The Squad

"Look, we know you're new to this command, but the army field manual is very clear on the subject of squad stereotype composition. Every squad must include: 1 quiet religious guy who goes insane, 1 maverick loose cannon who plays by his own rules and dies in a blaze of glory, 1 covert recon opperative with a dark past who at first betrays the team but then has a last minute crisis of conscience and nobly sacrifices himself for the greater good, 1 fresh faced new recruit who survives but loses his innocence and learns to become a man and 3 or 4 other guys who you don't care about so they can get brutally shot so you can show how serious the war is."

- Loading Ready Run makes it official.

War stories have a number of different levels of focus, from the global strategic level all the way down to squad tactics, and even the plights of individual soldiers on the battleground.

When the focus is at the smaller end of the scale, we get The Squad. Very often, this is a squad composed (like a Five Man Band) of interlocking character types or roles.

There are quite a few similarities with the types and roles of the Command Roster. The main difference is the Command Roster is a very specific combination of skills that may not be strictly military. The Squad may be a Badass Crew and have a Squad Nickname. If it's made up of women, it's an example of an Amazon Brigade.

Compare The Index Team. ---

Some of those character types and roles:
 * The Leader, who might be of several different types. If the leader is an Officer and A Gentleman, expect an Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough relation with a Sergeant Rock.
 * Colonel Badass or Majorly Awesome
 * The Neidermeyer
 * Ensign Newbie, in which case there will always be a Sergeant Rock present
 * Sergeant Rock
 * The shooter, often a
 * Cold Sniper
 * Friendly Sniper
 * One or more "Smart Guy" or smooth talker who can take any of the following roles:
 * Communications Officer
 * Cunning Linguist
 * The Engineer
 * The Social Expert
 * The Medic (sometimes doubles as The Smart Guy), sometimes as a Combat Medic
 * The Big Guy
 * The Point Man
 * The Sneaky Guy
 * Army Scout
 * Fragile Speedster
 * The Face
 * The Veteran
 * New Meat
 * The Quiet One
 * The Rizzo
 * Sad Clown
 * Southern Fried Private
 * The Squadette

If the story follows the characters through boot camp, or specialized training, expect to see Drill Sergeant Nasty make an appearance. If the story follows them after the war, expect at least one Shell Shocked Senior. -- Some The Squad series:
 * Band of Brothers
 * Black Sheep Squadron
 * Combat
 * Animorphs
 * Over There
 * The Rat Patrol
 * Tour Of Duty
 * Space Above and Beyond
 * The Unit
 * Gears of War
 * Halo ODST and Reach.
 * Clive Barker's Jericho
 * Killzone
 * Battlefield: Bad Company
 * Generation Kill
 * Exo Squad
 * Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles
 * Gaunts Ghosts of Warhammer 40000
 * Toshokan Sensou
 * Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
 * Valkyria Chronicles
 * Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Strikers
 * The Zone novels by James Rouch.
 * Simoun
 * Saving Private Ryan
 * Call of Duty
 * The Gold Eagle Books action-adventure series of the 1980's -- SOBS (Soldiers of Barrabas, a mercenary unit secretly employed by the US Government), and the anti-terrorist groups Phoenix Force and Able Team.
 * Team Fortress 2 has a squad consisting of deranged mercenaries and parodies of the above tropes.
 * Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault gives us a main character with a voice and a personality, as well as a distinctive squad to support him.
 * Ghost in The Shell (the Japanese-language title is really their official group designation)
 * The Black Company
 * All Quiet On the Western Front
 * World in Conflict
 * Dawn of War 2