History Main / DoAnythingSoldier

* A slightly different example from ''WorldInConflict'': [[NonEntityGeneral 2nd Lt. (later Lt. and Cpt.) Parker]] is originally an infantry commander, yet throughout the game, he is given command not only over infantry squads, but also armored units, AA batteries, heavy artillery batteries and even attack helicopters in one mission, and in much greater quantities than you would expect for such a junior officer. The ExpansionPack features a different PlayerCharacter but he also comes from the infantry corner, yet is on one occasion given control over ''artillery batteries''.

A form of EconomyCast. Often a special case of TheMainCharactersDoEverything. Usually requires the character to have a UniversalDriversLicense.

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' suffers from this, notably in the later seasons. Justified, in that by that point they have too few people left to split the work, but the fact that the show has no Marine among the main cast really shows in how often the main characters have to go outside their specialization.

* Harm from ''Series/{{JAG}}'' who, despite being a lawyer, seems to be able to perform every single job in the US Navy; from flying a fighter jet to parachuting out of a helicopter with a squad of marines. He can also do every job in the Marine Corps, going undercover as a Force Recon Gunnery Sargent, later being complimented as a "credit to the uniform".

-->-- '''Mike Nelson''' regarding ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'', ''{{Podcast/Rifftrax}}''

[[AC:{{Comics}}]]
* In ''GIJoe'' it was typical to see characters doing things they shouldn't have been expected to, starting with General Hawk (the leader) doubling as the Surface-to-Air-Missile operator.
** Lady Jaye and the Baroness, both intelligence experts, both found themselves in the backseat of dogfighting jets at one point.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

* The page quote is elicited in the ''{{Podcast/Rifftrax}}'' version of ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'' when John Connor simply starts flying an abandoned helicopter in the middle of a skirmish. This means that he has training as a chopper pilot... despite not being one of the Resistance's chopper pilots.
** Though, ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' mentions that Sarah shacked up with whoever she could to learn military stuff off for John. [[CrazyPrepared Flying a helicopter could easily have been one of the skills]].

[[AC:Literature]]

* Specifically {{invoked|Trope}} in the ''ComicBook/XWingSeries'', as Wedge Antilles wanted pilots who could double as commandos in a pinch. Therefore when re-forming Rogue Squadron in the eponymous book, if given the choice between two pilots of equal skill, he always picked the one with useful ground-based skills as well. Done the other way around in the Wraith Squadron books, where Wedge wanted commandos who could fly fighters as well.
* In ''[[GauntsGhosts Ghostmaker]]'', the Royal Volpone Bluebloods are an elite SuperSoldier force that practices regularly with every conceivable discipline of war they might be expected to use in addition to their standard shock trooper know-how. This allows them to, for instance, storm an enemy's fortified bunker and then seize and use the artillery guns on top with pinpoint accuracy. About the one thing they can't handle is stealth, which is fortunately the specialty of their rival regiment, the eponymous Ghosts -- near to every Tanith Ghost regardless of role is accomplished at stealth, tracking, and survival. When they team up in the novel's climax, they perform a next-to-impossible feat by pushing a force of about sixty into the enemy's line in the middle of a torrential storm, running roughshod over an entire army with their interlocking skills.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* ''Series/SpaceAboveAndBeyond'' featured space fighter pilots who also doubled as land troops for some reason.
* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' suffered from this notably in the later seasons. Justified, in that by that point they have too few people left to split the work, but the fact that the show has no Marine among the main cast really shows in how often the main characters have to go outside their specialization.
* In Creator/KenBurns' TVDocumentary ''[[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar The Civil War]]'' there were two soldiers - Elisha Hunt Rhodes on the North's side and Sam Watkins on the South - who seemed to be at every major battle of the war in a variety of duties. Rhodes went from Private to Colonel during the war. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] inasmuch as these were real people.
* Harm from ''Series/{{JAG}}'' who, despite being a lawyer, seems to be able to perform every single job in the US Navy; from flying a fighter jet to parachuting out of a helicopter with a squad of marines.
** He can also do every job in the Marine Corps, going undercover as a Force Recon Gunnery Sargent, later being complimented as a "credit to the uniform".
* Pollo and Vorenus on ''{{Series/Rome}}'' went from infantrymen to commanding a squad of German cavalry in between episodes. That was quite frankly the ''most'' believable part [[TheGump about their career]].

[[AC:{{Manga}} and {{Anime}}]]
* ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' does this often: In the side stories Reinhard's and Kircheis' first assignment after graduating from military school was driving a scout vehicle in the ground forces. Then an assignment as chief navigator (Reinhard) and security officer on a destroyer, a stint as military police investigators, and a cruiser captaincy for Reinhard with Kircheis tagging along as security officer again. Later, when Reinhard was a commodore commanding a flotilla of 100 vessels, he personally took to the field during a ground assault on an enemy base and captured their commander. In the main series, Reuentahl and Mittermeyer don powered armour and personally participate in the capture of Ovlesser and the station he commands, even though they were already admirals at the time.

[[AC:Videogames]]

* In VideoGame/{{Xenonauts}}, as there are no character classes as such, every soldier can perform all combat roles. This is somewhat averted with the aliens, some of whom specialise in particular tasks (Harridans are snipers, Reapers are close combat specialists etc.).

[[AC:TabletopGames]]
* More or less the point of the Dawn Caste in ''{{Exalted}}'', who - given time and the right Charms - can be a tactical genius, Musashi-level swordsman, knife-thrower extraordinaire and kung fu master who can put an arrow through your eye from the [[WeirdMoon Silver Chair of Night]]. And that's just with their Caste abilities; when you consider their other abilities, they can also be guerrillas, ninjas, cavalrymen, sailors or even sorcerers.

[[AC:WebOriginal]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

** [[ModernWarfare "RAMIREZ! ]][[MemeticMutation Do everything!'']]

* ''LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' does this often: In the side stories Reinhard's and Kircheis' first assignment after graduating from military school was driving a scout vehicle in the ground forces. Then an assignment as chief navigator (Reinhard) and security officer on a destroyer, a stint as military police investigators, and a cruiser captaincy for Reinhard with Kircheis tagging along as security officer again. Later, when Reinhard was a commodore commanding a flotilla of 100 vessels, he personally took to the field during a ground assault on an enemy base and captured their commander. In the main series, Reuentahl and Mittermeyer don powered armour and personally participate in the capture of Ovlesser and the station he commands, even though they were already admirals at the time.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* Although averted in Modern Military, most countries require that each soldier receive basic training with guns, organization, etc. Just because your job is to ship rations doesn't mean you won't get attacked after all. The degree to which soldiers get "allrounder" training varies from country to country.

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' suffered from this notably in the later seasons. Justified, in that by that point they have too few people left to split the work, but the fact that the show has no Marine among the main cast really shows in how often the main characters have to go outside their specialization.

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' suffered from this notably in the later seasons. Justified, in that by that point they have too few people left to split the work.

* Although averted in Modern Military, most countries require that each soldier receive basic training with guns, organization, etc. Just because your job is to ship rations doesn't mean you won't get attacked after all.

* In the Soviet campaign of the original ''CallOfDuty'', you played as an infantryman, then at one point there was a tank mission justified with a blurb about lack of tank crews leading to your reassignment, and then back on foot for the finale. ''Call of Duty 2'' wisely avoided this by making it clear you played as a different character in the tank missions, then ''World at War'' did the same thing as the first.

* Despite the cast of ''DarwinsSoldiers'' having a [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters very diverse spectrum]] of backstories and skills listed on their character sheets, in practice almost every character except Dr. Shelton did very little except kill lots of enemies in one way or another. Many objectives in the role-play boiled down to either "cover Shelton from the bad guys until he finishes whatever needs to be done," or "rescue Shelton from the bad guys so he can do what needs to be done." This is because Shelton was one of the few characters who wasn't gun-proficient, so to compensate his author always made him doing something technical or scientific or whatnot.

* Somewhat TruthInTelevision, at least for some armies. The [[SemperFi USMC]] takes the position that every marine is a rifleman and every officer is a platoon leader. So everyone receives that training, even if it has nothing to do with their "real" job -- it doesn't matter if you're a tank crewman or a fighter pilot, you're still trained as an infantryman. This is apparently typical of marines elsewhere too. As Creator/RudyardKipling put it, "[[http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_soldiersailor.htm Soldier an' Sailor too]].
** Likewise for Army Rangers. Everyone knows how to field strip and use (accurately) several different rifles, machine guns, pistols, sniper rifles, and enemy weapons (a la AK-47). And they have to qualify with said weapons multiple times a year.
** The Army itself gets in on this, too. Everyone from mechanics to computer techs go through basic infantry training, albeit a shorter period of it than those who are infantry by trade.
** Applies to several Navies too. For example, Irish naval recruits are given some basic infantry training and later in their careers have the opportunity to serve with Army units on peacekeeping missions.
*** The Royal Navy fielded a light infantry division during WWI. A third of it was composed of Marines, but the rest were seamen and naval officers.
* Most soldiers from a combat arm of an army, whether they cock a cannon or drive a tank, can reasonably expected to know the rudiments of infantry combat as a side-effect of either fighting or supporting them. This doesn't mean they will be good at it.
** In fact, due to the asymetrical nature of modern warfare, it's common for all military personnel, including SoldiersAtTheRear, to be given some degree of combat training. Additional training might be given before a deployment on a mission with a particularly high risk of enemy attack.
** It's also necessary due to emergency situations. If you're in a vehicle, whether that's land, sea, or air, there may come a time where you have to bail out and fight on foot until either rescue comes, or you slog it to safety yourself. WWII tank crew were commonly trained to operate their pintle-mounted machine guns from the ground in support of infantry.
** In a number of cases, such as Wake Island, the Philippines, and German East Africa, aircrew and sailors who had lost their planes and ships were pressed into service as infantry or gunners. Marine defense battalions such as the one at Wake ''had no infantry'', being entirely composed of artillerists and machine-gunners, and struggled to field riflemen at all -- even though they were expected to defend entire islands all on their lonesomes.
* The [[IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles IDF]] provides a strange example: some soldiers can be exempted from carrying arms, but ''everyone'' has to learn to fire an M-16 during boot camp. This includes volunteers[[note]]Yes, Israel has mandatory service, but some people are exempted with the option to volunteer; the difference between volunteering and normal service is that it’s shorter (if you were exempted for mental reasons you serve for one year, and two if it was for medical reasons), unless the volunteer specifically asks to extend it, and that unlike normal soldiers, processing their request takes ''ages'', as the IDF has to find them a role that their physical/mental issues won’t impede on.[[/note]], even though they are always exempted from bearing arms (as well as doing pretty much anything else), but they can ask for their exemption to be revoked.

* Averted in ''PlanetSide''. A soldier can only use things he's certified in; meaning a soldier certified in driving tanks probably won't be certified in piloting bombers. Once you reach a certain BattleRank however, you usually have enough certification points to do almost anything.

* In ''GI Joe'' it was typical to see characters doing things they shouldn't have been expected to, starting with General Hawk (the leader) doubling as the Surface-to-Air-Missile operator.

* In the GI Joe cartoons, it was typical to see Army infantrymen such as Snake-Eyes or Duke flying the Skystriker fighter jet; Snake-Eyes even had his own livery on his plane.

* Somewhat TruthInTelevision, at least for some armies. The [[SemperFi USMC]] takes the position that every marine is a rifleman and every officer is a platoon leader. So everyone recieves that training, even if it has nothing to do with their "real" job -- it doesn't matter if you're a tank crewman or a fighter pilot, you're still trained as an infantryman. This is apparently typical of marines elsewhere too. As Creator/RudyardKipling put it, "[[http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_soldiersailor.htm Soldier an' Sailor too]].

* In KenBurns' TVDocumentary ''[[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar The Civil War]]'' there were two soldiers - Elisha Hunt Rhodes on the North's side and Sam Watkins on the South - who seemed to be at every major battle of the war in a variety of duties. Rhodes went from Private to Colonel during the war. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] inasmuch as these were real people.

* In KenBurns' TVDocumentary ''[[UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar The Civil War]]'' there were two soldiers - Elisha Hunt Rhodes on the North's side and Sam Watkins on the South - who seemed to be at every major battle of the war in a variety of duties. Rhodes went from Private to Colonel during the war. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] inasmuch as these were real people.

* In KenBurns' TVDocumentary ''[[AmericanCivilWar The Civil War]]'' there were two soldiers - Elisha Hunt Rhodes on the North's side and Sam Watkins on the South - who seemed to be at every major battle of the war in a variety of duties. Rhodes went from Private to Colonel during the war. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] inasmuch as these were real people.

** It's also necessary due to emergency situations. If you're in a vehicle, whether that's land, sea, or air, there may come a time where you have to bail out and fight on foot until either rescue comes, or you slog it to safety yourself.
** In a number of cases, such as Wake Island, aircrew (lacking planes) were pressed into service as infantry.

* The [[IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles IDF]] provides a strange example: some soldiers can be exempted from carrying arms, but ''everyone'' has to learn to fire an M-16 during boot camp. This includes volunteers[[hottip:*:Yes, Israel has mandatory service, but some people are exempted with the option to volunteer; the difference between volunteering and normal service is that it’s shorter (if you were exempted for mental reasons you serve for one year, and two if it was for medical reasons), unless the volunteer specifically asks to extend it, and that unlike normal soldiers, processing their request takes ''ages'', as the IDF has to find them a role that their physical/mental issues won’t impede on.]], even though they are always exempted from bearing arms (as well as doing pretty much anything else), but they can ask for their exemption to be revoked.

* Pollo and Vorenus on ''{{Rome}}'' went from infantrymen to commanding a squad of German cavalry in between episodes. That was quite frankly the ''most'' believable part [[TheGump about their career]].

-->-- '''Mike Nelson''' regarding ''TerminatorSalvation'', ''{{Podcast/Rifftrax}}''

* The page quote is elicited in the ''{{Podcast/Rifftrax}}'' version of ''TerminatorSalvation'' when John Connor simply starts flying an abandoned helicopter in the middle of a skirmish. This means that he has training as a chopper pilot... despite not being one of the Resistance's chopper pilots.
** Though, ''Terminator 2'' mentions that Sarah shacked up with whoever she could to learn military stuff off for John. [[CrazyPrepared Flying a helicopter could easily have been one of the skills]].

-->'''Mike Nelson''' regarding ''{{Franchise.Terminator}}: Salvation'', ''{{Podcast/Rifftrax}}''

* The page quote is elicited in the ''{{Podcast/Rifftrax}}'' version of ''{{Franchise/Terminator}}: Salvation'' when John Connor simply starts flying an abandoned helicopter in the middle of a skirmish. This means that he has training as a chopper pilot... despite not being one of the Resistance's chopper pilots.