Yanks With Tanks: Difference between revisions

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: ===

America currently practices "asymmetrical warfare," which involves exploiting [[Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors]] and "[[Attack Its Weak Point]]" strategies to maximize effectiveness. "Asymmetrical Warfare" is a natural evolution of the military doctrines formulated after the [[American Civil War]], which caused the brass to realize they'd rather expend money and material than lives.

 

 

A statistic will [[Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics|say anything if you torture it hard enough]], but the guesses are that there have been between 1.7 and 2.7 million Americans casualties in war, varying by your definition of "casualties" (do non-lethal injuries count?), "war" (does the Bay of Pigs invasion count?) and "Americans" (what about stuff during the Thirteen-Colonies period?). Dating from 1776 and taking the largest figure, that works out to an average of 11,500 deaths a year. (In comparison, since the 1980s about 40,000 Americans have been killed per year in car crashes.)

* The '''Grumman F-14 Tomcat''', the Navy's version of the air-superiority fighter, was a carrier-based interceptor that was famous for starring in ''[[Top Gun]]''. It was retired in 2006 in favor of the Super Hornet. Designed to defend US carrier groups against bomber attack, it acquired an air-to-ground role late in its career, taking on the nickname "Bombcat" as it did so. The fighter's calling card are its "variable geometry" or "swing" wings, which (controlled by onboard computers) move back and forth from almost-straight-sideways to way-swept-back depending on how fast the plane is trying to go. The F-14 project took many of its parts and pieces from the cancelled F-111B, including its engines, its missiles, and it's swing-wing configuration. The plane was in fact built around the ability to fire the F111-B's AIM-54 Phoenix long range air-to-air missile. The US never actually shot anything down with that missile (it was designed for use against Russian bombers), but the sole country to which the F-14 was exported has made use of it. Shortly after delivery, that country had a revolution and is now quite hostile to the United States. That's right, we sold Tomcats to ''[[Useful Notes/Iran|Iran]]''.<br /><br />Sadly, this fact was partially what motivated the Department of Defense to not only retire the Tomcat but to [[Shoot the Dog|completely destroy nearly all the retired planes]], in order to ensure that Iran doesn't have access to the parts needed to maintain their own F-14 fleet. There are rumors that [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Corrupt Corporate Executives]] may be supplying them with smuggled scraps to replace what can't be repaired.

* 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]]''.

Different branches have different stereotypical images in fiction, too:

* 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.

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

* Special Operations units will usually be depicted separately of everyone else. They're either depicted as [[Badass|badasses]], or they are [[Worf Effect|handed a red shirt to demonstrate just how deadly the villain is]].

 

[[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]].

 

=== Ranks in the US Armed Forces ===

* Does a [[Space Marine|Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy]] outrank a Sergeant Major in the Marines? <ref>Kinda. Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy is the most senior enlisted man in the navy, an E-9. The Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps would be equivalent to John, but Johnson is simply a Sergeant Major; this is equivalent in paygrade (E-9), but not in authority. Of course, this raises all sorts of questions about why they'd give John a pay rate/rank that usually goes with an administrative job--not to mention why Johnson is able to act like [[Mission Control]] and give him orders.</ref>

* Does a Colonel from the Space Forces outrank a Naval Captain? <ref>No, but only because Captain Eisen is ''[[The Captain|The]]'' [[The Captain|Captain]] of [[The Battlestar]]; under other circumstances, Blair's rank would equal his. Additionally, Blair is also [[Mark Hamill|Luke Skywalker]], which probably gives him seniority over [[Hey, It's That Guy!|some judge]] who [[Liar Liar|sentenced Jim Carrey]].</ref>

The stereotype is nothing new; as far back as [[World War II]], there were rumors that the US Army Air Corps bombed friendly targets as often as not. There's a number of reasons why this stereotype has become so prevalent, though:

 

* '''Unique duties.''' In many cases, the United States military is the only force necessary with enough equipment--or even the ''right'' equipment--to perform a certain task; for example, few countries field an attack aircraft similar to the A-10, and replacements for the F-117 are thin on the ground as well. This means American forces might fly the lion's share of certain sensitive missions and/or are often called in to support units of other nations.

* '''[[Poor Communication Kills]]'''. In supporting the units of those other nations, the average American soldier has to deal with soldiers that don't use the same procedures, technology, or even the same language as him. Cross-training and standardization through outfits like NATO are supposed to help with this sort of problem, and sometimes they do... but sometimes they don't. Even within the military itself, [[Interservice Rivalry]], or even just a case of [[Right Hand Versus Left Hand]], means that not everyone is up on the same plan or even using the same newfangled [[Awesome but Impractical]] radios, or targeting gear, or other piece of equipment that's barely out of [[Obvious Beta|beta]].

[[Category:Useful Notes]]

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