[Webstral]

At long last, I've taken the time to really look at your work on the 49th Armored Division, James.

I love the effort that went into showing pre-war and post-Exchange TO&E (table of organization and equipment) for 49th AD. Great effort! I’m especially appreciate that you made an obvious effort to tie the post-Exchange TO&E in with the tanks listed as belonging to 49th AD in the US Army Vehicle Guide. You did a good job explaining the presence of M1 and M2 in the division, too.

I appreciate as well the presence of USAF and Dept of Energy crews and fighting vehicles in the division. Good creativity! I notice that by early 1999 the surviving LAV75 appear to have been concentrated in the new divisional cavalry squadron.

Maneuver battalions and artillery battalions are listed with hyphens between the battalion number and the parent regiment instead of slashes: 1-184 IN for 1st Battalion of the 184th Infantry Regiment, 4-64 AR for 4th Battalion of the 64th Armored Regiment, and 3-78 FA for 3rd Battalion of the 78th Field Artillery Regiment. Companies within the battalion are separated from the battalion number with a slash; B/1-18 IN for Bravo Company, 1st Battalion of the 184th Infantry Regiment.

To make matters more confusing, most battalions in the US Army do not follow the same nomenclature system as the maneuver battalions. I served in the 4th Engineer Battalion (Mech). No fancy numbering or anything.

The School Brigade TO&E for late August 1998 is good but could stand a tweak or two. By the time the brigade has been assigned to front-line combat duty with 49th AD, the corps commander will have transferred the battalion to his command. The Patriots can’t do anything useful at the brigade level, given that the School Brigade is entering front-line combat. Also, make some note of the fact that the infantry battalions and ADA battalions will be exchanging companies to make heavy machine gun or autocannon company teams. While any half-informed reader will assume that the armored and infantry battalions are forming combined arms task forces, it may not be as obvious that the ADA battalions and the infantry are doing the same thing, since there is no doctrine for using ADA and infantry in a combined arms role. Otherwise, the School Brigade TO&E looks good. Transferring 1-124 CAV from the 49th AD is a nice touch.

The loss of 1600 replacements en route from Virginia is painful. It’s also very Twilight: 2000. Good one!

The list of commanding generals is a nice creative gesture. Again, I like the attention to detail that goes into this sort of thing.

A very, very nice bit of work, James!