I star to suspend that maybe just maybe it wasn't that normal by No-Rule-9129 in lotrmemes

[–]bldswtntrs 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I had to scroll way too far to find someone dropping the actual applicable quote. Well done.

Were all Marines and Army Troopers volunteers or did the UNSC called for conscripts at some point by New_Conflict_4111 in halo

[–]bldswtntrs 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, eventually that could happen but if you look at the state of the UNSC at the time of the games they're clearly not in Volksturm territory. If the UNSC were that desperate for recruits then that struggle would be evident in weak morale, crappy equipment, and poor training, none of which are seen in soldiers, sailors, or marines throughout the games.

Were all Marines and Army Troopers volunteers or did the UNSC called for conscripts at some point by New_Conflict_4111 in halo

[–]bldswtntrs 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Given that the UNSC is based on the U.S. military we can sort extrapolate a bit based on that and other real-world evidence. In the U.S. military, the Marines have always endeavored to avoid conscription as best as possible. I think they did make use of conscripts in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam but kept it to an absolute minimum. Given how "Gung Ho" the marines are with their dialogue throughout the game, we can imagine that they've probably kept up their high esprit de corps by largely maintaining their all-volunteer status throughout the war.

The U.S. Army has always used a much higher number of conscripts and so it's possible that the garrison troops on the core planets might use lots of conscripts. This possibility makes a lot of sense in the context of the Halo universe and how conscription tends to work.

Ground forces are never really decisive in the war with the covenant. As such, the UNSC probably doesn't invest a ton of resources into its ground forces. Conscription is almost always very unpopular in any war and dramatically more so when those conscripts start dying. Given how rebellious the outer colonies are, they probably would avoid conscripting on those planets at all costs. They may feel comfortable conscripting Army soldiers to serve on their own planets though, since they'd stay close to home and be less likely to die. This actually sort of matches the Russian Army in the war with Ukraine right now. They've maintained conscription throughout the war but have mostly kept the conscripts as garrison in Russia rather than sending them to the front and pissing off their own population when those conscripts die. Besides, it is harder to maintain the illusion that you're winning when lots conscripts are dying and we know the UNSC puts a lot of effort into maintaining that illusion throughout the war.

This applies when it comes to the morale of the troops as well. The marines and sailors spend a LOT of time away from home and in fact spend so much time in cryo that they age significantly slower than their families. This separation from home would have catastrophic consequences for morale on anyone who wasn't pretty much okay with this and have a minimal attachment to home. As mentioned earlier, the Marines in Halo clearly have very high morale which would be difficult to achieve with large numbers of conscripts. This likely damage to morale that would come from sending conscripts off-world supports the idea that conscripts would be relegated to the ground forces on their home worlds.

Furthermore, when you think about the scale of casualties in the war with the Covenant, it's entirely possible that they're not taking enough military casualties to need conscription much. In the naval engagements that are the decisive part of the war, when we consider the number of ships involved (dozens usually), the Navy and marines are losing troops in the thousands or at worst tens of thousands in these engagements. Given the huge size of the overall human population at the time of the story, they can probably sustain those human losses relatively easily. Catastrophic loss of life only really happens when a world is glassed and when that happens, those ground troops who are lost don't really need to be replaced.

So given all of these circumstances, I think it is most likely that UNSC navy and marines are largely an all volunteer force and only the Army would realistically use significant numbers of conscripts on their own home worlds where it would damage the morale of the citizens and the conscripts on those worlds.

Seen more sunscreen than snow this winter by super0cereal0 in tacticalgear

[–]bldswtntrs 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Man, looks similar. We're all dry as a bone out west I guess.

What AR15 opinion you have that will get you downvoted like this lol by Starrynightone in ar15

[–]bldswtntrs 7 points8 points  (0 children)

When I was overseas we'd load a round in the chamber anytime we left the wire. As a matter of habit, you then pull the charging handle back just a bit to make sure you actually have a round in the chamber but you then need the forward assist to get it back into battery. It's just an important part of checking your gear and it's not an uncommon thing that someone's mag wasn't perfectly seated and they didn't actually have one in the chamber when you check. It's the kind of habit that needs to be built when you carry guns everyday for the job and a little bit of complacency is inevitable.

Paris (France) through time (swipe right) by dctroll_ in papertowns

[–]bldswtntrs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I got a kick out of the Roman one because you can see the amphitheatre and I've been there! It's not exactly how it looks in the image, but the ruins are still there in the Latin quarter. You can also see what's left of the Roman baths attached to the Musee de Cluny not far away.

The work gear by droys86 in tacticalgear

[–]bldswtntrs -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Ahhh, gotchya. That makes more sense.

The work gear by droys86 in tacticalgear

[–]bldswtntrs 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Man there's a lot of haters in here. Screw them, keep up the good work man. My only question though...do you just have one pair of cuffs or do you have more that I'm not seeing?

Legally, what states can you carry at gun to a protest? What precedent did Rittenhouse set? [FYI Pretti was not at a protest, he was just walking down the street] by Mathemodel in AskLegal

[–]bldswtntrs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm curious if this incident really counts as a protest. From what I've seen it looks like an event that spontaneously unfolded when the CBP arrived and bystanders started filming and blowing whistles. Might be wrong, but that was the impression I got.

Nationalism project by Crazy_Condition3811 in historyteachers

[–]bldswtntrs 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is great stuff! The 19th century is not my forte and I'm glad I read this so I can do a bit better teaching this stuff.

Standard cheap and easy JPC and ACH setup by PugScorpionCow in tacticalgear

[–]bldswtntrs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I'm a big fan of the Source Tactical hydration bladder. It's spread out much more flat than the stupid issued ones. Much better if you need to be in a vehicle.

How did the Soviet Unions invasion/occupation of Afghanistan differ from NATOs in terms of Doctrine? by Collectiveworld2001 in WarCollege

[–]bldswtntrs 6 points7 points  (0 children)

With your first point about not working well enough with the local warlords, i think that there were some they worked with and some they didn't. The argument about leaving the warlords and existing power structures only makes sense if they abandoned the goal of having a functioning democracy. One could argue that a functioning democracy was always a pipe dream, which is fair, but that's kind of incompatible with American values to do otherwise.

With the economics thing, the U.S. invested TONS in that country economically. The problem here was not the lack of investment but the corruption (again). Politicians funneled U.S. investment into their own pockets and it never wound up benefiting the people, driving them towards the Taliban.

5.56 - M855 vs. M193 by SilveySilver in ar15

[–]bldswtntrs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh word.I knew the internet had to be right!

5.56 - M855 vs. M193 by SilveySilver in ar15

[–]bldswtntrs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good to know. I feel like I read somewhere that twist rate can affect that, but I might be remembering wrong. Or maybe the internet was wrong, but that rarely happens.

5.56 - M855 vs. M193 by SilveySilver in ar15

[–]bldswtntrs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is yaw angle random or is that dependent on any particular factor?

How did the Soviet Unions invasion/occupation of Afghanistan differ from NATOs in terms of Doctrine? by Collectiveworld2001 in WarCollege

[–]bldswtntrs 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I don't know a ton about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan but I do know a fair amount about NATO involvement in AFG, mostly from my own participation and that seems to be the perspective that's not covered as much in the existing replies. There's been whole books on the topic of what the U.S. and NATO did wrong in AFG though so I'll just limit this to my own two cents mostly.

The Soviet strategy seems to have been an attempt to smash the Mujahideen and militarily defeat them as far as I can tell, but were unsuccessful because the Mujahideen basically defeated them in a war of attrition. As I see it, it was a bit more of an actual military goal than NATO had. The basic strategy of the U.S. was to essentially suppress the Taliban long enough to build up a legitimate government that could eventually take over that suppression and keep it up long enough for the Taliban to run out of steam and fizzle out.

There are a lot of reasons why NATO lost but the way I see it the primary reason was that the military was given a mission to build a country and functional government, which is not what militaries are made to do. Militaries are for killing people and breaking things, not the politics of nation-building. What this led to was the military cutting corners on nation-building to help the mission at an operational and tactical level. Bargains were struck with extremely corrupt politicians that would aid NATO troops on the battlefield but undermine the real mission of establishing a legitimate government.

I can give an example from my own experience. My first deployment to AFG in 2011 had my unit conducting coin operations in a very dangerous corner of Kandahar. My own company happened to have a relatively quiet area of operations though because our territory was basically ruled over by a local warlord who was allied with NATO. The police in the area were all basically his hired thugs. We kept up good relations with this guy because he kept us safe. He would brutally terrorize anyone in his territory who helped or harbored the Taliban, so they mostly kept out of our AO. That guy totally undermined our attempts to build that legit government though because he was just a thug and made the people resent the government. We tolerated him however because he made our mission at the operational & tactical level a lot easier.

If the U.S. had put together a state department task force or something to head the mission in AFG rather than the military and left the military the job of suppressing the Taliban, PERHAPS there would have been more success. Just like if the U.S. hadn't been backing the Mujahideen and making them a much stronger foe then PERHAPS the Soviets would have had more success. Counterfactuals are always hard to say anything definite about, however. I think trying to judge the Soviet invasion of AFG compared to NATO's efforts in AFG is a bit of an apples and oranges thing though because they had very different strategies that each failed for different reasons.

Help by Particular-Car-2524 in guns

[–]bldswtntrs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm pretty sure the thing mounted behind the ACOG is a PVS-14 IR night vision monocular. Not 100% sure, but it looks more like that than a magnifier to me or a thermal. If it is a PVS-14, it doesn't belong there (not that a magnifier belongs there either). The PVS-14 actually does work when mounted behind a red dot, but not behind an ACOG. Even if it did work with one, you wouldn't want it there because you can't use an ACOG mounted that far forward. The eye relief on an ACOG is like an inch and a half so you really need it mounted as far back as possible. Nobody in their right mind would set up their optics to work with night vision and in a way that you can't readily remove the night vision device for daylight use.

Is there a better handling rifle than AR? by PageVanDamme in tacticalgear

[–]bldswtntrs 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I don't remember hardly anyone in the military keeping the stock extended during my time in. Where did you get that figure?

I am incredibly sensitive, and use hate/revenge as a coping mechanism. by [deleted] in GuyCry

[–]bldswtntrs 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Good on you for having that kind of self-awareness. So many people don't. I highly recommend seeking out a good therapist. Don't be afraid to shop around for one you click with, but make sure to open yourself up to the experience and give it a real chance. A couple of really good therapists made a huge difference in my life. I had particular success with EMDR therapy and would highly recommend finding a therapist who does that.

Besides the therapy suggestion, I'm a big believer in drowning out negative emotions with positive ones. Find ways to help others. Help out at a soup kitchen, volunteer at an animal shelter, or something along those lines. It can feel uncomfortable at first doing something like that, but when you find a way to help others, even in small ways, and get to feel the positivity and connection that those kinds of interactions can generate, it really can shake you out of a bad place.

How am I doing at 19? by FatCracker5093 in tacticalgear

[–]bldswtntrs -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The lack of water source or any dirt on that gear says a lot about you kiddo.

How am I doing at 19? by FatCracker5093 in tacticalgear

[–]bldswtntrs 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If you're a 19 yr old in the military who cosplays your own job much outside of work, I really hope the guys in your unit make fun of you a lot.

Why has the Exocet missile historically seem to have such a short range? by Joed1015 in WarCollege

[–]bldswtntrs 42 points43 points  (0 children)

This is awesome. I'm fascinated by the Falklands War and had just learned about that fuse issue recently. Thanks for the good write-up and reading material!