How much understrength was any unit you were ever assigned to?

2016-06-04T22:22:04-04:00

Response by CSM Bill Roy made Jun 4 at 2016 10:23 PM

2016-06-04T22:23:30-04:00

60% back in early 70's. Made mission overlap inevitable

Response by CPT Earl George made Jun 4 at 2016 10:24 PM

2016-06-04T22:24:07-04:00

My first platoon leader assignment in Germany in 1972 was to Weapons platoon A company 2/30 IN 3ID. Authorized strength was 39EM and 1 Officer. Actual strength was 7EM and myself.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 5 at 2016 8:53 AM

2016-06-05T08:53:35-04:00

My unit was authorized 13 pax, but when we hit the ramp to our MOB station we had 5 people. Luckily our backfills were meeting us at the MOB site.

Response by Capt Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 5 at 2016 9:28 AM

2016-06-05T09:28:36-04:00

Well, I was at a base and as part of my job we made chart showing AFSCs that had critical staffing. My AFSC had 5 on the base and was projected to lose 4. Four knew they were leaving and I would be left as the only one on base.

The next week I got orders to transfer overseas leaving none.

Naturally, I figured I was going to a place that was really in need. When I got there we had 5 people and only 4 work spaces. Therefore we each got a day of each week.

Ah, the wonders of military staffing logic. That was 54 years ago. I hope, but, I doubt that it has changed.

Response by LTC John Mohor made Jun 5 at 2016 10:49 PM

2016-06-05T22:49:13-04:00

When I first got to Germanyin 1989 I was a Fire Support Officer our Task force should have had 4 LTs a Captain and a whole lot more Soldiers then we actually had. Looking back now I bet we were at or below 60% strength. I was the only LT. My NCO was an E-5 for most of my 13 months in position although I had an E-6 on the books three times.

Response by SSG Richard Hackwith made Jun 5 at 2016 11:35 PM

2016-06-05T23:35:35-04:00

In 1966 I was in Germany with the 5/32 Armor 24th ID. The Viet Nam build up began and we quit receiving replacements. In addition a lot of officers and senior NCOs were "levied". Each line company had four tanks in storage, the whole HHC tank section was in storage as well. Each line company had one officer the CO, the plt ldrs were SSG. BN HQ had three officers the CO -LTC, a 1LT and a CW4. On a good day there wee two men each of the remaining tanks The infantry units were in even worse shape. After about three months of this we received, in a matter of a few days, enough replacements to field all of the non storage tanks. However, none were trained tankers, after training the new guys, they were getting the hang of it. We went to Hohenfels for ATT's (Later called ARTEP) did OK not spetacular. After that we went straight to Graf for tank gunnery, at least in our company all the tanks qualified on TCQC.

Response by SGT Paul Mackay made Jun 12 at 2016 10:14 PM

2016-06-12T22:14:01-04:00

when i was with the 25th inf div my unit wasn't even 50% and a company commander that was hardly around the unit being HHC 1/19th inf.