Eric's Beijing Diary

At the English corner this evening, a guy stopped by and wanted me to help him identify the English terms for the various levels of command in the military. Not being a military man, I told him this was not my specialty, but I would try to help. No idea why he wanted to know. He said he thought that a squad was the smallest, and I agreed. Above a squad is a platoon, and then a company. He asked me what was above a company, and I told him that I thought it was a division. But in his listing, he kept leaving out "battalion," and I told him I was sure that should be in there somewhere. As you can see, my comprehension of the levels is pretty rusty. Like I said, I'm not a military man--never been in uniform (except when I was a boy scout, where a troop, believe it or not, is a group of boys, not just one). For those of you interested in such trivia, here is the list.