Blowout soon fellow Stalker
Almost looks like the 6B47 but not exactly.
Are you sure that's a Russian helmet? None of their other gear is Russian.
Oh really when?
I don't know what Nuttfancy is. Sounds like a granola bar marketed to cats.
The law in the night
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Expect one hour reviews over things that could be said in 5 minutes.
I thought it was a reference because there was a time he worked as a mechanic in the Air Force or National Guard aviation but acted like he was a seasoned veteran until some of his viewers found out and called him out on it.
Inter arma enim silent leges
Oh no, it's a cultural thing in the Air Force itself. Evidently the aircraft maintenance career fields are such that they typically work pretty crappy long hours doing a bunch of work. So, to make themselves feel better about being treated like crap, they came up with this "Nonner" idea, where you are either a "mission generator" or a "nonner".
When really, if you don't wear zippered pajamas, you ain't shit. The guy who fixes the jet is just as much an REMF as the guy who makes sure the wing has money to buy fuel for the jet or the guy who cooks at the chow hall. I have never heard of a maintainer getting the Medal of Honor for saving a burning plane from destruction over enemy territory.
United Earth
So there's no point in poor young bastard orphans wishing for a war, as chances to earn glory and death or promotion on the battlefield are very, very slim?
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
Yeah, it don't work like that. Promotion is time based anyway isn't it?. You won't make Captain by single handedly storming the enemy citadel I'm pretty sure.
edited 29th Mar '17 5:44:48 PM by LeGarcon
Oh really when?
United Earth
Not exactly. There's something about a score, at least in the USMC.
Point being, the military ain't the place to social-climb, yes?
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
Yeah you gotta place well in certain marksmanship tests too I think.
But yeah, no. The military isn't the place you go for social status anymore. It's just not that kind of organization.
Oh really when?
United Earth
Well! What is it good for?
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
Like to someone wanting to join?
Probably the only place where you can guarantee that you'll have some form of income and retirement.
Oh really when?
United Earth
Holy shit. Not social-climbing, just social-treading-water.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
Why do you think recruiters are always in poor high schools?
Oh really when?
Yeah, few jobs get you a solid pension after 20 years, with no post secondary education (at least that the start, for NC Os I hear that the military is pretty focused on professional development).
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Man, there are some jobs where after you complete a single contract, prior service members will literally walk into a six figure job, even before the age of 25.
New Survey coming this weekend!
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
Actually there is such a thing as battlefield promotions and promotion by attrition but even then that is not a guarantee.
Who watches the watchmen?
Aren't a lot of battlefield/attrition promotions merely to acting positions (and have to be confirmed later)?
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
More or less. They are far more likely to stand as is if it is an enlisted position.
Who watches the watchmen?
Are you sure that's a Russian helmet? None of their other gear is Russian.
I assumed it was Russian based on design.
rollin' on dubs
In the US ARMY promotion is based on the following:
- Lower enlisted up to E-4 (Specialist) are time in grade (TIG) and basic solider promotions. Pass PT test, qualify on the weapon(s) and don't fuck up: get promoted.
- SGT to SSG (E-5 to E-6) is "semi-centralised". Don't piss off your command and your 1SG. Make friends with your NCO's. STUDY FOR THE BOARD. Pass the board and hope you make the cut off scores. Now soldiers have to pass the Basic Leadership Course (formerly WLC, and PLDC for the old farts).
- Cutoff scores go from 34 to 798. So either the promotion is automatic, you ain't gonna make it (798) or you pray to the gods that the score is low enough.
- The Cutoff score is set by a board at HRC (see below).
- SFC, MSG and above (E-7+): a board at Army Human Resources Command (HRC) looks at Enlisted Record Briefs and makes it's decision. Soldiers with bad write ups (relief for cause, Article 15, general letter of reprimand) don't make it. At this point demotion comes from an act of Congress or a court martial. These are the guys who are recommended based on years of experience or they kiss ass like it's an MOS.
- I've met E-7's who were the salt of the earth-real soldier's soldiers. One was so nice I was surprised that he make SFC-until I saw him operate as a TCA (ask Mark). The man was born in an ECS.
- And I've met some real dickbags- just brown nosing shitheels who somehow squeeked by or didn't piss people off. Takes all kinds to make a world(or an Army in this case).
- And there were some E-6's who made E-7/E-8 and just stopped fucking with people. They are top dog and they just let it go. They are good at their job and the details are up to the SGT/SSG so why sweat the details. I was friends with NCO's who were assholes at E-5 but were mellow at E-6/E-7.
Officers above Captain (O-3), have to be recommended to the Senate by a board at, you guessed it, HRC. HRC puts it's recommendation to the Senate, they vote and your peach fuzz O-3 (Captain) become a smug O-4 (Major).
Above the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (LTC, O-5) it's all politics. Colonels know people who will get them General rank. Otherwise officers usually top out at O-5/LTC or O-6/COL. Some stop there because beyond O-4 it's all paperwork.
Others make the friends and connects to get flag rank (the slang term for O-7 and above).
All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be on The First 48
Abe Scraps Japan's 1 Percent GDP Defense Spending Cap
English-language resources hardly address the subject, but the 1 percent policy (which is not law) was, next to the constitution itself, one of the most tenacious obstacles restricting meaningful defense reform in Japan. Like the glacial five-year Midterm Defense Plan system Japan currently utilizes for defense spending, the 1 percent restriction was an antiquated feature that needed to go. Its origins, stretching back to 1976 and reflecting a Japan seeking to halt runaway Cold War defense expenditures, worked for Japan’s own particular situation and era; that of a Japan which turned toward a Japan-based U.S. forward presence as a main deterrent to the Soviet Union, abstaining from both expensive standing armies and pricey nuclear forces. Times have clearly changed.
There is only one immediate implication of this policy adjustment: we can expect Abe to raise the defense budget as high as he and his administration dare beyond 1 percent of GDP. Despite the removal of this significant barrier, Japan’s emaciated defense budget still faces multiple hurdles if it is to grow in order to meet East Asia’s rapidly changing defense environment. First and foremost of these hurdles is the power and entrenchment of the Ministry of Finance. While the Japanese constitution clearly gives the Diet the role of passing a budget, whether or not that budget survives the process is up to the Ministry of Finance.
In reality, the Ministry of Finance, through its veiled bureaucratic processes, exercises particularly strong control over what gets funded versus what does not. Japan’s usual budgetary process involves the Cabinet giving the Ministry of Finance its budget requests, whereupon the Ministry makes cuts and changes and incorporates policies that may remain behind from previous cabinets, unbeknownst to the current Cabinet. Put in a simplified form, the budgetary process has predictably repeated itself, with little change, over and over in past decades, like a bibliophile reassured by the comforting embrace of an old book: the Cabinet hands the Ministry of Finance optimistic budgeting desires, whereupon they are considered, edited, and returned with an apology and an explanation that the Cabinet’s wishes could not possibly be met given precedent and available funds. The Ministry hands the Cabinet an edited budget, complete with all pertinent policy references and explanations (such as the 1 percent limitation), and wishes the Cabinet luck in the Diet. The prime minister grits his teeth, sends the budget to the Diet, at which time his Lower House majority passes the budget and sends it to the Upper House, starting a ticking clock which, after expiration, ends in a budget approved in the form sanctioned by the Ministry of Finance.
This time, however, Abe has an ace in the hole: his deputy prime minister, and former prime minister himself, Taro Aso, doubles as his finance minister, head of the Ministry of Finance. With such influence at his disposal, it is likely Abe is now able to place significant pressure on the Ministry of Finance after the Cabinet submits its budgets. This helps explain the notable changes in Japanese defense spending regarding budgets under the Abe administration, despite the 1 percent limit; now with no limit, the Ministry of Finance has a great deal of work ahead of it.
Future strategic impacts of the change are noteworthy. First, Abe and the Liberal Democratic Party are now poised to seize any and all defense-focused domestic political momentum in Japan. The Japanese polity, for a variety of reasons, is politically apathetic to defense to a degree unseen in many countries. However, it has shown signs of “waking” to the changing defense environment in which Japan finds itself, especially younger Japanese who, as of last year, have been granted suffrage as early as 18 years old. The Liberal Democratic Party, alone, stands ready to reap whatever harvest of voters its emphasis on defense brings. Further, the door to a nuclear-armed Japan has cracked a bit farther open. Without an artificial budgetary constraint, Japan is free to procure what its Cabinets can wring from the Ministry of Finance — including expensive equipment, like nuclear systems. This newfound potential could also explain Japan’s hesitation to be as vocal about anti-nuclear weapons as it has been in the past. Finally, and perhaps most significantly, regional adversaries can no longer mathematically determine the maximum level of Japanese defense potential. From here on out, Japan is more prepared to react faster and with more spending to growing defense concerns.
While Japan’s Cabinet still faces significant challenges to get the defense spending it wants, the removal of the 1 percent policy, at least in this administration, is a seminal event that signals significant change ahead.
good or bad?
United Earth
Unlike the Germans, the Japanese never bothered to learn that they ever did anything wrong.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
While I'm no apologist for the atrocities of Imperial Japan, its a big leap to view increased military spending and the acquisition of offensive weapons as a sign that the country will go Ax-Crazy again.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
Especially when China has been getting increasingly aggressive.
Who watches the watchmen?
Which Russian helmet is it in this pic
◊? S Sh-40, S Sh-60, S Sh-68, or 6B47?