The Military Thread

Thanks

What is with South Korean military?

Trying not to generalize, but has there been far too many cases of this happening?

Yeah. Cases of bullying and torturing those engaged in national service is happening around a lot lately. Though there are cases where professional soldiers are on the receiving end.

A big case prior to this is a shootout in the South Korean part of the DMZ when a South Korean soldier just suddenly snapped and gunned down five of his comrades.

edited 31st Oct '14 1:25:06 AM by Ominae

The joke's in poor taste, but... "Bitches I KNOW you hear me thnappin'."

@Greenmantle

Belatedly, Happy Birthday Royal Marines! Another British institution older than America itself Huzzah!

Any excuse to post this:

Royal Marines VS USMC. Who wins?

Depends the field of battle. A drinking contest would be just as rough as a fight.

I'm sure they've got joint exercises/wargames and an actual tally of victories and losses. It ain't battle, but it's the next best thing, yes?

If you can find an actual score.

The special forces units from all over also have international competitions annually.

IIRC, most Western militaries ignore those, or don't send their best. Hence why the same Chinese SWAT teams always win.

Royal Marines, they have better facepaint and berets

Heheh, well, they are Commandos. You have to have cool facepaint if you're a Commando.

Honestly, there is a little part of me that indulges the fantasy of how the beret was chose as uniform headgear:

"I want you to go find the weakest, silliest looking hat ever! That will be part of our uniform!"

"But sir! I don't understand?"

"It will be a measure of how tough and hardened our soldiers are. When they can make the most stupid hat ever look intimidating, we've done well."

And by all that is holy it works.◊

Nah, the stupidest looking hats are bearskins with chinstraps that go under the lower lip.◊

It's hard to make those look intimidating, certainly.

It's meant to stop a cavalryman knocking it off with a sword swipe.

You could simply not wear a hat?

Some South Korean units' number one dress has to be seen to be believed.

A uniform without a hat? What???

The Royal Armoured Corps were the first British units to adopt the beret, I think. They reckoned it wasa bit girly, but at least it stayed on in a tank and it was nice and squashy and helped with the constant inadvertand headbutting of tank-parts due to the godawful suspension.

Of course, they should have realised that the easiest way to make a beret extremely manly is to make it out of khaki serge and put a woolly thistle-shaped pompom on the top.

edited 31st Oct '14 12:32:53 PM by InverurieJones

And then they took the pom-pom off and created something widely derided as the "Cap, Ridiculous".

How hard is it to break one of those in?

US regulations on proper wear visually.◊

Seems like it would be a little uncomfortable or would move around a bunch until it's settled in.

Royal Marines also get points for having the best beach assault craft at 4:45

edited 31st Oct '14 1:08:41 PM by LeGarcon

Wear it in the shower once and you're good to go. Tam O'Shanters are a bit harder, being made of stiffer material, but once you've been rained on a few times, it settles.

edited 31st Oct '14 1:22:22 PM by InverurieJones

Well, at least the British berets don't look like radioactive-green rats.

That's actually pretty cool. I hope that was more fun for the Marines instead of a burden.

I am strangely fascinated by how you guys figure stuff like this out. Soldiers are the best at jimmy rigging, but there are just some things when you hear how to fix them, you kinda wonder what crap they went through in order to figure that out.

edited 31st Oct '14 1:28:08 PM by Gabrael

Hey, at least berets look better than the giant-ass hats the Russians wear. I still think the best piece of military headgear - aside from the helmet - is the humble side cap.