The Military Thread

Yea, Simo Hayha is basically the most badass sniper to ever actually exist. Hundreds of kills, eventually he gets shot in the face. With an explosive bullet. Whats he do? Shoots the guy that shot HIM dead and then go to the hospital. The Russians say it's a coincidence that the war ended they day he went back into the field, but we know that's a lie.

He wasn't called White Death for no reason.

edited 4th Apr '15 9:41:22 AM by Joesolo

I'm baaaaaaack

And he did all that with not only nothing but iron sights (he was offered a scoped rifle, but declined in part due to the risks from blowing his cover with reflected sunlight from the lens), but with an outdated rifle model (a Finnish-made variant of the Russian-made Mosin-Nagant).

Fun fact: Apparently, "White Death" in Russian is also the Russian name for "sugar".

edited 4th Apr '15 9:51:55 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Hunters were historically in high demand as light-infantry scouts, where woodcraft, independence, initiative, and marksmanship were especially needed. Hence the German light-infantry "Jaegers" (literally, "hunters"), the French "Chasseurs" (ditto), and the like.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

The Saber Ninja.

There is a long tradition of recruiting hunters, poachers, game wardens, and the like for the military. They often serve as skirmishers, scouts, and sharp shooters. I recall reading a while back that the German Air force of WWI preferred to recruit fighter pilots who had hunted because they tended to be better shots because of habits developed while hunting.

Hell the Germans had a type of light infantry that were straight up called Jäger or hunter in German. They were hired from professional foresters and hunters that worked the various estates of the upper class and many were considered far better then the common troop. The American and British equivalent would be Rangers. Not modern rangers but the traditional groups they descended from.

edited 4th Apr '15 10:21:43 AM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

Kinda offtop, but still. It is not. There is just a saying that "Salt is white death, sugar is sweet death", optionally "caviar is black death" gets added =) Damn s

edited 4th Apr '15 10:47:50 AM by Pz_VI

Wrong thread? Otherwise that is very confusing.

Who watches the watchmen?

She was talking about "white death" meaning "sugar" in russian.

I'm baaaaaaack

Jagers are not to be confused with Jaegers. The biggest difference between the two is that Jaegers can't fit into APCs.

They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!

I'm still amused they named skyscraper-sized robots after light infantry.

The logical next step is the Grenadier, because god alone knows what something named after the shock infantry would be scaled to.

edited 4th Apr '15 11:28:10 AM by SabresEdge

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Four Jaegers fused together voltron style.

And now the damned British Grenadiers song is in my head again. CURSE YOU SABER!

Who watches the watchmen?

Huh. Then someone should fix the relevant parts of UsefulNotes.Simo Hayha, and whichever other articles that mention him and his nickname, to point that out.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

And because of those talents above, Hunters and Gamekeepers were often part of the very first ad-hoc Special Forces groups, back in the late 19th Century.

edited 4th Apr '15 1:55:20 PM by Greenmantle

Keep Rolling On

Hell, there's a reason the traditional sniper's "walking hedge" outfit is called a Ghillie Suit.

"Yup. That tasted purple."

Add in they were the early users of the rifle and mastered its quirks and mechanics of it shooting to boot.

Deadbeat; Something about a mad gillie Scotsman dressed as a bush :P

edited 4th Apr '15 2:11:35 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

Thanks for the answers, folks.

And of course I know about Simo Hayha, I mean come on, you can't spend enough time here and not to know about that guy. I wasn't just sure if he was an odd case or not.

And Jaeger as light infantry unit...interesting.

Hmm....speaking of poachers, I assume that the traps for animals would work just as well for humans, yes? I guess Vietnam proves that.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Depends. Rabbit snare won't do much good on a soldier. Bear trap or tiger pit though...

I'm baaaaaaack

Robert Hite, copilot of Doolittle raid aircraft "Bat Out of Hell" and last of the 8 who were captured by the Japanese, passed away on March 29

With his death, only 2 of the 80 who participated in the raid are still alive, Colonel Richard E. Cole, copilot of aircraft No. 1, and Staff Sergeant David J. Thatcher, gunner of aircraft No. 7.

All your safe space are belong to Trump

I'm more surprised that any of them are still alive, actually.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

We do seem to have hit the point where Second World War veterans are dying in droves. They're all in their nineties at the very least.

With cannon shot and gun blast smash the alien. With laser beam and searing plasma scatter the alien to the stars.

And that's where peak mortality lays...

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Which is actually pretty good. Most folks would assume peak mortality for that generation would have been in the early 1940s.

I'll see myself out.

I never considered a military career, but recently I've been exploring my options (with at least two years until I graduate, so I have plenty of time to think) and one job that looked interesting was that of Engineer Officer in the navy. At this point it's just a far-fetched fantasy, and I have no idea if I have the skills for it or if it would make me happy – but like I said, I've got time.

Thinking about what a career in the navy would mean, my biggest worry is being on a mission and not being able to go home in an emergency.

For those tropers who are or have been in active service, how do you deal with this kind of thing? Ever had to miss a family funeral/deathbed/other important stuff because of a deployment?

And another, less personal question: why do militaries, as a rule, have such a sharp dividing line between officers and enlisted personnel? In most organisations, talent, experience, and extra training can get you promoted all the way to the boardroom (this rarely happens in practice, but at least it's possible on paper). In the military, an enlisted man can only get promoted so far – the higher-ranking positions are reserved for those who started as officers. Is there a practical reason for this, or is it just a holdover from an age of much sharper class distinctions?

Mache dich, mein Herze, rein...

There seem to be programs where you can go from enlisted to an officer.

I'm baaaaaaack

@MidnightRambler:

• Point 1: there is a thing called "emergency leave". In the US military, servicemembers earn 2.5 days of leave per month for a total of 30 days a year. Some days can carry over. However, even if you are short, the commander can authorize an advance of up to 5-10 days depending on the emergency. If you have a sever enough family emergency you won't be denied unless you're in active combat. Even then, there are ways to get emergency leave and even pay for transportation as soon as the fighting stops.

• Point 2: Even in the civlian sector, a CEO or executive VP won't be firends with the dude/dudette working on the shop floor. Yes, it's a holdover from classical times blah,blahblah... But fraternizzation is a bad thing. An officer is a generalist, tactics is their wheelhouse. NCO's are the people managers and even they are supposed to maintain a professional distance.
  • There are programs (The US Army's is called "Green to Gold", the Navy has "Seaman to Admrial") for enlisted troops. Any servicemember can "drop an OCS" packet if they have the college degree and are below the age of 31. Even the age can be waived in some cases.
  • The Warrant Officer program is for enlisted troops to become specialtiy track officers. A warrant officer focuses on tactics or maintance on one specific area (the Patriot Missile system or flying the Apache). At the rank of CW 2, they are commissioned officers who work in their areas using their knowledge. For aircraft the US Army has "Street to seat": common people can apply to flight school and be flying in about a year. The Air Force does not have Warrant Officers.

All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48

The Marine Corps has similar programs as the Army with exception to the pilots and Warrants. In the Marines there is a high regard for officers who were first enlisted rather then some guy from college or someone trained at an academy.

There is a little bit of old world classism in the system but nowhere as bad as it used to be. Officers used to be limited to the Gentry but that changed to individuals with at least a college education. The reasoning behind that is that individuals who have put in the time to become educated via college or academy have the personal discipline required of an officer. Also being educated the thought is they can handle making the tough decisions an officer may have to make. The change started around the time of the Napoleonic wars when some militaries began to slowly move away from that system because of the rampant problems that became highly visible at the time. Other militaries had already been steadily moving away from such a system before the wars.

Ironically Napoleon's Armies had troops who could go from enlisted to officer. The English Army at the time such a thing was rather rare and such individuals were treated poorly by their peers in rank.

Who watches the watchmen?