Got a nice Trident M915A1/M872 with containers for christmas. And as usual, when I get a truck, my mind turns to logistice, and when I think logistics, I fuss and crab because I do NOT seem to be able to track down what I'd call an "Actual" TO&E for modern ground forces. The best link I have, http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/army/unit/toe/
_specifically_ leaves out " numerous headquarters, maintenance and other support units which are normally attached to or associated with the listed combat units". Anybody out there with a link to the real deal? The sharp end of the spear aint nothin' without Beans, Bullets, and Black Oil. And that means veh to tote them about.

DaLnz

First of all, welcome to the site, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

I think that the best place to start research into TO&Es might be to contact the following:

http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/lineage/fpo.htm

Organizational History Branch
U.S. Army Center of Military History
103 Third Avenue
Fort McNair, DC 20319-5058
DSN 325-2733; (202) 685-2733

Another place which I'm sure has similar information would be the War College at Carlisle Barracks. Several years ago my dad did a research paper comparing the effectiveness of US and German Armored Divisions, as a function of their TO&E and he got some material from there.

But don't expect to find what you need directly on line, you'll probaby have to get somebody to copy it.

Good luck!

Tom

The M915 series is a non-divisional asset normally found in transportation units or corps support battalions. It is not something you would find in a maneuver unit or headquarters unit. Even the headquarters company of a transportation unit would not have a line haul vehicle like that.

For us modellers but non-military types- what is TO&E

TO&E=Table of Organization and Equipment

In other words, it is the authorization document that states how many soldiers (in each rank and specialty), vehicles and equipment a unit has. Normally preceded by the letter M (for modified) as in MTO&E and called "M toe".

The TO&E would tell you what types of vehicles you would find in a specific unit. The MTO&E even goes down as far as which soldier would have a pistol, rifle, etc.

Sabot is correct, the M915 is an EAD (Echelons Above Division) line-haul tractor, frankly more commercial than military. EAD means Corps & above.

You find them in Transportation Motor Truck Companies, 60 tractors and 120 trailers to each company. They are divided into 3 platoons, each with 2 squads. The company has a few forklifts, another M915 with a 5000gal tanker for internal fuel, and a few other vehicles.

When traveling "empty" one trailer is stacked on another & off they go. When doing line haul missions, the two trailers enable what are known as trailer transfer points where trailers are dropped & swapped & whatnot & sooner or later everyone gets back what they should have. A trailer is loaded & hauled and while that is on the road, another is being loaded. Reverse that to offload. Having two trailers should mean you never get held up where all your trailers are loaded & you're waiting on (broken) forklifts.

It isn't exciting in theory -- the runs are usually short -- depot to transfer point & back, or transfer point to transfer point & back, and finally transfer point to receiving depot/storage point & back. Back & forth, back & forth, etc ....

But the system (which I described poorly) really works well.

I can look for a real TO&E if you need more than what I provided above.

And that's what you get for asking what time it is ....

I'm a Supply Sergeant in a Combat Engineer Battalion (Heavy). My Headquarters Support Company has a couple of 915 tractors. In my company I have M916 and M916A1 tractors that the soldiers use for pulling water tank trailers and hauling construction equipment.

Yes, but your unit is a non-divisional unit, most likely part of a heavy engineer brigade which is normally a corps or theater asset.

You are correct Sabot. We are a Corp asset. My Battalion senior command is the 35th Engineer Brigade at Ft. Leonard Wood.

My thanks to everyone who weighed in on my question. I pretty much realized that the M915 series was a line hauler, not a combat service support asset, but I do fuss a lot over the TO&E. It is just darn hard to get in writing how many trucks, for instance are organic to a mech infantry batallion. Easy to find out how many M1s/Bradleys, etc. But log vehs always seem to get left out.

DaLnz

A mech infantry battalion is similar in composition to an armor battalion (except for Brads vs. tanks). A tank battalion normally had three 2½ ton trucks for the four line companies (A, B, C, D), and another dozen in the headquarters company. There were about a dozen 5 ton trucks, some of them tractors pulling trailers for the mine rollers, but the rest of them were cargo trucks. One was a wheeled wrecker.

The lion's share of wheeled vehicles in either an armor or infantry battalion are the M977 and M978 HEMTT 10 ton trucks. An armor battalion had a greater number of fuelers (M978) than an infantry battalion due to the tank's fuel consumption. If I recall, there are 32-36 HEMTTs in the battalion support platoon and one HEMTT wrecker (M984A1) in the maintenance platoon.

Other than HMMWVs, that's it for wheeled vehicles in a maneuver unit.