1). From what I know of callsigns, in the ground forces they don't use individual nicknames for each member of a unit like we sometimes see in fiction - instead, each group (squad, platoon, whatever) is assigned a callsign, and the individuals within each of those units receive a number or something similar (such as Rogue four, who would be the fourth member of the force using the callsign Rogue). Is this information correct?
American ground forces organize unit call signs at the company level; everything above company level tends to be just headquarters call signs. For example, my first unit was Headquarters & Headquarters Troop (call sign Headhunter), 4th Squadron (call sign Longknife), 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (call sign Rifles). So my troop/company commander (a Captain) was Headhunter 06. We had a Colt Platoon attached to us (Colt Platoons being a bunch of artillery forward observers group together as a sort of ad hoc infantry platoon), so the Colt Platoon Leader (a First Lieutenant) was Headhunter 16. The Troop/company First Sergeant (a First Sergeant) was Headhunter 07, while the Colt Platoon Sergeant (a Sergeant First Class) was Headhunter 17.
Meanwhile, the Squadron/battalion Commander (a Lieutenant Colonel) was Longknife 06 and the Regimental/brigade commander (a Colonel) was Rifles 06. But there was no Longknife 16 or Rifles 16 or anything like that because those are platoon-level sub-command call signs.
2.) Also, how do you refer to different positions (like company commander, squad leader, etc.) on the comms net? It was discussed in the thread I mentioned in my OP, but the format got a bit jumbled in my mind and made it hard to understand - could you tell me how that works as well?
As I touched on above, the American standard is:
Element 06: Commanding Officer
Element 07: Senior Enlisted Leader
Element 01: Administrative Officer (aka S1)
Element 02: Intelligence & Security Officer (S2)
Element 03: Operations Officer (S3)
Element 04: Logistics Officer (S4)
Element 05: Executive Officer
Additional elements can be added to call sign as well. If it's a platoon level, you simply replace the "0" with the platoon number. So the commander of First Platoon is Element 16, the commander of Second Platoon is Element 26,
ad infinitum. The first assistant Ops Officer is Element 03A, the second assistant Ops Officer is 03B, etc. The Ops Sergeant Major (usually a Master Sergeant at the battalion level, and a full Sergeant Major at the brigade and higher) is either Element 037 or Element 03N, depending on unit ("N" standing for
Non Commissioned Officer).
As a member of the S2 for the Longknife and Saber elements, my personal call signs throughout my career were Longknife 02D ("D" for driver, the low man on the totem pole), Saber 02G ("G" for gunner, as a junior NCO), and Saber 02N.
However, these rules are specifically for the unit's internal comms. Aircraft in particular are assigned completely different sets of call signs, called ATC call signs (ATC = Air Traffic Control). These are used when aircraft are entering or departing an airfield and used when transiting through another unit's airspace, or for coordinating at high levels (ie, division or corps level). ATC call signs are not assigned to individual pilots, though how they're assigned changes depending on the unit. At one point, we assigned them to specific aircraft (so that, for example, aircraft tail number 001 would always be Crash 22) and at another they were assigned to specific mission windows (so that, for example, the third flight of the day would always be Crash 22 regardless of which pilots or aircraft were in the air). So in another post, someone mentioned that aircraft swapped Chevy and Ford call signs? Those were probably ATC call signs.