But yesterday the department acknowledged the figures were for any first vehicle on the scene -- including ladder trucks or battalion chief vehicles -- not just engines, as Mr. Gribbon said last week.
It's very much focused on that multiplayer aspect too, with seven-on-seven tank battles and a big battalion of vehicles to choose from, according to military taste.
By the end of 1965, the strength of Group 559 had grown to 24,400 personnel organised in six battalions of motor vehicles, one battalion of boats, 18 battalions of combat engineers, four battalions of anti-aircraft artillery and guard units.
Similarly, the car-mounted radio repeater systems in battalion chief's vehicles are more powerful than they used to be.
About 150 yards away, at the other end of the square, one of the battalion's armored vehicles was in the process of wrapping a metal chain around the statue of Saddam Hussein, preparing to pull it down.
Danish and Belgian battalions are checking vehicles more vigorously, he said, and last week the peacekeepers began to use a computer at a checkpoint to register who goes in and out.
The solution is to install radios tuned to the Police Department's Special Operations Division frequency in every fire battalion chief's vehicle, and radios that can switch to any borough's Fire Department frequency in the cars used by police emergency service superior officers.
A full battalion includes six launcher vehicles with a total of 24 missiles, plus command-and-control and long-range radar detection vehicles.
Such vehicles, my battalion commander friend noted drolly, were "not conducive to social engagements with Iraqis".
South & South-East: The 2nd Division, with support from one artillery unit (the 36th Artillery Regiment), one artillery battalion, one tank-armoured vehicles battalion, one anti-aircraft gun battalion, and one anti-tank weapons company, were ordered to take Da Nang Air Base and the ARVN 1st Brigade Headquarters, then capture the city itself.
