Armored Battalion Commander 1964 US Army; The Big Picture TV-614

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'A Battalion Commander holds one of the most responsible and respected jobs in the Army--representing, in his single experience, a career of national service and Army leadership. Under his command are hundreds of men, machines and weapons - forged together into a thunderbolt representing many thousands of dollars in the nation's investment in military security. This week, THE BIG PICTURE focuses on crowded days in the life of the commander of an armored battalion in West Germany, where United States and NATO forces serve in the forward lines of the free world's defenses.'

Originally a public domain film from the National Archives or Library of Congress Prelinger Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battalion

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

A battalion is a military unit. The use of the term "battalion" varies by nationality and branch of service. Typically a battalion consists of 300 to 800 soldiers and is divided into a number of companies. A battalion is typically commanded by a lieutenant colonel. In some countries, the word "battalion" is associated with the infantry.

The term was first used in Italian as battaglione no later than the 16th century. It derived from the Italian word for battle, battaglia. The first use of battalion in English was in the 1580s, and the first use to mean "part of a regiment" is from 1708...

Independent operations

A battalion is the smallest military unit capable of "limited independent operations", meaning it includes an executive, staff (i.e., S-1, S-2, etc.) with a support and services unit (e.g., headquarters and headquarters company). The battalion must have a source of re-supply to enable it to sustain operations for more than a few days. This is because a battalion's complement of ammunition, expendable weapons (e.g., hand grenades and disposable rocket launchers), water, rations, fuel, lubricants, replacement parts, batteries, and medical supplies normally consists of only what the battalion's soldiers and the battalion's vehicles can carry.

....The battalion is part of a regiment, brigade, or group, depending on the branch of service...

In the United States Army, a battalion is a unit composed of a headquarters and two to six batteries, companies, or troops. They are normally identified by ordinal numbers (1st Battalion, 2nd Squadron, etc.) and normally have subordinate units that are identified by single letters (Battery A, Company A, Troop A, etc.). Battalions are tactical and administrative organizations with a limited capability to plan and conduct independent operations and are normally organic components of brigades, groups, or regiments.

A U.S. Army battalion includes the battalion commander (lieutenant colonel), executive officer (major), command sergeant major (CSM), headquarters staff, and usually three to five companies, with a total of 300 to 1,000 (but typically 500 to 600) soldiers. A regiment consists of between two and six organic battalions, while a brigade consists of between three and seven separate battalions...

From the 1960s through the early 1980s, a typical maneuver (infantry or tank) battalion had five companies: headquarters and headquarters company (HHC) and A, B, and C Companies, plus a combat support company (CSC), with a scout platoon, 107 mm (4.2 inch) heavy mortar platoon, along with other elements that varied between organizations. These included heavy anti-tank TOW missile platoons, ground surveillance radar sections and man-portable air-defense system sections...