(no subject)
I almost didn't post this, because I hate such things. But given the intensity of my courseload right now, any chance to vent is welcome. So - I apologize. Perhaps this will serve to explain some things to people (like my aversion to music videos, for one.)
I still have newsfeeds to Military.com and similar websites.
Yesterday I saw a video from the 3rd ACR, an armored/air cav regiment stationed in Iraq. It was a music video, set to 'The Clincher' by Chevelle. There are hundreds of these things floating around.
The video was simple: just a montage of CAS footage. And, by that, I mean bombs hitting stuff. It was the kind of detached footage you see on TV, shot from the aircraft that launched the weapons: just a greyscale overhead view of some section of Tal Afar, with a crosshair superimposed over it. And after a few seconds, there'd be a puff of smoke and a building would vanish.
Same thing over and over. The ordinance and targets changed, but the general scheme of things was always the same: a few seconds of silence, Tal Afar sliding past beneath the camera, and then a detonation synced to the music.
I could hear radio chatter on some of the clips. "Renegade, this is Fox Five, if they're wearing man-dresses they're not with us, over."
On the last shot you could see a man walk out onto the roof of the target building just before weapons impact. There was a lot of laughter over this in the forums - the discussion included members of the unit that'd submitted the video. "Boom!" one poster said. "Camel parts everywhere."
I used to watch these things by the handful - not specifically CAS videos, just militaria in general. I'd devour them. I know it seems ridiculous, being affected by a secondhand war; there's no reason it should weigh on my mind, especially in comparison to the burden the actual troops have to bear.
Still, I feel vaguely dirty. This whole mindset comes to weigh on you, after a while; you talk military for long enough and you start to think that way. Which is again, stupid, because it's all secondhand, make-believe soldiering.
I can watch a video of an Apache making an attack run in Afghanistan, and spot the moment when the pilot fumbles for the appropriate switches (he should've had had the RMS set for quads or ripple fire, the silly.) I can freeze-frame it and identify the source of every single puff of smoke or vague light (RPG there, tracers here, flares from the Apache's break into the attack run.)
I'm never going to be in a situation that requires me to use that skill.
I can't dance, or speak a foreign language, or...well, you see. It's wearing on me.
If I'm being too ridiculous, just post and yell at me.
I still have newsfeeds to Military.com and similar websites.
Yesterday I saw a video from the 3rd ACR, an armored/air cav regiment stationed in Iraq. It was a music video, set to 'The Clincher' by Chevelle. There are hundreds of these things floating around.
The video was simple: just a montage of CAS footage. And, by that, I mean bombs hitting stuff. It was the kind of detached footage you see on TV, shot from the aircraft that launched the weapons: just a greyscale overhead view of some section of Tal Afar, with a crosshair superimposed over it. And after a few seconds, there'd be a puff of smoke and a building would vanish.
Same thing over and over. The ordinance and targets changed, but the general scheme of things was always the same: a few seconds of silence, Tal Afar sliding past beneath the camera, and then a detonation synced to the music.
I could hear radio chatter on some of the clips. "Renegade, this is Fox Five, if they're wearing man-dresses they're not with us, over."
On the last shot you could see a man walk out onto the roof of the target building just before weapons impact. There was a lot of laughter over this in the forums - the discussion included members of the unit that'd submitted the video. "Boom!" one poster said. "Camel parts everywhere."
I used to watch these things by the handful - not specifically CAS videos, just militaria in general. I'd devour them. I know it seems ridiculous, being affected by a secondhand war; there's no reason it should weigh on my mind, especially in comparison to the burden the actual troops have to bear.
Still, I feel vaguely dirty. This whole mindset comes to weigh on you, after a while; you talk military for long enough and you start to think that way. Which is again, stupid, because it's all secondhand, make-believe soldiering.
I can watch a video of an Apache making an attack run in Afghanistan, and spot the moment when the pilot fumbles for the appropriate switches (he should've had had the RMS set for quads or ripple fire, the silly.) I can freeze-frame it and identify the source of every single puff of smoke or vague light (RPG there, tracers here, flares from the Apache's break into the attack run.)
I'm never going to be in a situation that requires me to use that skill.
I can't dance, or speak a foreign language, or...well, you see. It's wearing on me.
If I'm being too ridiculous, just post and yell at me.