02-19-2011, 12:00 AM | #1 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Mustangs and General Burgoyne's revenge
The (very dated) third edition of Dunnigan's How to Make War is extremely scathing about the custom of appointing army officers on the strength of wealth, social privilege, or education. It attributes the excellence of any army that has done things that way to superb NCOs, and it asserts that the US Army only became one of the very few armies that "usually get things right" after the early Eighties, when (it asserts) new and far more realistic training methods exposed inept officers and provided some of the advantages of the "trial under fire" system of developing leadership.
Dunnigan's four ways of creating leaders are
ObRPG I'm revising my SF setting, FLAT BLACK. In FLAT BLACK the "Empire" is an interstellar peace-keeping organisation that also provides extensive aid programs where needed, and which is forbidden by its constitution for exercising sovereignty on any inhabited planet, or from meddling with the internal affairs of any planet-bound state. The only troops it is permitted are c. 455,000 marines, which is far too few to present a threat to any of the economically advanced and politically powerful colonies. Imperial Marines are deployed as shipboard detachments (boarding parties for inspecting shipping and space stations, ready when necessary for insertion from orbit in Stealth Capsules (UT p.232)), garrisons in Imperial Residences on planets (for security, riot control if necessary, counter-terrorist work when necessary), and in sector reserve brigades (for peace-keeping "interventions" when the Senate approves). Each regiment rotates between these three roles on postings lasting some years (I have always made it five years, but I am considering cutting that back to three or even two). Imperial marines are light infantry (very poor in heavy iron such as armour and artillery). They are trained and deployed as commandos (i.e for brief intense raids against high-value soft targets (terrorists, CCCI)) and for peacekeeping patrols: they are neither trained nor equipped for field combat. I have previously supposed that training for enlisted marines was one year (sixteen weeks of recruit training, sixteen weeks of commando school, and sixteen weeks of either drop training, riot training, or infantry training) followed by a year of on-the-job training with ones unit. But I discover that SASR "beret-qualified" operators require up to eighteen months of training on top of standard recruit and infantry, and that Australian commandos require 60 weeks of training on the direct recruitment program (38 weeks to become a Commando Grade One, followed by 22 weeks of Commando reinforcement training). I am beginning to suppose that the complexities of being a versatile TL10 special forces commando may require two years of training. Anyway, the thing I wanted to pick the brains of the hive-mind over was Imperial Marines officer selection and training. Now, FLAT BLACK features a highly-developed science of psychology consilient with neurology, so it is possible to determine a person's psychological capabilities by means of a brain scan. The Imperial Service Recruitment Bureau uses this technology to select recruits, so there is little danger of selecting officer candidates unsuited by temperament to lead and command. Also, the Imperial Marines could easily and would certainly use realistic training methods such as would ruthlessly expose any inadequacy in officer candidates. And furthermore, the very long service careers of Imperial servants allow newly-commissioned ensigns to be assigned for at least a year to companies where they will be supervised by a company commander and CSM as well as supported by an experienced platoon sergeant. I have previously supposed that marines officers were directly recruited to officer training, which was three years long and included vocational training of an academic sort as well as material equivalent to the core of commando training. Now I am toying with other arrangements, including
Bearing in mind that I have thematic reasons for wanting to include homages to the British Empire of the mid-to-late Victorian period, and that I have thematic reasons to portray the Empire as competent, efficient, and free from corruption, advise me what Imperial Marines training and officer recruitment and training are desirable from a role-playing point of view.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. Last edited by Agemegos; 02-19-2011 at 12:15 AM. |
02-19-2011, 07:18 AM | #2 | |
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Re: Mustangs and General Burgoyne's revenge
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02-19-2011, 11:14 AM | #3 | |
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Re: Mustangs and General Burgoyne's revenge
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Also note that the key role of officers -- even, or perhaps especially, very junior ones -- in such a setting is to assess the political consequences of their units' actions, and adjust their means and ends to account for unanticipated risks and opportunities. As such, their academic training should fall somewhere between broad liberal arts and whatever passes for applied social sciences. This is likewise different than various military academies of the 19th Century, which were established to train engineering and hard sciences. I suggest: * A University education as a prerequisite. Like law school in the present-day US, no particular major or course of study is required. Rather, candidates are expected to demonstrate a faculty for critical thought, particularly on knotty political and social issues. * A formal, graduate level Academy. The course won't have to be long -- a year, or two at most. This gives the candidate the specific academic preparation the Service requires (including customs and courtesies) while addressing any lingering academic deficiencies. Having professional instructors and no "senior class" avoids the worst public-school foolishness. * A tour, probably at least a year, at an Imperial Residence as a supernumerary "observer." This is the equivalent of a medical internship: the candidates are still "under instruction," but they are expected to apply their academic learning to the analysis of real-world problems. Towards the end, they may be allowed (or required) to participate hands-on as "temporary, acting ensigns." * Commando school. The course is the same as the enlisted receive, and probably taught in close proximity. Separate "candidate's companies" allow the future ensigns to train on thinking and leading more than just executing -- but they should have a clear reputation as being more demanding. The newly-minted Ensign is probably 25 years old, ready to join his regiment with a detailed appreciation of his role. Assuming ~50 regiments and a 10-year rotation cycle (through garrison, shipboard, and reserve), there will be 5 regiments a year available to assign "observers." Ideally, the new Ensigns will complete commando school and rejoin these regiments as they rotate into shipboard duty. |
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02-19-2011, 11:24 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Sierra Vista, Arizona
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Re: Mustangs and General Burgoyne's revenge
In the StarFist series of books by David Sherman and Dan Cragg, all Marine officers have served a minimum of one enlisted hitch before being eligible for applying to OCS. It's been a while since I have read any of the books, but I seem to recall that the application process involved a combination of academic testing, an in-depth review of the applicant's service record, and the recommendation/endorsement of the applicant's Commanding Officer.
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02-19-2011, 02:02 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Mustangs and General Burgoyne's revenge
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You were a mustang, weren't you Ed? Do you think an all-mustang officer corps is compellingly plausible in the context? Do you think it is desirable from an RP point of view. Or would you advise me to keep a majority of Rodneys with a handful of mustangs among them, for variety in backgrounds for PCs and in characters for NPCs?
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. Last edited by Agemegos; 12-09-2014 at 03:16 AM. |
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02-19-2011, 04:03 PM | #6 | ||||||||
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Re: Mustangs and General Burgoyne's revenge
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So I imagine that in FLAT BLACK high school education will be much better than we are accustomed to, and that university training will be along specialised and vocational Australian lines rather than generalist liberal American lines. Quote:
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I reckon that with 450,000 marines of which 5–6% are officers I have about 24,750 Marines officers. If we say that the average service life of an officer is 45 years that means 550 ensigns getting commissioned per year and a slightly larger number of military interns. There are approximately as many interns to place as there are companies in the garrisons, and some of those are split up. We might have to place some interns with other companies that are in the field, such a intervention forces on deployment. Quote:
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02-19-2011, 07:31 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Mustangs and General Burgoyne's revenge
How common are operations? Before the eighteenth century it was often possible to have promotions tested by a near-constant state of warfare. In the absence of this, or of reasonably reliable simulations "merit" simply becomes patronage.
What are the political circumstances? Is the state obliged to skimp on military effectiveness for the sake of loyalty? The officer and the gentleman model does have the advantage of having an officer class who are familiar with one another's company since youth; "playing fields of eton and all". It is easier to test the merit of the officers of a naval force then a military force because a naval force has to deal with nature even in peacetime, whereas a land force from densely settled terrain does not. Just some thoughts.
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02-19-2011, 07:37 PM | #8 |
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Re: Mustangs and General Burgoyne's revenge
What are the service academies like, if such things exist?
Is there an equivalent of Westpoint, Saint-Cyr, or Sandhurst? You could always have a 'gentleman officer' tradition in the Army or Navy, and have the Space Marines do things differently. Is there a class like the junkers on one or more worlds? What sort of aristocratic militray traditions exist? Last edited by combatmedic; 02-19-2011 at 07:41 PM. |
02-19-2011, 07:46 PM | #9 | |
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Re: Mustangs and General Burgoyne's revenge
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I don't know much about spaceflight, astrogation,etc in Flat Black. 'Space is not the ocean', but is it plausible that the Imperial Navy has a peacetime proving ground of sirts in extraplanetary space? |
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02-19-2011, 08:29 PM | #10 | |||||
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Re: Mustangs and General Burgoyne's revenge
Pretty much constant. The planets that have little call for marines get few marines, most marines get sent places where things are going on all the time: colonies in general are about as well-run as states in Africa since 1960. The Empire has agronomists and public health workers and educators and civil engineers scattered at hundreds or thousands of project sites on each planet, and they are forever getting kidnapped for ransom or taken hostage by terrorists and rebels. On average there are ninety planets in a state of war at any time, requiring marines to anticipate and prevent massacres, the use of weapons of mass destruction etc. And the Imperial Senate approves five to ten interventions per year, in which marines are generally used to seize the government and CCCI assets before they can effect resistance. Besides all that there are riots and demonstrations at the typical Imperial residence several times per year, and many governments apply to their Resident for Imperial assistance in counter-terrorist actions.
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Total human population is 815 billion, of which perhaps half are aged between 18 and 80. Only 25,000 marines officers are needed. So if one person in a thousand was inclined to volunteer, Imperial recruiting could choose the top 0.75% by aptitude and reject 99.25% as temperamentally unsuited. Quote:
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The Imperial Navy I have decided ideas for. Naval officers are very nearly trained from childhood.Their academies are based on the Space Patrol academy in Heinlein's Space Cadet. Quote:
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. Last edited by Agemegos; 02-19-2011 at 09:08 PM. Reason: grammar |
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Tags |
commando, custom setting, flat black, military training, space marines, tl10 |
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