Hi guys

I was wondering if anyone could assist with a question I have...was there a policy by the u.s. army to allocate certaon types of weapons to certain ranks? Obviously the M1 Garand was the standard weapon but I recently read in "Beyond Band of Brothers" by Maj Richard Winters that he chose to carry a Garand so as not to stand out as an officer. This made me think about if there was a policy for officers to be allocated Thompson SMGs or Carbines as their weapons?

Thanks!

There is actually a column in TO&E's (basically a big spreadsheet of all the positions and equipment within a unit) that specifies what weapon the individual in that duty position is supposed to be armed with. In practice it's different, some officers do opt to carry a rifle as opposed to just a pistol. A lot depends on the TO&E and the officer, in some cases rank does have its' privileges (and if you happen to be friends with the armorer for enlisted men), as well as how many of each weapon are available within a unit. I've seen machine gunners who are authorized a pistol toting a rifle and their machine gun.

To add to the above, usually, officers (especially commanders and staff officers) are only authorized to carry a pistol by TO&E. Many officers will also carry a rifle to blend in and because a pistol is not really an effective fighting weapon, but more of a self defense weapon. I always drew an M4 rifle and my M9 pistol from the arms room when I was in Iraq.

Another consideration that adds flexibility to what weapons individuals actually carried (as opposed to what the TO&E said they should carry) is that the weapons belonged to the unit and not to the individual.

That is, a soldier shows up to the unit and is assigned a weapon from that unit's holdings (based on the totals authorized by the TO&E). As casualties occur, the soldiers leave the unit (killed or wounded), but the weapons are recovered and returned to the unit's holdings. After some time, there are more weapons than soldiers by the amount that the unit is under-manned (minus weapons destroyed or lost). Also, as weapons are lost (captured, destroyed or actually lost), the unit can request replacements based on their totals authorized by the TO&E. If a BAR is destroyed by enemy fire, the unit can turn in the remains of the destroyed gun or "survey it" (write up an official report of the loss) and request a replacement.

Thus, the unit commander has some increased degree of flexibility to issue weapons not based just on the TO&E but also on the mission or preferences of the soldiers.

A soldier who might have been issued am M1 Garand rifle might request an M1 Thompson SMG because of a personal preference or because his squad leader wants the additional automatic firepower. An officer might ask for an M1 Garand because he wants to lower his visual signature, or a mortar gunner might ask for an M1 Carbine to give him more fire power than his issued .45 pistol. A company commander might order that all of the M1 Thompson SMGs and BARs available remain issued at all times at the expense of M1 Garands or Carbines because he wants the maximum amount of available automatic fire power.

All of these changes could be possible because the number of men in the unit is less than the number of available small arms.

Also, weapons can be "cross loaded" between soldiers according to mission specific needs. For example, a squad-sized patrol might be given M1 Thompson SMGs at the rate of every other man to increase their automatic fire power, or they might be give extra BARs for the same reason. This might just be temporary until the patrol has returned and then the weapons taken from other unit members would be reallocated.

The TO&E is a starting place for initial issue and the authorizing document for requesting replacements, but it's not an absolute. The closer a unit is to 100% manning, the closer the allocation of weapons and equipment will look like the TO&E. Units first entering combat are probably manned and equipped (to include weapons) to look very close to the "paper ideal" - their TO&E. The longer the unit is in combat, the less and less it looks like its TO&E ideal.

In the end, commanders have a lot of flexibility and are expected to use that and their initiative to get the job done.

Thanks for all the helpful and very interesting info guys! As always it is greatly appreciated