot of pain by doing it then....

 

 

 

 

* Foot Guards, Royal Lowland, Queen's, Duke of Lancaster's, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, Royal Anglian, Midland, Mercian, Royal Welsh, Royal Wessex, Yorkshire, North Irish, Light Infantry, Highland, Royal Green Jackets, Parachute and Royal Gurkha Rifles

[Tomas Hoting]

I also have a question regarding the regimental system in the UK:

 

AIUI, some regiments traditionally recruit (only) from certain parts of the country, to maintain the traditions and the historical connections.

 

But how did this system work during National Service? Did the conscripts have to report to their nearest regiment, or did the MOD simply distribute them to the various parts of the armed forces as required? Could the individual serviceman ask to serve in a certain regiment, and did these regiments also have the possibility to choose from a pool of "candidates"?

[Ariete!]

I think some version of Lindquist's scheme makes sense (and is not too different from the British system of yore).

 

I would think of the 'regiment' aas an essentially trainign/reconstitution organization that serially gestates fully operational battalions. The variosu battaliosn are then integrated for a final trianing (combined arms) period into a brigade which is then operational for a certain time span or (in war) until casualties mandate reconstitution.

 

Officers and NCOs would therefore cycle back and forth between regimental assignment and field/brigade assignement.

[67th Tigers]

I also have a question regarding the regimental system in the UK:

 

AIUI, some regiments traditionally recruit (only) from certain parts of the country, to maintain the traditions and the historical connections.

 

But how did this system work during National Service? Did the conscripts have to report to their nearest regiment, or did the MOD simply distribute them to the various parts of the armed forces as required? Could the individual serviceman ask to serve in a certain regiment, and did these regiments also have the possibility to choose from a pool of "candidates"?

 

Pax were assigned based on the needs of the army. There is no real county affiliation between 1948 and 1967, indeed, the regiments only exist in name. Instead, an infantry soldier was assigned a regiment based at his depot. So a young lad from Hampshire would generally be trained at Wessex Brigade Depot and then assigned to the Devons, Gloucesters, Royal Hampshires, Dorsetshires, Royal Berkshires or Wiltshires, based on the needs of those battalions.

 

Some of the depots bit the bullet and officially became Regiments, on the promise that it would spare them further cuts, however the slashing cuts of the 1970's Conservatives meant it was easier to quietly drop a battalion from a large regiment rather than lose names.

[Archie Pellagio]

Spending more than three years in any unit is considered "homesteading" and is pretty seriously frowned upon. Also, Marines generally don't want to be stuck in Camp Lejeune or Twentynine Palms longer than necessary, so the whole Corps has to keep rotating around to avoid this. Also, the Marine's "regimental" identity is tied up in the history and traditions of the Marine Corps overall.

 

In the traditional sense of 'regiment" the Marine Corps as a whole is a regiment though...

[Rubberneck]

It would be hard to do today because of the numerous BRAC decisions that have shrunk the Army's footprint within the US. You could still recruit from certain areas, for example:

 

1st ID

1 BCT: New England

2 BCT: NYC/NJ

3 BCT: Eastern PA/DE/MD

4 BCT: DC/VA

 

You'd have to get the demographic studies (and they are out there) that show where the majority of the recruits as well as officers come from.

 

Again, the big problem is people from the northeast probably would like to get closer to home once in a career. Spending all their time at Hood, Bliss and White Sands wouldn't be avoidable.

 

The Guard and to a lesser extent, the Reserve, have more of a true regimental flavor to them because of the inherent decentralized nature of their units. You still have NCO's serving in the same battalions for better parts of their career. Officers have to travel to get promoted, since the Army slapped the questionable "up or out" policies on the reserve components.