Military Word Usage Confusion: Troop or Soldier?

[HawaiianShirts]

(Please don't let this turn into a Fratch. I just want a general consensus of opinion.)

I'm slightly bothered by something I've noticed recently. In news reports and articles, I see mentions of various world military forces and their activities. These usually include the word "troops." And it is usually misused.

"Troop" is a collective noun (though I'm not sure that's the technical term for it). It refers to a group, multiple members composing a single unit. Click here for an online definition.

Yet when professional writers and reporters use the word, they'll say things like, "One hundred US troops were deployed to the Middle East," and "The number of US troops killed in combat this year increased by five this afternoon," and so on. By definition, that means one hundred battalions of soldiers were deployed and five platoons were killed, but their usage indicates that by "troop" they want to mean "single person in military service."

And it seems to me that this word is filtering into everyday conversations with this erroneous usage.

So what I want to ask of someone who has served or is serving in any branch of the military is this: "Are you a troop? Why or why not?"

[ArcticChicken]

While that may be the technical definition, words evolve.

"Troop" as a unit is an archaic usage, now, and for the last while, "troops" means many individual members of the military.

[Barracuda]

"Troop" is also used to refer to cavalry units, which is what most armored units are still called. For example, a Bradley Fighting Vehicle unit would be called something like D Troop, --th Battalion, ---th Cavalry Regiment, instead of something like D Company, --th Battalion, --st Infantry Division.