Why are military units not named in sequential order? e.g. The 82nd Airborne Division, then it's the 101st.

Question

For example in WW II there was the 82nd Airborne Division and the 101st Airborne, but no 83...100.

Answer 1

Way back in history, many units were retired, never to be used again. One instance comes to this old soldier's mind.
In the year 9 AD The 17th, 18th, and 19th legions were involved in the Battle of Totenburgerwald. The three legions plus hundreds of soldiers in supply cohorts were so badly disgraced by Arminius the Hurali chief that those legions were retired.
From that time on, there was never a 17, 18, or 19th legion in the Roman armies.

Answer 2

I've asked the same question myself. I don't know the answer. I think there was no thought given to numeric order....someone just picked a random number that was different from the rest to label a unit with a unique number. I never did understand army unit designations anyway...they don't always seem comprised of the same type of sub units. Marine regiments do seem to follow a numerical order, but the numbers seem to follow no pattern when determining what division each regiment belongs to. For example the 1st Mar Div has the 1st, 5th, 7th, and 11th Marine Regiments, the 2nd has the 2nd, 6th, 8th, and 10th regiments, the 3rd has the 3rd, 4th, 9th, and 12th regiments. By the time you list all the Marine Divisions active and reserve and their regiments, all the regiments are represented in numerical order, but there doesn't seem to be a pattern as to how they were assigned to a division.

Now if someone can just explain cav, armored cav, air cav, air mobile, and air assault for me...we wont even worry about brigades.

Answer 3

There was an 81st, and an 83rd in the Second War, but they were not airborne. They were infantry.
The divison numbers are sequential, regardless of being armored, infantry, airborne or what have you.
As the divisions decomission, the numbers are retired.
Rarely, a division number will be recalled and reactivated.

Answer 4

If it were sequential, then it would give your enemy information about the size of your military. One tactic many militarizes use is to deliberately make themselves look larger than they actually are.

The Russians used to fly around bombers, and repaint them with different numbers in an attempt to confuse US intelligence.

It looks like the answerer above mine is pretty good with regard to Roman legions. It may be entirely due to historical constraints.

Answer 5

I don't think anyone knows the answer to that question. It's just something everyone accepts.

Answer 6

someone lost count.