Sipping a little EH Taylor and Googled some numbers. I’ve always heard that the “tail” was usually about a 7:1 ratio to shooters. The Army has ~ 10-15% Infantry MOS and the Marines have ~ 15%. That is in keeping with the almost 7:1 ratio. Neither counts armor (for the USMC a moot point), artillery, or aviation, nor do I think it counts SpecOps folks. Interesting how much support the grunts require. Wonder if the ratio was the same during WWII?
All the non-infantry people are the ones that enable the projection of power that separates us. Its not cool, but there is an absolute insane amount of work that goes into that type of stuff. Some of them don’t like to admit it but SOF just enable the conventional fighting force too.
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Well, just looking at it, it totally depends on when you start the count. Do you count those brave Guys who brought the goods on unarmed or underarmed Ships from America to Europe or do you only count the US Naval Forces used to escort all of those Victory Boats?
I was in Armor my entire career, a Tank Company is about 1/3 or less the size of an Mech Infantry Company. So we would mix an Armor Platoons in with Infantry Platoons in what is Called Task Organization. An Infantry Company Minus One Platoon gets a Tank Platoon and someone gets to be the “Fireman” with two Tank Platoons and one Infantry Platoon.
The idea is the Infantry advance with Tank Support. The Tail end of this Combined Amrs Team is all of the Support and later the Service and Support Guys and they are a massive amount of People.
Imagine for every Tank Company there are Mechanics, Fuelers, Ammo Trucks, Medics (Lots of Medics both forward and rear) Cooks, Truck Drivers etc. etc. All those MF’ers are behind you in a Giant Tail and God Bless them because they have next to Zero Armor on their Vehicles and they are lightly (Comparatively) armed to defend themselves.
So Seven to one in that example might be correct, but again just like WWII it depends when you start the count and who you count.
A lot of Service/Service Support jobs have been farmed out to civilians.
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As a former grunt, gotta say I may have given those guys some grief at the time but we need every one of them. Grunts win fights, logistics wins wars. It’s all about moving the freight.
A grunt with no ammo, no food, and no support can’t win jack.
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SOF developed a very high opinion of themselves after 20 years of fighting sand people who didn’t have peer or near peer ability to do things like:
1.) Effectively contest air space denying on demand air support and rotary wing insertion, exfil, and casualty evacuation.
2.) Field consistently well trained professional ground combat units that could utilize combined arms, and were equipped with modern night vision and thermal capabilities.
3.) Field lots of artillery.
4.) Lots more stuff I’m not even scratching the surface on.
I’m not taking away from the skill, dedication, bravery, and talent of our SOF servicemen but take away owning night time ops, and being able to move at will via rotary wing aircraft with minimal losses in the air and the effectiveness goes way way down.
I’ve slept on it and to my knowledge and 7 to one is deceptive but legit accurate for immeadiate support. It however might grow closer to 10 to 1 if you consider the entire logistics train. i.e. Dentist, 3rd Shop / Depot repair, Attorney’s assigned.to the Larger Unit, the long chain of Instructors, Drill Sergeants etc. so it’s kind of deceptive.
See: Operation Red Wings
Yes, if you change the operating environment, current TTPs lose effectiveness. Damn near every SOF unit traces its lineage back to large scale combat like WWII or Vietnam though, so I wouldn’t bet against them adapting to a new OE.
BTW if you ever want to see an Infantry Company Executive Officer sh*t his BDU’s explain to him that your Abrams Tank hold 503 galons of JP8 and your Platoon will likely need an Eighth to a quarter Tank of Fuel in a Night Defence delivered Daily.
Completely fair, and let’s be realistic the entire US military would need to adapt in this scenario.
I think we’re going to see (and it is already happening) a significant growth in ADA and drone operators. Not ADA in the old school sense like Hawks and Stingers, but anti-drone capabilities. I hate to say it being a former grunt myself, but I see Infantry playing a far lesser role in the future, especially with a near-peer or almost-near-peer. Sure, someone will need to take and hold ground at some point, but look how front-line units in Ukraine (both sides) are getting eaten up by drones.
Anyone old enough to remember when every time you had a vehicle movement you had to have an “air guard” posted? Some dude with his weapon pointed skyward. We used to shake our heads, because the U.S. military hadn’t been in a situation without battlefield air superiority since WWII. Of course drones didn’t exist 40 years ago like the rampant proliferation we see now.
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Non-combat jobs: 38.8% of enlisted personnel had rear echelon assignments—administrative, support, or manual labor.
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Great Post.
I think the only way to combat drones from the ground will likely be a Javalin like reloadable anti drone weapon. Perhaps not Javalin sized, but Javalin like Specialty type weapon and it’s going to have to be magazine fed likely.
Were likely to have anti drone, Drones soon if we dont have them already.
I think they will likely build specilty mobile Vehicles to launch and navigate drones closer to the fight.
Maybe an Additional Skill Identifier?
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That would mean 62% were combat Arms?
We have a lot to figure out still but definitely have UxS and counter UxS of different flavors. There is some really cool tech out there.
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I guess that depends on what “rear echelon” actually means to whoever wrote that at the WWII museum and some other things.
How are field kitchens and medical facilities classed? While not supposed to be fighting they could obviously end up in the fighting.
That seems to have been an issue with this guy:
not being recognized with a Medal of Honor for decades.
A thing that makes me wonder if an even higher percentage were acting as support is looking at the equipment(military and moving) of the time.
The load capacity of things like cranes and ships in WWII were a drop in the bucket versus now, but I am not sure how changes in equipment to be moved affects the number of people needed to load, transport, and unload. Vehicles are generally heavier now.
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I’ve heard the Salomon story. Incredible and not a grunt. Certainly deserved the MoH.
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Now I’m not going to be submitting a resume to DoD or anything like that 
but I start a 5-month online drone operator course next Monday. I am retired so why not. It has intrigued me for quite some time so I decided to delve into it. When I’m done I will have enough knowledge to take the FAA 107 test if I want to. I thought about flight lessons but everything that goes up must come down, and sometimes the “come down” part doesn’t go like one would hope! I think it will be interesting to see how things work on these devices and be able to better understand their application. I get two drones as part of the course, but eventually I want to get one with thermal capabilities….big $$$, like a thermal optic for an M4 would be.
If I was an 18yo looking to join the Army in 2026 I’d request the drone field, some way some how. Keeping ‘em flying, operator on a small-unit basis, or even being part of ADA and shooting them down. I was a grunt many years ago in a different life but I think this is the route I would go if enlisting now.
I have a sick sense of humor. I just picture Doc Solomon out there going all Rambo with a drill and a pair of pliers. Ouch! 
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While I was working in Iraq I ran in to a Guy who had a similar job as I , but he didn’t do Tanks He did drones.
He said he was promised a Million Dollar Bonus if he could work five, one year tours in Iraq
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