OT - here's an interesting military thought

[narf poit chez BOOM]

i have no how the us army gets officers, but it seems to me that the only sensible way to go about is to get them 'from the ranks'. throwing someone with little real expereince into a command position strikes me as foolish.

yes, i have been reading military sci-fi. the sos snippet is up on baen.com . and if you don't know what i mean, go here: http://bar.baen.com/WB/default.asp?a...d=31614&fid=37

[ February 12, 2004, 07:15: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[Paul1980au]

What about experience points for troops - perhaps planet facilities and a tech tree to support in the next patch training for troops. Perhaps each time they invade a planet - the home planet they came from gets experience points when they train troops in the future. You could get less EXP from invading poorly defended planets and more if youre troops manage to take a well defended planet ? or it could be put in as morale of home planet affects up to 10% troop performance in invading. Facilities to raise the morale of defending troops is an idea and also on board components that allow troops to train up to a certain EXP level. Not sure how to implement but discussion is there.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

oh. right. shoulda put OT in the title. sorry. and that's a good idea.

[ February 12, 2004, 07:16: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[General Woundwort]

Heinlein was big on this topic. His comments on it in Starship Troopers are absolutely scathing. In the system he described in that book, all officers had to be selected from the ranks, and the idea of training and commissioning a civilian to be an officer was mocked to scorn.

Heinlein must have served under a Lt. Niedermeyer type at some point...

[ February 12, 2004, 10:58: Message edited by: General Woundwort ]

[gregebowman]

Originally posted by General Woundwort:
Heinlein was big on this topic. His comments on it in Starship Troopers are absolutely scathing. In the system he described in that book, all officers had to be selected from the ranks, and the idea of training and commissioning a civilian to be an officer was mocked to scorn.

Heinlein must have served under a Lt. Niedermeyer type at some point...

Interesting enough, Heinlein was a Naval Officer. I'm not sure of his rank or when he served, but I do know that much about him. I haven't read Starship Troopers in about 25 years, and my copy is probably still at my mom's house somewhere. I'll have to get another copy and reread it sometime.

[tesco samoa]

From the ranks works great in wars for replacements.... But I think that the power of the rank is within the Corporals to Seargents. ANd all the classifications within those ranks. Not to mention specialation.

Since were talking army.

The lifers work with the command and make sure things run smooth.

Now for officers they also go through the ranks just that they start at a higher rank after they pass their training.

Then the issue of NCO vs CO comes into play.

And the question is rased. A soldier is good working with a team of 4 or 5 other soldiers. How does this make this person able to run a company?
It is very democratic in its structure.

Or are you talking about.... So and so's dad is this guy so lets make him a major.

In wars these people get weeded out due to the nature of the beast. In peaceful times it takes a little longer. But it happens.