Field Medical Training Battalion – East (FMTB-E) Class 24040 Annex A Practice Test

Echelon formations position elements along a diagonal to cover the flank and keep mutual fire support. A squad echelon refers to the entire squad arranged in a diagonal line, with the lead element at the front corner and the rest offset behind to one side. This setup gives overlapping fields of fire to both the front and the flank while keeping the squad coherent and able to maneuver quickly. It differs from a squad column, which is a straight line used for marching in narrow spaces, and from formations described for fire teams (like fire team column or fire team echelon), which apply to subelements rather than the whole squad. So, when the whole squad is arranged diagonally, that is the squad echelon.