and what are their roles and issued weapons and equipment?

ex.
medic
engineer
gunner
comm
etc

it depends on what kind of platoon. for a lot of support functions a platoon is just an administrative demarcation. but traditionally when dealing with infantry a platoon is 3 (sometime 4) rifle squads each consisting of 3 or 4 fireteams. a lot of it depend on the man power of the squad etc. heres an example from my days in a line company:

platoon = 3 squads
squad =  3 fireteams
fireteam = 1 rifleman
                 1 203 gunner
                 1 SAW gunner
                 1 team leader


a platoon is commanded by a Lt. assisted by a gunny or a SSgt with each squad being commanded by a SSgt or Sgt. fireteam leaders are usually Cpls or salty Lcpls. it will usually have at least 1 communicator and Navy Corpsman per squad but these arent hard and fast rules. sometimes the communicator is just a cross trained grunt, not a school trained commo, and sometimes there only 2 corpsman for the whole platoon so whatever squad is patrolling that day gets the doc. its a fairly fluid situation and you cant really pin it down.

a platoon can be enhanced or re-enforced with assets from the Weapons platoon, the scout sniper platoon or the anti armor platoon. usually a fireteam added to give the platoon some special weaponry. nowadays you can also count on a designated marksman per squad, sometimes only 1 per platoon if they dont have the training/rifles by now.

In the Army medics tend to be at company level; engineers are never down to platoon level except for specific tasks - an Engineer Bn will be assigened to a BCT in Direct Support (can you tell I just finihsed the correspondence part of the Career Course??)  The BCT will then taks the Bn as needed.

IF my company was fully rounded out I would have two commo guys, but they would both stay with the company HQ - my Engineers need to run their own radios.

I take command in Feburary.

In the Army it depends on the type.  Airborne, and air assault are set up one way, light infantry set up slightly different, and mechanised are diferent yet.  Now add in a tank platoon, or an anti-armor platoon.  And we aren't even looking at the transportation types, or medical, or, or, or...
Weapons can depend on the type of unit.  Either the M16-A4 or the M4, plus the SAW and M203. Of course the morters section gets their mortars and M9's.

Quoted: In the Army medics tend to be at company level; engineers are never down to platoon level except for specific tasks - an Engineer Bn will be assigened to a BCT in Direct Support (can you tell I just finihsed the correspondence part of the Career Course??)  The BCT will then taks the Bn as needed. IF my company was fully rounded out I would have two commo guys, but they would both stay with the company HQ - my Engineers need to run their own radios. I take command in Feburary.

Sir, are you changing the way you are supporting?  I just switched from a combat engineer company (that got to be attached to gun bunnies and be glorified security guards for our deployment, woo hoo [cry], and the batallion itself was disbanded.  The companies are being attached directly to the infantry or armor battalion they support.  Actually it's a combined arms batallion, 2 companies of infantry, two of armor, and one engineer.  It's a mech. brigade (or heavy unit of action) in the Guard, so that is probably different than a light or Stryker brigade.

ETA: Death by Powerpoint!

I am in AO Topeka working the MSR into ar Ramadi and the surrounding towns and villages… my Platoon has been what we call “task organized”.  The majority of the platoon is ½ of a scout platoon (19d MOS) crossed out from the DivCav… the rest are from an armor company who we are attached to.  In a perfect world we have 38 guys.  4x M1114 uparmored HMMWVs and two M1A1HA Delta Abrams.  On an average day we have around 22 guys going out side the wire with  3 or 4 have the day off, 2 to 4 on mid tour leave and the rest have been evaced or worse.  And we have picked up two replacements.  187 days in theater and that is what we are down to.  The 4 trucks run with 4 man crews, gunner, driver, TC, and dismount most of the time… from time to time we run with 3, the driver will dismount then. Two trucks the dismounts are the platoon medic and the platoon forward observer (guy who calls in arty and illumination missions from the howbat.)  We all have M4 carbines with M68 CCOs or ACOGS and M9 Berettas some of the gunners have M16A4s instead of M4s.  Two trucks run M2 .50cals, one has an M240 and a bunch of AT4s and my truck has a MK-19 40mm Grenade Launcher plus an M249 SAW mounted in the turret.   We also have two more SAWs that we take depending on the mission, and the 5 and 6 truck comanders carry M203s.  The tanks have the main gun with HEAT and CANISTER rounds, .50 cal w/ APIT for the TC, M240 Coax MG, and a second M2 mounted over the gun tube on the Platoon Sgt.’s tank with SLAP ammo.  (baby sabot .50 cal ammo).  Most of our missions, 5 or 6 a week are rout recon/ security with one or two raids, and occasional preasance patrols with the Iraqi Army.

Here is the break down:

Blue1; The LT’s truck
M2 HB .50 cal
Driver, gunner, tc, and dismount (desinganted marksman with Supressed M14 w/ ACOG)
All crew has M4s and M9s except DM with M14

Blue2, Me
Mk 19 GL and M249 SAW
Driver, gunner and tc.  Forward observer usually rides here.
2 M4s with ACOGS, one M4 with CCO (aimpoint) and one M16a4 with ACOG
From time to time we also carry a Javiln ATGM but we have yet to shoot one at $70,000 a missle its cheaper just to let the tank hit it with the main gun.

Blue3 M1A1 TANK, 120mm Main, M240 Coax, M2 .50 cal (loaders m240 is removed to allow unrestricted movement of TC’s .50.)
M16A2s and M9s

Blue4 M1A1 TANK, 120mm Main, M240 Coax, M2 .50 cal (loaders m240 is removed to allow unrestricted movement of TC’s .50.) with counter sniper .50 cal over gun tube. Platoon Sgt’s tank.
M16A2s and M9s

Blue5
M2 HB .50 cal
Driver, gunner and tc. Medic usuly rides here.
3 M4s with CCOs and 1 M16a4 with ACOG, TC has an M203 on his M4.

Blue 6
M240 MG and 4 AT4 Anti Tank Rockets
Driver, Gunner, TC, and Dismount
4 M4s with CCOs and M9s, TC has an M203 on his M4.


 
This is typical for my whole BN and this is how we roll every day getting the job done. Red Platoon and White are the same only the guys on the Hummers are 11 series MOS instead of 19… Mostly 11B.  Also each platoon has an uparmored M113 with RPG cages that we can use instead of the wheels if need be.  Hope this shows you how diverse a platoon can be.

What responsibilities does a 2nd Lt  have compared to a 1st Lt?

It's not rank dependent - it's job dependent - a 1LT acting as a Comapny Commadner would have the same responsibilities as a CPT; a 2LT and 1LT who are pltton leaders would have the same repsonsibilities.

Oh, gotcha.  I'm still trying to learn as much as I can about my future responsibilities.

Quoted: Oh, gotcha.  I'm still trying to learn as much as I can about my future responsibilities.

What's your story?

If all continues to go well with the admissions board, I'll be heading to Annapolis.  If that doesn't work out, I'll go NROTC.  Either way, I'm on track to become a Marine Officer.  It's a good 4 years away for me still, but it's what I want and I'm prepared to do everything in my power to achieve my goal.

Good luck to you - but if you want a STELLAR education - go to West Point.

Ducking for cover from my friends from teh Sea Sevices.

I am partial to marine corps OCS where you can train over the summers and go to a civilian university myself. Several of my friends in my Army ROTC battalion are marines who are into that program they tell me it is awesome. I have nothing but respect for these guys and they are among the most capable leaders I have seen. The will commission shortly.

I myself am a ROTC guy who is an SMP in the Army Reserve and now National guard to gain experiance in combat arms before I commission. I will be going to NALC or LDAC this summer and will commision this next december. I was an E-5 enlisted before I contracted as a cadet. I think that going enlisted in some componant for a few years can enhance your perspective alittle.

I have considered going enlisted first as I agree that it would be beneficial, but I made the decision that I want to continue my education straight through.  Good Luck with your commissioning!

No problem and good luck. If you are an SMP or do the gurad you can do your training over the summer and be non deployable after you are a sophmore as far as credits standing. The whole point is to get you a degree so they can commision you as an officer it is difficult to do that when deployed.

Not trying to persuade you but help you out.

Pure armour is simple.

Four tanks. Each with four troops.

1: LT, SGT, E-4(-) x2
2: SSG, SGT, E-4(-) x2
3: SSG, SGT,E-4(-) x2
4: SFC, SGT, E-4(-) x2

When we were mucking around in HMMWVs, we had room for a medic to join us.

NTM

For us it's 8 humvees, 4 in each section.  1 TOW in each section, 1 MK, and 2 .50s.  5 guys in a truck.  Driver, Vehicle Commander, Gunner, and two dismounts.  Also, one corpsman per section will be in a truck.  Sometimes they will drive.

My Platoon is a little odd - we used to be an Armor company, but we were retrained as MPs for our current mission in Iraq.  MPs don't work in more than a squad except on very rare occasions, but here is how it breaks down.  

One LT is in command, with a SFC to help.  They rarely ever are on patrols with us.  
4 Squads - one squad leader, three fireteams.  Each squad has appr. 9-11 soldiers.  Individual soldiers weapons are M-9s and M-16s (team leaders and squad leaders have 203s).  

3 M-1114 HMMWV per squad.  Each M-1114 has a crew serve mounted - M-240B is our favorite, along with the .50 cal in a close second.  We rarely ever have the MK-19 up there since we are in the city, and we avoid the SAW if possible due to its lack of stopping power for vehicles.  Neither weapon makes much sense for security patrols.  Some of the trucks have an extra weapons mount attatched to the side of the turret which can hold a SAW.  Occasionally a medic will ride with us, or other soldiers if they need to get somewhere, but we rarely ever have more than 3 or 4 soldiers per truck.