Consequences for MIA Eagle Squadron Officer
And a question of my own:
This one is for the Doctor Who / Torchwood fandom, which, as far as my very limited understanding goes, plays fast and loose with World War Two military details, but as I have literally no experience with military culture, I'd thought I better ask anyway.
So, here goes: January 1941, a young American volunteer (71st Eagle ( Read more... )
This one is for the Doctor Who / Torchwood fandom, which, as far as my very limited understanding goes, plays fast and loose with World War Two military details, but as I have literally no experience with military culture, I'd thought I better ask anyway.
So, here goes: January 1941, a young American volunteer (71st Eagle ( Read more... )
NB: My background is US military, but some things work across all western military situations - I'll note that at the start.
1. 133rd: it would ENTIRELY depend upon *how* he disappeared. If he disappears in a bombing and his body is not found, he's very likely to be labeled MIA. If he disappears by not showing up for duty one morning? That's AWOL and eventually a dishonorable discharge - and yes, the real young man would be out for blood because it's hard to get work with a dishonorable... This would be true in both US and UK, desertion is not forgiven easily. If he disappears on leave, he'll be branded a deserter and hunted down. Both US & UK frown on that one.
2. As for an American volunteering for the RAF - not all that unlikely, especially before we got into WWII, but he'd need a clean record as (I believe) the RAF would check with the US military before taking him (Good Character and all that). Kicked for "Homosexual"* would be dishonorable (or maybe medical if you had a REALLY sympathetic Doc) - but neither would set you up for a turn in the RAF. He needs to exit the US Military Honorably to get into the RAF.
3. What might have stopped him from entering the US Military? The right kind of important job - my grandfather was disallowed because he was more valuable as an electrician (what might be thought of as an Electrical Engineer today) - others were told to stay home to keep producing food - tho most often it was highly technical work that would keep you at home - the women took over otherwise ;>.
4. Air time? Cropduster, stunt flyer, "wealthy hobby" if really wealthy - I'm sure there are others, but that's all I can think of at the moment ;>.
5. Doctors and Lawyers were the most likely to be given an officer rank without going to officer school (possibly the only, but certainly the most common). As for Captain (which is an 03 rank in the army, but an 05 in the Navy as a "Navy Captain" is equivalent to an "Army Colonel" in the US), 31 would be fine for Captain (army style) - but yes, young for "Colonel" equivalent - unless he were promoted in the field because a lot of his superiors didn't survive a bombing or some such. Again, no one gets "officer" if they "deserted"- Period. You have to make him MIA - and then he'd STILL have some 'splanin' to do when he popped back up again.
*The term "gay" meant "happy" in the 40's - at least in the mainstream culture. Hell, it still did when I was a little kid in the early 60's. The LGBT community didn't adopt "gay" openly until later - and the mainstream culture didn't pick it up till the late 60's, early 70's, depending on what part of the US you were in.
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Actually in the US, O6 is Colonel/Captain - O5 is Lieutenant Colonel, or Commander.
However, if we're using the NATO OF structure (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranks_and_insignia_of_NATO) then it's OF-5, as they don't distinguish between the two levels of lieutenants.
A Group Captain is an OF-5, and it's conceivable someone could be one at age 31, as Desmond J. Scott was one by the time he was 27, and Leonard Cheshire was one by 26.
WWII had a LOT of fast promotions, if one was good enough at the job, or volunteered early enough.
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As for promotions - right - lots of battlefield promotions - tho I'm more familiar with the army than the navy/air force for field promotions (more likely to be available slots on the ground...).
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I was going by this comparison chart:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_and_United_States_military_ranks_compared
So maybe he could have made it to Major in the USAF, then resigned when he found out about the US' neutrality in the beginning of the war, in order to volunteer with the RAF and enter at Squadron Leader level. After a few months with the 71st Eagle Squadron and a quick battlefield promotion to Wing Commander, he got offered the position of Group Captain in the 133rd Squadron, based on his leadership abilities. (Canon has only one episode with him for me to draw on, but it's pretty clear that he's the one keeping the younger, hot-headed volunteers in line by force of will and by being their commanding officer.)
Does that work?
(Though I'm still wondering - wouldn't a squadron only have one Squadron Leader, and a Group Captain should therefore stand above that level in the organisational pyramid? How can he be reassigned from one squadron to another?)
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I was SO psyched to get a "challenge coin" from 133 Eagle/336 FS.
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1. Well, the imposter was free for the evening and there was an air raid going on. Instead of going into the shelter like he was supposed to (though not ordered), he took a stroll outside telling the others that he wanted to go meet a girl. And he never came back. They never found a body. (He left by invisible spaceship.) If I'm generous, I can have one highly respected Army officer, who personally knew him and liked him, give a confused report about how he last saw the guy paying him a visit at the gate to a restricted area the Army officer was guarding, which was then blown up a few minutes after - later assumed by a German bomb. Thankfully everyone else got out in time... somehow. (The Army guards were temporarily brainwashed during the incident which led to the explosion and the imposter's disappearance. Given the events leading up to all this, the whole incident would probably be hushed up by the government.)
So, technically it wasn't "in action", but there are good reasons for people to assume he was pulverised in the explosion. On the other hand, I'd be just as happy if it would be considered desertion.
Job prospects won't be an issue for the volunteer. I mentioned the fandom because there is a lot of time travel involved. Basically, the volunteer really does die in canon and we know about him only because the imposter, older and wiser now, falls through a rift in time from 2008 to 1941 and meets the guy whose identity he stole on the evening before he's shot down. In the story I'm planning, the imposter figures out a way to rescue the volunteer before he dies (he really likes him), but since the guy has no place in history anymore, he has to relocate him to the 21st century and give him a new identity. Which will inevitably lead to the volunteer finding out about the identity theft, and the imposter owns up to the desertion as well. My question is: Will the volunteer be angry just because his honour was tarnished and he didn't get some posthumous medal, or were there real, financial consequences for his family if he didn't go down in history as KIA?
2. I read that the first few American volunteers in the RAF lied about their backgrounds and pretended to be Canadian, because the US officially weren't getting involved yet. So how thorough can the background check have been? Though as far as I understood, the Eagle Squadrons came after that, so people didn't have to lie anymore.
I was hoping that an officer with an otherwise exemplary record could have gotten away with a discharge for other reasons after being accidentally outed, as long as it wasn't too public. But I guess I'll just go with him voluntarily resigning specifically in order to volunteer with the RAF instead. He does seem pretty deep in the closet. During his stay in the UK he has a beard and everything.
And yeah, I know "gay" is a newer term. It was just for the purpose of description in this post.
5. No, he introduces himself as "Captain" after what can at most be a few months volunteering with the first Eagle Squadron he's in. The imposter later uses the same rank before he deserts, but that's just part of his con.
Lawyer could work... But I think I'd be happier with a military career in the USAF and then an as-smooth-as-possible switch to the RAF. He just seems so... proper and calmly authoritative, as if born for the role of command, and hiding his fear so well, that I'm beginning to think his father must have been an officer, too.
But that would leave me with the rank/age problem again: Even if he was promoted once or twice already while with the RAF, that would still mean he'd have to go into the volunteer position with a previously earned rank of at least Major (USAF). Is about 30 too young for that during peace time? (The US not being involved yet in 1940.)
Or did the previous rank and military experience not matter at all with the Eagle Squadrons, given that a military background was not a prerequisite for volunteering with them? Did they just create their command structure from scratch, putting people directly into ranks they seemed suited for? Though why would a squadron even have ranks above Squadron Leader? *confused*
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2. I'd go with "resigns his commission" - it's peace time for us and wartime for them - that did occasionally happen. Being kicked out for Gay is Dishonorable and would bar you from jobs, apartments, country clubs and more. Kicked out for Moral Turpitude was a hard rep to beat - Discharged as Psychologically Unfit was the best he could hope for - courts martial and imprisoned if found having sex with a man? Not at all uncommon.
5. If he did Officer Acadamy with USAF, he would owe minimum 4 years - then he could resign and sign up with RAF. Peace time promotions were slower than wartime - though I've met a few majors at 30ish, it's certainly not common. The "young" ones tend to be in their mid-thirties.
New problem: I just remembered, the USAF wasn't formed till 1947 - before that, they were simply part of the US Army. So your young man needs to be either:
World War I as Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps
World War II as United States Army Air Forces
Depending on which side of WWII he was on when he served/resigned. I don't know if that's a problem for you, but it's useful information ;>.
My sense is that 30 is too young for peacetime Major - but 33 isn't. Lots of men didn't make Captain till 28 or 29 and you spend a few years in rank before promotion. If you can find yourself an oldtimer (contact the VA?), they'll have a better sense of what it was like in their youth ;>.
OTOH, if you want him to enter the RAF in 40/41 - what duckodeath says is spot on. You could even make him younger, like 25, just out of grad school, when he volunteers.
OTOOH, people lied about their age all the time and a volunteer with military training and flying experience who was 33, but said he was 31 would very likely be taken on a wink and a nod. That was a rough period for the RAF as duckodeath says. A LOT of rules were bent to the point of breaking before the US finally got off it's duff and got into it.
As for Eagle Squadrons, I really don't know anything about them specifically - but if they're made of military men, they'll likely adhere to military traditions either way...
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