Quote:
Originally Posted by dragoon500ly
One little thing about the training divisions, they are not equipped with battalions of equipment, they use NG equipment to train on, for the most part, and if activated, they would assume the training equipment left with the service schools.
I'm the first to admit, I have a lot of issues with the canon order of battle, but they were fairly correct in one aspect, the training divisions would have gone into action as either weak infantry/light infantry divisions, with nothing heavier than mothballed artillery, early generation AT weapons, and whatever small arms that could be scrounged to supplement issued weapons.
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Actually the 100th had two brigades that were designated as training units specifically for armor and cavalry troops and was specifically assigned M1 tanks and Bradley APC's - enough to form at least two full battalions from what I have found and possibly three. I could see most of the others lacking armor but they are the one group that would have had at least a decent amount at the start - which could explain why they still have tanks in 2000. If there is one of the training divisions that needs to be updated to show it having tanks and APC's at the start I would say its the 100th. Now I could see the 100th getting its M1's and Bradley's replaced with M60A4's and M113's as the newer equipment was needed to be sent to Europe and Korea and the Middle East.
Also keep in mind that the USAR training units had first rate NCO's and officers as well. And they would have definitely had regular army small arms, mortars and machine guns to go around - they are training units after all and its hard to train men in how to be soldiers without weapons.
The question what was their training function and did they train them for combat operations? One thing to look at with the training units is what their assignments actually were - i.e. the ones that were training for combat would have definitely had a better record in the field than units that were training support units.
For instance the 85th was a logistics training unit - not a combat training unit like the 100th. And its record in the Twilight War reflects that - i.e. it almost got wiped out by the Texian Legion. Whereas the 100th did pretty good and by 2000 is actually the unit that is guarding one of the most important areas that MilGov has left.