"complete US Marine squad" Topic

Here is the complete 2nd squad of my third US Marine platoon.

More at: link

I likes! They are such wonderful little figures 🖒

Great figures, but only a rare event that squads in Vietnam were at full strength. Usually at 70%-80% for both Army and Marine rifle companies.

I did an interview with a Capt. who served with 9th ID in 4th Corps AO (Mekong). He said that sometimes, not often, he would go out with 44 men in his platoon (with support weapons). He also stated that he once STARTED an operation with only 24 men. He broke it down into two 10 man squads with a 4 man command group.

Really, any TO&E would do, although from speaking with Marine NCO's and Line/Company grade officers it appears that the Marine Corps worked very hard to maintain a 3 fire team break down of the rifle squad, even at the cost of having a 2 man fireteam.

Thanks Oddball. I know that no TO&E survives the deployment of troops in any conflict.
During my games I will probably build 3 squads out of 2 full ones.

I did extensive interviews with Vietnam veterans during the 1990's and was allowed into a private chat room by my uncles contacts (USMC 62-66, 19 months combat Vietnam).

Got all kinds of info on when Marines converted from M-14 to M-16 (March/April '67), how many radios in a platoon and when, use of attached M-60 teams, ect.

Even knowing this, I also field full squads (usually) when my troops hit the table top.

Nice work!