Why are the “numbers” within the names of American military divisions seemingly non-sequential?
Originally there was a system for numbering US Army divisions. Divisions 1-25 were supposed to be assigned to the ‘Active’ component Divisions 25-60 were supposed to be assigned to the Reserves and National Guard Divisions 61 on up were supposed to be ‘nonpermanant’ units that were only organized during times of war. However what happened is that after WWII – some division numbers became more prestigious than others. As a result those units remained as part of the active duty force while other less well known units were disbanded when the Army returned to its peacetime strength. As a result we have the odd skipping of division numbers today.
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