Yanks With Tanks: Difference between revisions

{{Useful Notes}}

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In addition to the National Guard, there are 27 active '''State Defense Forces''' which serve as separate state militias. They operate with the Governor as their commander-in-chief. Typically, have the same duties as the National Guard, such as the suppression of civil disorder and the handling natural disasters. Unlike the National Guard, the state defense forces cannot be federalized without consent of the state's governor and sometimes legislature. This is because they're meant to provide the governor with a trained military force when the state's National Guard units are deployed elsewhere. Members with prior service experience retain their ranks and can advance in grade as awarded by the state, so the rank structure is somewhat inflated with the idea that they'll form a trained unit cadre (core) should a worst case scenario happen. During WWII and the Cold War, they were expected to defend their states from foreign invasion, but today they serve to help respond to national security issues, and are generally trained to be equal to their National Guard counterparts. The actual results vary with each state due to funding, local culture, local needs and interests. Many are starting to be put their paces with this recent spate of natural disasters, and so far have been doing a fair job of it. Many of their members and usually all of their senior leadership are veterans of the regular military, reserve, or National Guard.

 

 

=== Responsibilities roughly break down as follows: ===

** The Air Force is also responsible for most American military space assets (communications and GPS, for example), as well as their [[Kill Sat|defense]] if they come under threat.

* The Marine Corps are a fast-responding multipurpose branch, with integrated air, land, and sea elements. At any given moment, two Marine Expeditionary Forces are at sea and ready to deploy at a word. Basically, they're often among the first military troops formally deployed into a zone. Marines, as their name would imply, specialize in amphibious warfare.

* The National Guard acts as a reserve force in addition to the Army and Air Force's own reserves. In peacetime, they are primarily used to suppress civil disorder (the Army is legally barred from doing this, but National Guard are technically state militia and therefore have the authority to perform those tasks) and provide assistance in handling natural disasters.

* USSOCOM's various special forces handle missions like counter-terrorism, hostage rescue, unconventional warfare, reconnaissance, infiltration, "direct action" (raids), and search and rescue. Soldiers from SOCOM, normally the Army's Special Forces operatives and Navy SEALs, are generally the first military troops to enter into a country before invasion, normally arriving before hostilities even begin. SOCOM troops are also trained in such actions as militia training and providing rebels with the expertise and firepower to successfully revolt against the current regime.

 

 

See, in the past, a lot of wars involved situations where two sides were "symmetrical" in composition, being endowed with roughly equal equipment, disposition and manpower (read: "[[We Have Reserves|reserves]]"). Under those circumstances, whoever was the better commander would generally win, but in the meanwhile [[Crapsack World|a lot of death and blood happened]]. Today, America fights [[Combat Pragmatist|pragmatically]], lowering American casualties by exposing as few of them as possible to (effective) enemy fire—that is, If they can hurt you, ''don't attack them'', call someone else to hit them who can do so with impunity. With that in mind, there's a ''lot'' of cross-communication in an American war: if the enemy's trying to attack ''your'' weak point, you can (and should) call for help from [[Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors|whichever branch of the armed forces would be the best counter]]. (Think the ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers]]'' movie: Army calling for help from Air Force; Air Force calling for help from... [[Dissimile|Giant transforming robots]], giant transforming robots calling for help from [[Action Survivor|Action Survivors]] played by [[Shia LaBeouf]], and Action Survivors calling for help from the Army.)

 

== WWII-era Aircraft ==

* The '''Republic P-47 Thunderbolt''' was the largest single-engine fighter of [[World War II]], known as the "Jug" on account of its shape. Gained 3,752 air-to-air kills (3,499 were lost to all causes). Seriously, seriously rugged. One pilot, Robert S. Johnson, sustained serious damage to his aircraft over France on 26 June 1943--including a fire. Unable to open his canopy, he managed to regain control. He heads for the channel, then gets a German FW-190 fighter (probably [[Ace Pilot|ace Egon Mayer]], who was killed by another Thunderbolt after reaching 102 kills) arrive and empty his entire machine-gun capacity at the American pilot, who tries to move around a bit, but doesn't really succeed. The aircraft still stays going and the German leaves, saluting him by rocking his wings. Johnson gets back to the UK, lands safely and counts the bullet holes. After getting to 200 without even moving around the aircraft--he gave up. [http://www.acepilots.com/usaaf_rsj.html Seriously].

* The '''North American P-51 Mustang''' is a fighter aircraft that must be mentioned any time you are talking about anything concerning WWII US aircraft. This beast went from proposal to flying prototype in under four months--a tremendous feat of engineering. The laminar-flow airfoil wing reduced drag and gave it outstanding high altitude performance when married to the high-performance supercharged Rolls Royce Merlin engine, which could get the Mustang up to 437 mph and up to 41,900 ft. It flew like a dream and could fly an escort mission to Berlin and Back, plus a dogfight or two. It was the main aircraft of the Tuskegee Airmen, who used it to great effect; having a [[Nose Art|red-tailed]] Mustang escort you meant you were gonna live. Mustangs claimed the highest amount of air-to-air kills by ''any'' Allied fighter in WWII (nearly ''5,000'') and lost about 2,520 of their number--almost a two-to-one kill ratio. Cadillac of the Skies indeed.

(The Phantom was finally retired from American service in 1996; highly specialized F-4G variants replaced the F-105 Thunderchief in the [[Wild Weasel|suppression of enemy air defenses]] role, until improved electronics and stores management allowed the "Wild Weasel" package to fit onto "vanilla" fighers. As for the Aardvark, it didn't hit Air Force runways until 1976--at which point the F-14 had already been flying for two years. America put it out to pasture in '98; its only foreign operator, [[Aussies With Artillery]], kept it around until December 2010.)

 

* The '''McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle''', the USAF counterpart to the Tomcat, is one of the world's best air superiority fighters: in over thirty years of service, there has been no <ref>the Syrians claim to have gotten 3 Israeli birds in late '82, but even on Wikipedia that claim has a "[Citation Needed]" tag</ref> case of an F-15 shot down by a real enemy in an air-to-air engagement, while its various operators have taken down precisely 101 opposing aircraft with it. (The F-15E Strike Eagle is a different story, but it's not the same kind of bird.) Its detractors call it the "Aluminum Tennis Court" for its size, as well as "the triumph of thrust over aerodynamics". It also has the more dubious honor of being the (original) disguise of [[The Starscream]].

** A note on Fly-By-Wire: most aircraft are designed with "positive" "aerodynamic stability," which means that if you let go of the steering wheel, the plane's shape will cause it to drift back into a straight-line heading. The F-16 on the other hand was deliberately designed with aerodynamic ''in''stability; left to its own devices, it will drift ''out of'' a straight-line heading. The FBW computer prevents this by making constant minute adjustments to flaps, ailerons and rudder, which keeps the plane going in the (last) direction its pilot told it to. Why all this trouble? Once you ''tell'' the F-16 to turn, it's off like a rocket; the F-16 can outfly most competitors (a serious advantage in [[Old School Dogfighting]]) and even its own pilots, who will have passed out from G-forces long before the airframe reaches structural tolerance. In the 21st Century, fly-by-wire is a universal design feature of fighter aircraft, but it was created for the F-16 three decades before they showed up.

* The '''McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet''' is the Navy's and Marine Corps' lightweight air superiority/strike aircraft. (Neither it nor the F-16 is really a ''bomber'', per se: a true bomber's job is really about [[Kill'Em All|carpet bombing]], and these planes can't even ''carry'' that many munitions. Instead, they do pinpoint strikes on invididual targets.) Like the Falcon, it has served with distinction since being introduced. Like the Falcon, it is also a true workhorse (and has a very high availability due to the designer making "ease of maintenance" a priority) and is even replacing the F-14 at its own job of air combat. It is the current platform for the Navy's Blue Angels, and was the aircraft of choice for the movie ''[[Independence Day]]''.

 

== Attack Aircraft ==

** Despite being officially retired, the planes have not been scrapped. Rather, they have been kept mothballed <ref> Basically stored partially dis-assembled, but easily restored to active service.</ref> in their Nevada hangars. A few have even been spotted flying over the desert in the area. So despite being "retired", the Air Force clearly wants them ready for action.

* The '''Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II''' takes the opposite approach of the F-117A, being the [[Mighty Glacier]] of aircraft. She's slow and God bless her, she's uglier than an episode of ''Real Housewives'', but boy does she get the job done. More widely known as "Warthog" or "Hog", the A-10 is designed to kill tanks, armored vehicles--and everyone in them. It can carry up to eight tons of bombs or missiles, but its primary weapon is the [[Gatling Good|GAU-8 Avenger Gatling gun]]. A seven-barreled, 30mm cannon with '''[[Beyond the Impossible|UNIMAGINABLE]]''' [[More Dakka|amounts of dakka]]<ref> Tech Specs: it fires ten rounds per second, each roughly the size and weight of a quart milk bottle, at 3,250 feet per second muzzle velocity. The ''recoil'' from the gun is more powerful than one of the plane's 2 engines ''at full throttle.'' Ouch.</ref>; you do ''not'' want to be on the receiving end of it. If you are, your coffin will probably be about the size of a snuff tin.<br /><br />The A-10 is known for being at least as durable as its namesake--it's the closest thing to a flying tank the Air Force has. The A-10 '''packed''' with redundant safety systems. It can fly with one engine, has a mechanical control system in case the hydraulics fail, self-sealing fuel tanks, and the landing gear can be deployed through just a combination of gravity and air resistance. The cockpit itself is literally sheathed in a bathtub of pure titanium, meaning that if the plane is trashed, the pilot most likely won't be. Oh, and there are documented incidents of A-10's flying home ''[[Awesome Yet Practical|using all of these failsafes]]''.

<br />

* The '''Lockheed AC-130H Spectre''' and '''AC-130U Spooky''' are the latest in a line of flying artillery bases. As you might have guessed from the designation, it's basically a C-130 transport with lots and ''lots'' of guns. It can carry various combinations of [[More Dakka|miniguns, 40mm cannon, and 105mm howitzers]]. Players of ''[[Call of Duty]] 4: [[Modern Warfare]]'' might recall that this was the plane used in the mission "Death From Above."

* The Army is the most "average" branch. [[The Squad]], [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]], and company are likely to be Army enlisted. Army officers are rarer, though high-level officers of all branches can appear in political shows.

* Naval officers (enlisted sailors aren't as common) are generally seen in an [[Officer and a Gentleman]] light: erudite, thoughtful, educated, interested in tactics and strategy and military theory.

* Air Force and Navy Air Corps pilots are both depicted as hotshots, unless you're in the [[Stargate Verse]].

* The Coast Guard doesn't get featured all that much. When they are, it's sometimes as a [[Mildly Military|semi-militarized force]] keeping tabs on smuggling over aquatic borders, whether it's [[Drugs Are Bad|drugs]], [[Lord of War|guns]], people (either [[The Illegal|immigrants]] or [[A Slave to the Index|human trafficking]]), or diamonds. They're more likely to be recognized in shows when they're doing search and rescue work, especially the sort that involves dangling on a cable from an orange and white helicopter.

[[Interservice Rivalry]] is another major aspect of American military culture--there are '''countless''' jokes putting one branch on a pedestal at the expense of another (or ''all'' of them). A number of the stereotypes people outside the military have of specific branches are also shared by other branches. For example, the Navy's air corps pilots refer to themselves as ''Aviators'', and look down their nose at the Air Force's mere ''pilots''--one claim being that USAF pilots lack the skill to land on a carrier. ([[Dos Gringos]], by the way, [http://dosgringosrocks.com/music-15.html shot that claim down from beyond visual range] and tossed in a comeback while they were at it.) Meanwhile, the "dumb jarhead" stereotype that other branches have of the Marines probably originated from the [[World War II]]; the Marines were the only branch that would accept recruits who couldn't read or write. Given that the Marines are the smallest branch of service, however, and the one with the most colorful reputation, they've often been the only branch that routinely meets its recruiting goals, and has the luxury of being particularly selective, in the era of the all-volunteer military.

 

 

As part of the Naval service and a sister branch of the Navy, Marines use naval terminology, even ashore (e.g.: "the head" (restroom), "port" (left side of something), "starboard" (right side), "the deck" (the floor), "hatches" (doors), "bulkheads" (walls), "aboard" (a base or other installation), "aye-aye" (in response to an order or command), "the fleet" (the Marine Corps' operating forces)). They probably use it even more rigorously than do sailors, which can be disconcerting and confusing to casual observers. Whether current or former, Marines take their job very, very seriously--not for nothing is the motto of the Marine Corps "''Semper Fidelis''," "Always Faithful" (spoken "Semper Fi," to rhyme with "temper pie"). Running afoul of the American military is bad no matter what, but if you run afoul of the Marines, then God help you. Many are [[Warrior Poet|fond of Rudyard Kipling]].

[[American Accents|And we pronounce Lieutenant]] ''[[American Accents|without]]'' [[American Accents|an "f" in the middle, thank you very much]].

 

 

The US military shares one tradition with the UK military and many others descended from the British model that isn't much spoken of: it is the non-commissioned officers [[Almighty Janitor|who get everything done]]. The noncoms--sergeants and, in the Navy, petty officers--are better trained and more professional than many other nations' commissioned officers.

* Your sat-nav. NAVSTAR GPS, developed for the US military and made available for public use after the KAL 007 shoot-down.

* Supersonic flight--first done by [[Danger Deadpan|the US Air Force]].

* US Space Exploration in general--the Titan space launchers were originally for [[Superior Firepower]].

* Antibiotics. In order to keep troops healthy, the US Military developed a way to mass produce penicillin in [[World War II]] to ensure every soldier would have access to some.<ref>Interesting aside: The penicillin was based on a sample from a moldy cantaloupe found in Peoria, discovered after a months-long nationwide search. That's right: to save thousands of soldiers and millions of others, the US Armed Forces dispatched people across the country to stick their noses in moldy fruit. Also, until then, it was accepted practice in the military for soldiers being treated with penicillin to collect their pee so the penicillin could be purified out of it--most of a dose of penicillin doesn't actually do anything, but rather gets expelled through the urinary system. When penicillin is cheap this isn't a problem, but when it's expensive...</ref>

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Forces With Firepower]]

[[Category:Useful Notes/The United States]]

[[Category:Yanks With Tanks]]