Posts
As a veteran, it's nice to be deferred to on military topics because I'm a veteran.
BUT!
A veteran, with no other qualifiers, isn't an expert on everything military. Especially if the veteran is a Marine.
The USMC seems to inculcate the idea that they are subject matter experts in everything military and that they should expound on it every chance they get.
I'd put my being a history and military technology nerd over being a veteran as to why I know what I know.
The military technology nerd thing fueled my decision to join, as a matter of fact.
That nerd factor is why wanted to see how things work, and take them apart.
So don't defer to someone just because they're a veteran because you end up with BS like, "The M9 pistol is too heavy and bulky when you're already carrying 100 lb. loads."
Sweetie, damn few soldiers carrying 100 lb. loads get a pistol. And most of them get that load spread out to the rest of the platoon.
I looked it up. There's a TM on it. I used it when I was geeking out making Twilight: 2000 stuff.
So, either our veteran is/was an officer, radioman or a non-rifle support weapon... Or they weren't lugging those loads on their back.
I was issued a pistol. Past basic I never lugged a significant load on my back with that issue pistol. The tank carried a shit-ton of gear. Me not much.
When I "got" to lug heavy loads around, I wasn't issued a pistol. I wasn't an officer, didn't carry a radio or a specialized weapon.
As to the M9 being too heavy and bulky? As tankers our main complaint with them was the janky Bianchi shoulder holster. We all changed back to the old, leather, M9 holsters as soon as we were allowed. The gun fits, so why not?
And having been in one particular war does not make one an expert on all wars, everywhere. That was what tripped us up in Vietnam---the people in charge were mentally still in WWII, and couldn't grok the fact that Nam was nothing much like the Big One.
ReplyDeleteLots of expertise from WW2 theaters was flat ignored because we were in a European war mindset.
DeleteBut that wasn't even half our problem in 'Nam. Idiotic decisions from Lying Bastard Johnson are the core.
I disagree with Techo's assessment of 'Nam was nothing much like the Big One.' It was nothing like the Big One in the European and Mediterranean theaters.
DeleteIt was very much like the Pacific Theater. Very very much like fighting the Japanese in the central and western Pacific. Tunnels, booby traps, the enemy using everything they had to fight.
It was, as Angus said, overcontrol from the White House and Rules of Engagement that were restrictive. That, and the eneMedia was pretty much firmly on the commie side.
You're of course correct, and you're only a subject matter expert yourself because you've taken the time to self-educate widely, down to the minutiae level (your GURPS project among other reasons driving no small part of that), but the only thing worse than a former military person opining about military matters is a lifelong NON-military person opining about military matters. They literally don't know what they don't know, and driving home that point is frequently painful, if not futile.
ReplyDeleteI can only find one internet worth of exemplars, many of them well known to the commentariat here and many other spots.
Just because someone speaks English doesn't make them an expert on Shakespeare either, but they're almost always a better blind risk than someone who only speaks some obscure Turd World dialect.
I usually just say I was an expert in "Combat Engineer Stuff" 30 years ago... But things have changed a lot and I would not assume everyone else (tankers, infantry, etc.) did things the same silly way we did them. But just me I suppose, and just Army not a Marine :-)... With the M9's, we got them "late", but I do not recall our tankers (CEV) getting fancy holsters... They were pretty happy to keep the older leather ones from the 1911's.
ReplyDelete