Somewhat tangential but along the lines of shifting company organizations, my light infantry company in Iraq was sliced to an armor battalion (4-64 AR). The armor battalion had two companies of tanks, two companies of mechanized infantry in M2, a cavalry troop, a company of Marines (no kidding), its organic guns, and a grab bag of other units. I have no idea how the Marines ended up in 4-64 AR, and I don't remember who they were. The cav was from 278th ACR. And then there was us, sliced off from 1-184 IN (CA ARNG), which had in turn been sliced off from 29th Brigade and given to 3rd Infantry Division. We swapped a rifle platoon to D/4-64 in return for a tank platoon. The company was then reorganized into four sections of 20-22 men, plus a somwhat reorganized headquarters section. (The mortar crews went to the line, since mortars weren't authorized for use in Baghdad, while the FOs went to the headquarters to run IO.) Each section had enough gun trucks to make it mobile for patrols or QRF, plus a tank. One tank was sent to our checkpoint, where it remained until being rotated out for PMCS. For several months, we gave up an additional section to D/4-64, resulting in an infantry company with about 75 guys in three rifle sections and a headquarters section. To say that the TO&E was elastic would be an understatement.
4-64 AR was quite large, by the way. Total strength was more than 800 in mid-2005. The battalion was, in some ways, a small brigade.
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