I don't think people realize just how many troops that is. When a battalion deploys, they will usually deploy half or the majority of its troops. This is usually about a few hundred. The entire regiment is made up of multiple batallions so you get a few thousand troops and only a portion of them deploy. 20,000 troops is more than lots of bases have total. That is 50% of all of Camp Pendleton, the biggest Marine base. This is an absolutely insane amount of troops.
Exactly. For additional perspective, one army infantry division is about 10,000 soldiers on the books. So this is nearly 3 full strength divisions; the National Guard has 8 divisions in total, 19 in the whole army last I checked.
I don't think people realize just how many troops that is. When a battalion deploys, they will usually deploy half or the majority of its troops. This is usually about a few hundred. The entire regiment is made up of multiple batallions so you get a few thousand troops and only a portion of them deploy. 20,000 troops is more than lots of bases have total. That is 50% of all of Camp Pendleton, the biggest Marine base. This is an absolutely insane amount of troops.
Exactly. For additional perspective, one army infantry division is about 10,000 soldiers on the books. So this is nearly 3 full strength divisions; the National Guard has 8 divisions in total, 19 in the whole army last I checked.