US military question

[McKenna]

I don't think I knew it, but it doesn't suprise me. They make porn for every fetish that there is, don't they?

So I'm learning. It's an estimable challenge, really, to educate myself in these matters.

 

[Wildcard Ky]

So I'm learning. It's an estimable challenge, really, to educate myself in these matters.

Well best of luck in meeting your challenge. My only challenge of concern is getting a certain ex-military guy laid on a somewhat regular basis.

 

[Liar]

On a side note, since Liar seems to be done with this thread and I'm going to threadjack it, was anyone aware they make porn to suit miltary fetishes?

I wasn't.

Until recently.

My, what a sheltered life you must have lived.

 

[McKenna]

Well best of luck in meeting your challenge. My only challenge of concern is getting a certain ex-military guy laid on a somewhat regular basis.

I know, I know! Get married!

 

[McKenna]

My, what a sheltered life you must have lived.

Actually, yes.

Innocence is cultivated, no?

 

[Wildcard Ky]

I know, I know! Get married!

I AM married, hence the lack of regular sex.

 

[McKenna]

I AM married, hence the lack of regular sex.

Oops.

 

[R. Richard]

Jarheads!

Never do with artillery, what jarheads will do with a bodycount.

Sincerely,
ElSol

I work with both Uncle Sam's Misguided Children and the Navy SEALs out of Coronado. The purpose of each group is to do what they have to with a body count; preferably a body count of the enemy. I did have some trouble with the upper ranks in each service as I saw my job as reducing the body count of the people I trained to an irreducable minimum and then whittling it down still further with smoke, mirrors and deception.

By the way, each group likes to work with their own supporting artillery. The problems usually come when the high command is unable to supply the artillery and warriors have to do it on their own.

 

[Weird Harold]

I'm possibly writing a story, it's in the planning stage but I need a little info to get my timeline right.

If a young man signs up for military service, what period of time are we talking about? Different servce is probably different, but what he does in the military is not important. I just need a believable time frame. A year? Longer? Shorter?

A lot depends on the era in which your story is set and the branch of service involved. Also, there is a difference between when service member might first come home for a leave or furlough and when they might be released from service to pick up their civilian life.

The minimum time-frame you might have would be an Army National Guard recruit:

Six to nine months from the decision to enlist to a slot available in basic training and actual enlistment.

Six weeks of basic training followed by up to sixty days at home with "drill" one weekend a month, wiating for a slot in AIT or a Technical school.

Six weeks to two months active duty for training at a minimum for simple infantrymen, or possibly as much as nine months to a year for a highly specialized position -- like electronics maintenance, Intel, or Medical corpsman.

In all, an Army National Guardsman spends a minimum of six months and a maximum of two years on active duty for training and has a four year commitment once training is completed for one weekend a month and one month each year for continuing training.

Air National Guard involves a slightly longer training commitment and a longer minimum elistment once training is completed. Typically a minimum of one year intial training and five year commitment after training is complete.

During the Vietnam era when I enlisted in the USAF, I waited nine months for a slot to open once I commiteed to enlist. I spent six weeks in Basic Training and went directly from Basic to Technical school without being allowed Leave enroute, which was a quirk of timing rather than a hard restriction; many of my contemporaries did get leave out of Basic before technical school

Technical school for my career field (F4 Weapons Control Systems) was nine months -- at that time, the third longest Technical School course the USAF had; the longest was two years and the second longest was one year. All USAF technical schools were subsequently compressed about 30% through the 1970's and new career fields over the next twenty years were designed from the start to be less than six months.

At the end of Technical School, everyone was granted "PCS Leave" of up to thirty days, and had to "use or lose" thirty days of leave each year after that to the end of their enlistment.

In 1968 when I enlisted, the minimum enistment in the USAF was four years and that remained the minimum for the entire 21 years I served. Certain career fields required an additional commitment -- that two-year school required a three year extension, for example.

In the same time frame, a draftee was enlisted for two years and a voluntary enlistee was enlisted for three in the Army and Marines. The Navy was comparable to the USAF, but stricter on requiring extensions of enlistment to qualify for long technical schools -- usually a one-for-one extension for any training over six months.

Given the wide variety of military services to choose from around the world and throughout history, you can pretty much design your own time-line past about a month's minimum.

I can't think of any standing army in history that has required less than two weeks training at a minimum with most settling on a month to six weeks as the minimum time to turn a recruit into a soldier. Beyond that minimum initial training, a recruit might return home at any time either on leave/furlough or discharged for any of millions of reasons -- medical, bad conduct, disolution or defeat of the army, or just assignment to the "hometown" garrison as militia or garrison personnel.