John --

I'm in thorough agreement. You need to know what was happening on the other side of the firing line.

I once dreamed of creating a collection of ORs. My first project was a bookshelf that would hold all of them; my first real problem was that the lady of the house wasn't excited about all these heavy black books taking up wall space. China, vases, framed pictures and flowers were much more appealing to her.

I put that project aside for a few years.

Then ORs became available on CD. To my delight, I discovered they're easier and quicker to search than the printed volumes. I could also purchased a CD that included other reference sources besides the ORs, such as Dyer's Compendiumn. That made it possible to accomplish a lot in short order, including identification of Federal units as you mentioned.

You can always search just the volume(s) needed at the moment. Cost should be about the same as a single volume, and (of course) storage space is minimal.

My wife is happy with her china cabinet, vases, framed pictures and flowers; I've got a CD that quickly answers many research needs. If only all life's other problems could be resolved so easily!