Escalón rodante

Question

Hello! I'm translating a story by a spanish civil war pilot and got stuck on the sentence:

"En la escuadrilla estaban los pilotos, el plegador de paracaídas, los armeros... etc. luego el “escalón rodante” con las chicas de servicio, los cocineros, oficinistas...etc."

Does anybody know what “escalón rodante” means? Is it an official name of a group of servitorial staff or a sort of term invented by the author?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The post does not mention the inverted commas of the text

En la escuadrilla estaban los pilotos, el plegador de paracaídas, los armeros... etc. luego el “escalón rodante” con las chicas de servicio, los cocineros, oficinistas...etc. las escuadrillas tenían una dotación de alrededor de cien personas. Normalmente, si había tiempo, salía el escalón rodante por la noche; nosotros salíamos al amanecer y cuando llegábamos ya estaba todo preparado, habían buscado el alojamiento, el suministro alimenticio, los camiones-cuba estaban listos etc.

So I think Francisco Viñals uses the term informally. Maybe the formal military term correspnding to that group would be Logistics, but he says that como las escuadrillas eran pocas iban a todos lados. I think it means they were constantly changing locations and so did Logistics.

Now, escalón is a frontline small military group . (4. m. Mil. Una de las fracciones en que se dividen las tropas de un frente de combate y que se colocan tácticamente con intervalos y a distancias regulares. DRAE)

And rodante as opposed to flying, because they were ground support.

So, in my opinion, escalón rodante in this context would a be a small logistics group working in the frontline to provide ground support to airforce squads.

Maybe someone could give the English name for that kind of group.

Loved your explanation, thanks. - gone, Jan 26, 2011

Excelente explicación. :-) - Gekkosan, Jan 26, 2011

Answer 2

I agree strongly with Mediterruneo's reply. In one google hit I found this:

El “escalón rodante” quedaba al descubierto; tractores, camiones, plataformas, ambulancías, laboratorio fotográficos, extintores, y en un rincón, se situaba el campo de tiro para regulacíon de armas. "Revista de Aeronuatica y Astronautica", Enero 1980, Página 93

I strongly believe that in the 19th century and before, these would be part of the group referred to as "camp followers". But not in the modern day perhaps defamatory sense of the term. To put that into a more modern context, I would refer to them today as "the civilian support group".

There is further information to be found on the web (I found some documentation on Bing that does not show under Google), that appears to indicate that it is a ground based military support group, the way Mediterrunio explained it. I think his explanation - Gekkosan, Jan 26, 2011

..makes the most sense, when all the meager information available is put together. - Gekkosan, Jan 26, 2011

Now it makes sense that part of ¨las chicas de servicio¨ . I was wondering what those girls really did. - mediterrunio, Jan 26, 2011

Answer 3

Sounds to me like "boarding ladder " or "boarding stairs" on wheels.

Answer 4

Escalón can also mean echelon in military terms. I don't know what a "rolling echelon" is, though.

Right, but in the context provided, it definitely refers to a group of staff in the military, led by an officer, who apparently provide supporting services. - Gekkosan, Jan 26, 2011

Answer 5

I wonder if they are referring to the fact that those are constantly changing, (kind of faceless helper people) maybe in English - a revolving door situation? What do you think?

Answer 6

From what I can find on Internet, I'd agree that it is the name given by the (Spanish?) armed forces, in particular the Air Force, to a group of servitorial or support staff. I do not think it is an invention of the author, because I could find several instances of the term being used, always in the same manner. But I could not find a proper definition, and I am not familiar with the term myself.

Answer 7

sliding scale

Answer 8

It seems so, but I've never heard about it, I would translate it literally as rolling ladder or somethign like that.