>>Hey, you said "a troop"! Then it does have a singular! So, how many soldiers was that?
>
>Yep, there I go again... :)

The reason I rant about using "troop" (which is a group noun, akin to team, crew, ensemble) to denote a soldier is that it's the same depersonalizing language that's usually aimed at the enemy. Which is sort of weird, but not hard to explain. The soldier is the guy you see on recruitment ads. Troops are those who get deployed, or return horizontally.