USMC Minutiae for Marine Character Background

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Probably not. More likely a career officer would have been promoted by then - but not too far up the ladder. Just invent a 1st LT or Captain company commander who had what it took to stay in the Marines after WW2 - like being an Naval Academy graduate with an excellent combat record. Assuming a late war Captain (perhaps Class of 1943 or 44), McBride's patron could be a Major or Lt. Colonel by 1950. That would put him in position to be XO of a Marine Battalion. Say that McBride bumped into his old commanding officer from Okinawa at 29 Palms soon after rejoining the service and mentioned that he hadn't received an assignment yet. The XO is always on the hunt for good NCOs so he goes to his CO (a Colonel or Brigadier General) and says, "You really want this guy; do what you have to to get him."

That sounds very plausible.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

It depends on how bad things were. Junior officers are most at risk in combat, so plenty of experienced NCOs ended up being given commissions as platoon- or company-level officers when some shave-tail 2nd LT got himself killed due to inexperience. (E.g. Audie Murphy, who had a background similar to McBride's). In combat talent and experience counted a lot more than formal education, but there was the strong assumption that battlefield promotions would either confirmed by sending the NCO off to Officer's Training School or would be rescinded as soon as properly trained officers were available. McBride obviously fell into the latter group and was probably relieved that he could be back with his men again.

Yeah, also, you didn't need to actually promote Gunnery Sergeants to have them commanding platoons. Their shave-tail was dead or wounded, so they were in charge until they got a new one. I can see McBride commanding a platoon at Chosin or even Okinawa at the end of WWII, but there's no special reason to assume that this involved a formal promotion for him, certainly not one that was ratified by Army bureaucracy afterwards.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Keep in mind that some of that gear might be war trophies. He might have acquired a katana or tanto which was already been enchanted or which houses the spirit of its former owner whose spirit was somehow bound to the weapon as he died. Potentially an adventure to get a willful weapon, instinctively hostile to non-Japanese, to cooperate.

Other WW2-era Japanese weapons were likely to be crap, fit only be traded to gullible Navy men who wanted battlefield souvenirs. Ice cream, canned fruit, whiskey, and beer would have had a lot more appeal to a combat Marine than a clapped- out Nambu pistol.

It's theoretically possible that McBride might have brought back war trophies. During WWII, Korea or Vietnam, of course, the setting was our world, so enchanted weapons wouldn't be any different from other weapons, but weapons with a lot of history might exhibit powers in the world of the setting by now.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

U.S.-made equipment was more likely to have been acquired as "war surplus" after the fighting ended, although McBride might have smuggled out a customized/Weapon Bond M1911 ACP pistol or two and perhaps a Bowie-style or Marine Raider stiletto. Long guns are more likely to come from his service as a Texas Ranger, but he might have managed to retain some slightly unusual or customized long gun from his Guadalcanal service, like a shotgun or Springfield M1903 rifle (pre-war issue, but accurized as a sniper rifle, perhaps with carved notches from the butt to the stock representing McBride's WW2-era kills). Ignoring their sentimental and enchantment value, weapons like that could have serious monetary value to a collector. Presumably, that enhances their enchantment potential.

All true.

Note that once it became clear that enchanting steel TL6+ artifacts would only be practical when working with something with strong symbolical and personal connection with the user, it's plausible that McBride's employer would use his influence, connections and billions to track down the weapons he used at war, by now either transferred to allied nations or sold as surplus through the CMP.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Given the level of work you've put into this guy, his remarkable toughness, and the fact that it's a horror campaign, he's just begging to show up as a ghost or revenant. Not necessarily hostile, but certainly "restless dead." Great roleplaying potential as father and son discuss things they could never talk about when McBride was alive. Potentially a Contact or even a (secret) Patron.

It's possible, though I was just going through the backstory of an NPC that appeared on screen, his son James 'Jimmy' McBride (b. 27 June, 1950; Anahuac, TX). Jimmy also served in the USMC (in Vietnam) and he was also a Texas Ranger, but feels that compared to his father, he is soft and inadequate.

From the perspective of everyone else, Jimmy McBride is the kind of granite old coot who makes hardened thugs a third of his age **** themselves.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Yeah, also, you didn't need to actually promote Gunnery Sergeants to have them commanding platoons. Their shave-tail was dead or wounded, so they were in charge until they got a new one. I can see McBride commanding a platoon at Chosin or even Okinawa at the end of WWII, but there's no special reason to assume that this involved a formal promotion for him, certainly not one that was ratified by Army bureaucracy afterwards.

Very plausible.

A fun bit of back story might be if McBride actually acted out to avoid promotion to officer rank. "Sir, I ain't no Loo-tenant nor Captain, neither. You gonna either bust me back to Sergeant so's I can stay with my men or else I'm gonna to have to whup ya, an' ain't neither of us gonna like that . . . "

Originally Posted by Icelander

Note that once it became clear that enchanting steel TL6+ artifacts would only be practical when working with something with strong symbolical and personal connection with the user, it's plausible that McBride's employer would use his influence, connections and billions to track down the weapons he used at war, by now either transferred to allied nations or sold as surplus through the CMP.

That would require a huge amount of effort since the U.S. government had literally millions of small arms at the end of WW2. Many of them went to "foreign assistance" to developing countries in the 1950s and 60s and would be nearly impossible to locate without supernatural means.

For simplicity and dramatic reasons, let McBride develop a fondness for weapons he uses in combat. As a (likely) Sergeant or Gunnery Sergeant, he'd have a certain amount of leeway to customize his government issue weapons, and perhaps a bit of untrained Armoury Skill. He'd tweak any gun he was issued to give it the Weapon Bond perk. If his son is similar in size and build, the Weapon Bond might work perfectly for him, too. Near the end of WW2 and Korea, he'd break down his gun into its component parts and ship it home, claim it was lost or destroyed, and get issued a new weapon. (There are funny stories from the era about GIs who tried to mail home a jeep part by part. A pistol or rifle would be much easier and more plausible to steal.) Presumably, his wife was indulgent enough to save the package until he got home to reassemble it.

Originally Posted by Icelander

It's possible, though I was just going through the backstory of an NPC that appeared on screen, his son James 'Jimmy' McBride (b. 27 June, 1950; Anahuac, TX). Jimmy also served in the USMC (in Vietnam) and he was also a Texas Ranger, but feels that compared to his father, he is soft and inadequate.

Fun back story. You've got a truly badass character who feels like a wimp compared to his Old Man and feels the need to constantly prove his worth. Pity that the son is also an NPC, because there's some great roleplaying there. There was a lot of tension between WW2 vets who had a "nice" conventional war vs. their kids who had to fight a morally-ambiguous and poorly-thought out guerrilla war in Vietnam.