Thats partly an urban myth - the officers are easily identifiable to snipers anyway due to their rank markings, not to mention that they are generally close to a radio. Most armies don't salute in the field because it's considered inefficient... if there's snipers about no one is going to be standing up and snapping to anyway
If someone ever were to ask me: "Madman, you write a lot about war and battles, what combat experience do you actually have?" My answer would be: "I've been through school."
You can, but you might find yourself on burn pit duty. And trust me, you don't want to know what that entails, especially if you're eating.
I've never been in the armed forces, but I had access to google and a few seconds to spare ... and yes, ugh. I know the US Army does vital work around the world, but if your soldiers have to do vital-but-dangerous jobs, maybe they should be protected? I've no idea if US soldiers (never mind the locals) were protected from the dangerous fumes etc., but if they weren't, they shouldn't have been doing that job.
I haven't, but from what I've read about it ... yikes. Apparently it can cause neurological disorders, breathing difficulties (or respiratory disorders), and even different types of cancer. I hope you don't have any of those oh-so-lovely things, Iain. (I've been working in healthcare for nearly 20 years, so I'll say up-front that I have a vested interest in keeping people healthy). Why would the Army allow soldiers to do something so dangerous without protection?
because soldiers do so many other dangerous things so their risk perception is different from the civilian world... when you get shot at on a regular basis its hard to take H&S regs seriously incidentally - i was a soldier (in the UK), Ian was in the USMC and the marines are not soldiers
Well, I didn't do too much of that sort of burn pit, but I did Spoiler: Gross burn shitters. In the field, the world is your urinal but if you need to poop, there's generally some contraption with a toilet seat over a metal can. At intervals, someone needs to pull that can, sloshing full of assorted excrement, out into the air and dump some gas or diesel or both into it and burn all the shit off. And to ensure complete disposal, the burning mass needs to be stirred with a piece of rebar or one of the fenceposts for barbed wire or whatever. The urine just boils off, as does any liquid in the feces. If the wind shifts when you're stirring... There is no worse smell.
I don't think it's a myth, or at least it wasn't a myth in World War II. In his classic book Up Front, Bill Mauldin wrote about officers who were dinged by the military police for not wearing their insignia. They complained that while that might have made sense away from the front lines, the insignia made them targets for the enemy, which is why they chose to break the rules on dress. I consider Mauldin to be an unimpeachable authority on the subject.
Not history but I remember a WWII movie that was shot during or shortly after the war that showed the NCOs tearing off their stripes as they moved into the area of contact with the Germans. Spoiler: Irrelevant unsourced opinion There's a youtuber calling himself The Fat Electrician, does military history from a semi-comic POV. His theory on the function of officers is that they serve as the brakes on the enlisted getting visits from the Good Idea Fairy and violating all the laws of war, hence snipers should never target them. I was a lance corporal (uncapitalized because it's not attached to my name), Moose might have a better insight into that idea.
The removal of insignia thing definitely happened, snipers and command operated booby traps (and more recently drone pilots) aim to take out the officers, the sergeants, the medics, the radio men, and of course the other side's snipers.. they'll also shoot to wound on the first contact so they can sucker more guys out of cover to try and rescue the wounded man. (we used to joke that they'd leave the 2nd Lts and the staff majors alone because they were more of a risk to their own men) however its an urban myth that this is the reason why armies don't salute in combat zones because 1) in that scenario no one is snapping to and saluting anyway, if you're in range of the enemy you stay in cover or at least concealment, and 2) many forces don't salute in combat areas where there is no sniper threat, such as the air farce on the flight line because its deemed inefficient in work areas random aside in reference of snipers, we used to say 'remember what happened to Saki' (the poet aka HH Munroe), in ww1 he rather unwisely put his head up to shout to another soldier who was smoking "don't do that old boy, there's snipers about" whereupon a sniper shot Saki
Whoops, my mistake. Yes, the Marines undertake tougher training than 'ordinary' soldiers. (What's the slang? Doughboy? Dogface? IIRC, WW2 Soviet slang for 'ordinary soldier' was 'pickle', referring to the green uniform. Soviet (and Tsarist) attitude to the 'pickles' was notoriously dismissive; who cares about casualties? There are always more 'pickles'). I know there are COs like that in other armies too, but as far as I'm aware, the Russians are notorious for that. Not just Saki. Remember poor old John "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance" Sedgwick. (Incidentally, Sedgewick was uniformly beloved by his men and was genuinely mourned). Also, though not quite the same, there was the case of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. (And yes, I studied the ACW in some detail, despite not being American (or having served). I just found it fascinating. I'm sure I'm not the first or last).
Them's fighting words to a soldier. The marines aren't soldiers because they are (or in the case of the USMC were before they became their own service branch) part of the navy...its why they eat the crayons because they think they'll prevent scurvy Commando training is tougher than some line regiments go through, but not more so than say P company (parachute regiment), or selection (SAS). In terms of slang we called members of the corps(e) bootnecks or cabbage heads (sometimes cabbage patch dolls). The para and the marines collectively refer to the line regiments as CrapHats because we didn't wear poncy berets all the time because we liked hats that actually keep your head warm in winter and the sun off in summer.
Apologies. I know all fighting men (whether soldiers, sailors or other members of the service) undergo very tough training. (It's just different training, I guess?) Don't let Iain let you hear say that. Also, prevention of (and treatment for) scurvy is eating lots of citrus fruit. This has been known in the Royal Navy since at least the mid-18th century ... but since the Royal Navy is so conservative, it took them until the late-18th century to issue lemon juice to their men, which is why British sailors were nicknamed 'Limeys'. (I'm not a sailor, but even I know that). Alas, the Navy's conservatism also created less happy 'traditions', like *shudder* the cat-o'-nine-tails. That thing was monstrous, and sometimes administered on a whim by sadistic captains for minor offenses. Thankfully it was abolished in the 1850s, but judicial flogging wasn't abolished in the UK Navy until 1948 and in the US Navy until 1952. (I have to wonder why it took so long). Yes, I've read about some of the things both the Commandos and the SAS did in World War II. Those guys were impressively tough. More power to 'em.
Not even going to try to compare services internationally since there are a lot of similar names that mean different things, but I have a friend who was in the Corps with me when we were both young intel geeks. He went on to Radio Recon and, after his initial term, got out, went to college, and got commissioned into the US Army as an infantry officer. Then he went through the process and became a Green Beret, where he is now a full-bird colonel. His take on it is that (rough quote) "Marine boot camp produces the best basic 'soldier' in the US military out of initial training. What goes on after that makes a difference, but Marines start off better than anyone else." That's a sentiment that I also got from my drill instructors after we learned hand-to-hand combat. They said "Don't go trying to use this in a bar on boot leave or some SEAL or Vietnam vet is going to take you apart." And we called Air Force personnel "zoomies" and Navy are "squids." Naval Corpsmen (medics assigned to the Marines) are "devil-squids". The Army? I guess "doggies" but more often just "the fucking Army" with a sour face. I'm kinda upset about the crayon-eater thing. Not the image, but the fact that it arose after I got out. I would have liked to been known as a crayon-eater. The Marine Corps is a cult. We all know it, and as proof of the fact that it's a cult, we all revel in the fact that it's a cult. You will never find a greater repository of jokes about Marines than in the brain housing group of a Marine Q) The Air Force calls them "helicopters," the Army calls them "choppers." What do Marines call them? Spoiler: A) <squat down on your heels, point up at the sky, and go "Ugh, ugh! Argh!" excitedly while jumping up and down and beating your chest. Something like this, directed skyward: It works better in person.
Hmm ... speaking as one who'd never been in the armed forces, is there much difference between army ranks and police ranks? *shrug* Just to clarify: yes, I know that the first policemen were recruited from unemployed soldiers, and that the police force took a long, long time to become what it is today. I also know that the lower ranks have different names (Constable/Lance-Constable vs. Private, Lance-Corporal, Corporal). But after that, the ranks seem to be named the same: Sergeant, Senior Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain and so on. (Sure, there are no Majors and higher in the police, but they have Inspectors etc.) So is there a rough "rank equivalence" between the army and the police? Just wondering.
The major difference is that the police have no straight in to officer level… everyone starts as a boot constable ( patrolman in the states) then you go up if you’re good ( or if you’re a brown nosing little tw@ good at politics) So all officers have also been constables and sergeants in the army most enlisted men never go higher than sergeant, and most officers start at second Lt ( it is possible for sergeants to be given commissions but it’s rare outside major wars) the same is true of specialism. If you want to be a tanker you join as an armour officer or enlisted… but in the police nearly everyone is uniform first and specialises as detectives and what have you later
I've heard "jarhead" for the Marines. For ordinary soldiers, "Doughboy" was World War I and "Dogface" or "doggie" was World War II. In my contact with the military in the 1960s, neither of those terms were used by soldiers. They used "GI" most of the time. I don't know. I don't think "choppers" is in general use in the Army anymore. "Helos" (or should it be spelled "heloes"?) was the term they use in the news broadcasts when being interviewed on the front lines in recent wars.
this side of the pond we usually said Birds... The puma (think more or less like a huey except that it was shit) was often called the penguin because it was notorious for not being able to fly (too hot, too cold, too dusty, too humid it was no use at all anywhere that soldiers needed to operate). The only exception was the CH47 Chinook which was generally known as the Noisy Green Target We also some times said Heli's (never Helos) or Whirlies, choppers wasn't a common usage mostly because a chopper to the British of my generation is a sort of push bike https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh_Chopper which look fucking ridiculous now but were a big thing when i was young fixed wing could be birds too, but were also kites or fastjets, the C130 Hercules (transport plane) was always either a Herky bird or a Herkle Berkle
I've studied some of the planes of WW1 and WW2 (and in-between) ... so no matter how bad some of the planes can be nowadays, be thankful you never had to fly the Pulpit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Aircraft_Factory_B.E.9 What madman thought it was a good idea to seat a WW1 gunner, with a Lewis machine-gun, in front of the propeller? Only someone deeply drunk could have thought of that. How anyone can concentrate on firing a machine-gun when leaning backwards would mean being chopped to bits by the propeller? And if the plane crashed, the gunner wasn't protected. No surprise, this model was intensely unpopular and was scrapped within a year. I'm sure there were others, too, but I always remembered that one because it's so ludicrous.
I find interesting how words can morph from war to war (and even from front to front within the same war), depending on where you were serving. As for "choppers," here in the US they most often refer to large, powerful motorcycles, notably Harleys.
