Strange Units?

SHERMAN

Active member
Lets see what strange units we can dig out of the ashes.....Ill start, with a unit that still exists in Israel: the NAHAL Infantry brigade. This unit was born out of a strange mix of agricutural socialism and soldiering....Here is the IDF official page:

"Nahal" is the Hebrew acronym for "Noar Halutzi Lohem" - Fighting Pioneer Youth - a military cadre unique to Israel. It is a framework which combines military service in a combat unit with civilian service in a newly founded kibbutz or moshav (collective and semi-collective agricultural settlements).

History

The Nahal was established during the 1948 War of Independence by David Ben-Gurion. It was the natural continuation of the pioneering values and customs of the nascent state and the legacy of the elite underground Palmach unit. The aim of the Nahal was to ensure security and settlement, combining the sword and the ploughshare (the Nahal official emblem). The Nahal was created as a subdivision of the Gadna (pre-military age youth battalions). The unit's function was to maintain Gar'inim ('nuclei'), or groups of youths who had united for the purpose of founding new settlements or joining existing ones, in the framework of youth movements. At the time, 17 year-olds were drafted along with these groups of youths in times of national emergency. From its inception, the Nahal included women in its ranks. The aim of the Nahal Gar'in was to provide its soldiers with extensive military capability as well as the basic tools for life on a new kibbutz or moshav. Since its establishment, The Nahal has helped found at least 108 new settlements and has assisted in the development of many more.

http://www1.idf.il/DOVER/site/mainpage.asp?sl=EN&id=4&unit=14976&srch=&bScope=True
 
America's "rough riders"


General:
The 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, better known as the "Rough Riders" is one of the most well-documented and famous volunteer fighting forces in American history. This page will provide the basic information on the organization, but will not attempt an in-depth account, as that has been published many times elsewhere.
Unit History:
The "Rough Riders" was formed from men from the western frontier of the United States - men who were used to life in the saddle and to the use of firearms - and from some eastern high-class young men who were athletic and also skilled in horsemanship and the use of guns...but for entirely different reasons. In addition there were men from almost everywhere else! The unit included miners, cowboys preachers, tradesmen, writers, professors, athletes, and clergymen. Remarkably, there were men from each of the forty-five states then in existence, the four territories and from fourteen countries! There were even sixty Native Americans on the roster. The unique combination reflected the interesting contrasts in one of the men who was one of the driving forces behind the unit – Theodore Roosevelt, the man who was initially the regiment’s lieutenant colonel and later its colonel.


http://www.spanamwar.com/rrhist.html
 
Noar Halutzi Lohe

The idea behind Noar Halutzi Lohe isn't really all that weird, most lunar and Martain colonies are likely to have a similar military sturcture. Read the 19th Century book listed below and you'll understand, it's about a day's reading, but is one of those essentials for anybody interested in history, like the Declaration of Idependance or the Communistist Manifesto.

http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/6640/zion/judenstaadt.html

The Jewish State
Theodor Herzl
1896
 
This is not strange but most people never heard of this unit

92nd Infantry Division
Worn from:
20 October 1918 - 28 November 1945.

Training (Inactive)

The Ninety-second Division, organized in October 1917 at Camp Funston, Kansas, was formed of African American soldiers from all states. Before
leaving for France in 1918, the Ninety-second was divided among several
camps with Dodge, Dix, and Meade containing the largest units. The buffalo was selected as the divisional insignia because it is said the Indians referred to African American soldiers as "Buffalo Soldiers." The nickname "Buffalo Division" was inherited from the 367th Infantry, one of the first units of the division organized.

Campaigns:
World War I (Meuse-Argonne, Lorraine 1918),

World War II (North Apennines, Po Valley).

Decorations:
Italian Croce al Merito di Guerre (streamer embroidered Italy).
 
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