One US Army M1 Armor OSUT later!

[Zapy97]

yes I am back after like six months I think, about, maybe? I honestly don't pay to much attention to the time past but I am indeed back after joining the US army. I will probably just go back to quietly stalking the forums not saying anything wondering why the fantasy nations RP is dead.

 

[coolpool2]

Oh hey, welcome back.

 

[Easy]

Welcome back - how's life nowadays? I know a lot of things are very different now for many of us, certainly including myself.

Fantasy Nations suffers from a lack of motivation, which mostly falls on Stoney in the direct sense and on myself in a more meta sense, since I've been too lazy to hype it with Free Roller CYOA now that I've started having the time to.

 

[Colonel Thunder]

We started talking about WW2, and Zapy showed up.

Easy peasy.

 

[Zapy97]

We started talking about WW2, and Zapy showed up.

Easy peasy.

WHERE?

Also life will be very different in the upcoming months given that I will soon be living on my own in barracks far from home. I have a lot of plans for my newer lifestyle and also career. I am very optimistic for the future and all that I will face. Also I look amazing in my dress blues, just saying.

 

[Tirin]

Fantasy Nations suffers from a lack of motivation, which mostly falls on Stoney in the direct sense and on myself in a more meta sense, since I've been too lazy to hype it with Free Roller CYOA now that I've started having the time to.

It hurts. It hurts so much, like an old wound that I can't stop touching and so won't heal. I want Stoney back... or, failing that, to make a D&D setting or something that's workable and based off of the major nations. But I can't. God help me, I can't.

Welcome back, Zapy. I hope you've enjoyed your time in the army. Personally, I've put strong consideration into joining the Canadian one, especially since marijuana will soon be legal and so I won't be discriminated against despite my incredible test scores.

 

[13thforsworn]

Welcome back. I think I've met more people on the forums who have subsequently gone to join the US armed forces than I know people in real life that have enlisted.

 

[Rondait]

MY MACHINE BOUGHT WITH TAXPAYER MONEY COULD BEAT YOUR MACHINE BOUGHT WITH TAXPAYER MONEY.


No but really dude glad to have you back. Yeah, this place is pretty disproportionately military now isn't it?

 

[Colonel Thunder]

It's almost like young men without significant career opportunities are drawn to nevermind

 

[Firedemon]

Yeah, the number of you guys joining the military is really surprising. I mean, we are the right demographic, but god damn this has gotta make us some kind of statistical anomaly.

But hey man, welcome back, congratulations on the army thing. I think we're at a point where we need some kind of inter-service rivalry circle jerk thread.

 

[Tirin]

My friends in the Canadian military tell me that Americans are poorly-trained and generally look like jags by comparison to everybody else in international training exercises. Is this true?

 

[Rondait]

Dunno. I haven't been in any international training exercises to say. Navy wise I wouldn't doubt it. We're extremely undermanned so training goes out the window in some cases, and then things like recent crashes in the Pacific happen.

 

[Tirin]

Y'know, I bet dropping a few aircraft carriers would go a long way towards rebalancing that issue and would probably save a lot of money on maintenance in the long run. Seems like having over half of the world's active ones and putting even more under construction is a little bit excessive - but hey, what do I know about national defense, other than that no other country needs that much of it?

 

[Easy]

My friends in the Canadian military tell me that Americans are poorly-trained and generally look like jags by comparison to everybody else in international training exercises. Is this true?

Without direct experience, every US Army vet I've talked to so far on the subject has been extremely impressed with other NATO members' performance. Bust their asses for a couple weeks in basic, get shipped, show up to find out that all the other regiments they're working with are generally more outright capable in everything and also speak more languages than they do, sorta thing. I must say, I'm pleased to have found that tales of contact with Polish troops have been told with particular incredulity.

 

[Requiem]

Yeah, America fucks people with sheer payload amounts and our money. Everyone else just trains their soldiers better.

Welcome back, Zapy. Looks like the military did some good work, glad to hear it!

 

[Rondait]

To the Navy's credit though, they seem to realize there are shortcomings. They're changing bootcamp from 8 weeks to 12 weeks to try and give more practical experience and lessons through it, Granted, most of the shortcomings i personally believe are on the officer side, but it's a step in the right direction. Maybe I'm biased though, because I no shit think I played a small part in that change, but that's a story for a night when I'm not drunk.
Happy new years and shit.

 

[Firedemon]

but that's a story for a night when I'm not drunk.

No, I think that's a story for tonight when you're drunk and won't be able to stop yourself from telling us.

 

[Rondait]

Whatever, it's not really all that impressive of a story. We were in our first few weeks of class at the Defense Information School (where all the US military branches go to receive their media/PA/journalism training) right after graduating bootcamp. During class the Master Chief of Naval training or whatever his official title is walked in. Whatever his title may be this guy is the enlisted person in charge of any and all official Navy training. Since we were the newest DINFOS class that graduated from bootcamp during his apparent tour of the school he asks us about bootcamp. The general consensus of the class (20 people at the time) was that yeah, it was great and all, but it was pretty short at 8 weeks and we didn't really feel that we learned a lot about anything practical. He asks for a volunteer to give suggestions. I raise my hand and say that lengthening bootcamp to about 12 weeks while giving more practice on things such as line handling and anything else useful to everyone on a ship would be worthwhile.

Now, 7 months later things are coming out about bootcamp changing to 12 weeks. I'm sure I'm not the driving force behind the change, but the timing of it seems pretty interesting. Also this isn't some guy who goes and speaks to every enlisted member in the Navy, he was just in the area for some reason and decided to go ask around and I was the only one in the class who said anything after he asked for general opinions on how our bootcamp experience was. He's a pretty big deal as far as the training goes.

 

[Dragonruby]

Well shit. I guess all we're missing is a guy from the Air Force then. Welcome back, Zapy. Where are you stationed at?

 

[Easy]

Good shit, Rondait. Whether you can claim direct credit or not, that took some balls. Glad to have you with us, my dude.