REGIMENT. In modern armies the regi ment is a colonel's command and is the largest permanent association of soldiers. Regiments may be combined into brigades, brigades into divisions and divisions into armies; but these combinations are but temporary, while in the regiment the same officers serve continually and in command of the same body of men. The strength of a regiment may vary greatly even in the same army, as each may comprise any num ber of battalions. In the cavalry, field artillery and infantry arms the regiment is the adminis trative unit. The headquarters of the regi ment are at the station of the permanent regi mental commander; in his absence -the com of the regiment devolves upon the senior officer on duty with it wherever he may be stationed. The regiment is composed of two or more battalions which, in turn, are composed of two or more companies. The battalion, in a regiment, not an administrative :unit and has no separate records; it is purely a tactical unit conveniently organized for instruction or maneuver and particularly for combat, either as an integral part- of the regiment to which it belongs or separated from it. It is appro
priately commanded by a field officer, normally a major, regularly assigned in •orders. In the absence of its regular commander the com inand devolves upon the senior officer of the battalion on duty with it, unless a field officer has been assigned. Whenever incomplete bat lalions of the same or different regiments are serving together, the commanding officer desig nates provisional battalions and similarly, in the case of the incomplete regiments, he design nates provisional regiments. Under the new organization plan 'of 22 Sept. 1917, an infantry regiment in the United. States army contains one headquarters and :headquarters company (303), three battalions of four line companies each (3,078), one supply company (140), one machine-gun company (178), one .medical de tachment (56), making a total of 3,755 officers -and men. For the composition of the com panies, battalions, etc. See. ARMY ORGANIZA nom