Because Everybody Wants to Hear Me Talk More

[smittywing]

In lieu of preaching to the choir (reccea, who is very patient with me), I thought I would meta a bit on various military misconceptions that I have been tripping over pretty regularly in the SGA fandom

Comments

[smittywing]

Sure, yeah. During flight training, the students put in a list of their top three choices for specialized training. The Air Force determines how many jet pilots they need, how many helicoptor pilots they need, how many C-5 pilots they need...that was a Delaware joke. They forward the breakdown of slots to the undergraduate pilot training school, and starting with the top ranking student, they fill those positions according to what the Air Force needs and the candidate's list.

For instance, if I put down "1) Fighters, 2) Helos, 3) Cargo" and I'm first in the class, I'll probably get a fighter slot. However, if I'm twelfth in the class and there's only 10 fighter slots, I'd better hope two of the people in front of me picked something else for their number one.

I once tried to figure out John's career by using this fact sheet that miss_porcupine dug up for me. I have this pet theory that he was once a fighter pilot who got shot down and took up with choppers after that but I'm easily swayed. (Mostly because the show's writers don't know the

[thepouncer]

I've been close to weeping about the military misconceptions I've encountered lately, but the things I've tripped over have been more basic, like "why you don't get high deliberately" and "it's possible to kill enemies without being a sociopath", so. Probably not much there you can enlighten people on. I'll be eager to read your thoughts on all these topics, because I know there's a lot I don't know (and thus tend to avoid when I write stories *g*)

[smittywing]

The "deliberately getting high" fics make me kick and scream. Not the least reason of which chopper pilots are the biggest control freaks in a profession of control freaks.

I...you're right, there's no speaking to people on the killing enemies thing. I mean, he said to Everett in Siege that he thinks about Sumner every night and it didn't so much come off as a "linger lovingly over the details" kind of confession. And I'm always fascinated that people choose closing the shield on the Genii over shooting the Wraith on the prison floor. (Which even Flanigan thought was politically relevent.)

There's really a lot that doesn't bother me, in the same way that men can orgasm three times in as many hours in fic doens't bother me. I just sometimes get this feeling that people are writing about the military as if it's this weird, foreign organization that Other People are conscripted into and not a bunch of normal people who wanted extraordinary jobs. That's mostly what bothers me.

[teaphile]

living conditions in Afghanistan.

Heh. Someone over on saucydwellings recently posted a picture of her room in Afghanistan. Not exactly the tents you find in fic.

I was wondering if standards of behaviour are different while in uniform/on base but not on duty. Obviously the question applies more to SG-1 than SGA, where everyone is always in uniform or on base. I'm thinking specifically of my Jackson/Cadman story; I had real problems with how Cadman should react when being chastised by a superior while on base but not on duty or in uniform. Feh.

[smittywing]

Dude, that's awesome! Thank you for linking that. :) Not tents and not private BOC suites either where they can just go and fuck without anyone blinking. *cough*

Hm, I'm not sure what you mean. Pretty much if you're on-base or in the presence of superior officers, you're going to need to act like you're in the military. In "Lost City" when Hammond comes over to Jack's and Sam stands when he walks into the room even though they're all in civvies and drinking beer at Jack's house, that's indicative of how you act around generals. Not being in uniform doesn't make you not in the military and while most good commanders will wait until the situation is um...official? to administer discipline, if something needs correcting right away, civvies won't stop them. Which tells you nothing except I'd probably need more info before telling you how Laura should feel. :P

[teaphile]

Not being in uniform doesn't make you not in the military and while most good commanders will wait until the situation is um...official? to administer discipline, if something needs correcting right away, civvies won't stop them.

That's pretty much what I thought. I never know if there are grades to these things, though, and you can learn everything about the way the military (or medicine or academia* or whatever) works in the real world and it will at some point have been contradicted by Stargate canon.

* You ranting about military in fic = me ranting about academia in fic.

[amireal]

I've had to remind people that promotions aren't as willy nilly as people think. Now I'm not an expert or anything and despite appearances I don't like to actually speak as I am when I'm not, but sometimes I sort of poke people and go "Um, 2 years as a Lt Col? No no promotion for them unless they are specifically transfered to a position that requires a certain rank."

*clings to you*

[smittywing]

Not even then - minimum time in grade required by law for a promotion from O-5 to O-6 is 3 years.

I have a link around here somewhere...

TIG

[amireal]

Although you can be promoted "below zone" regardless of Time in Grade. In the zone refers to the time in grade requirements for promotion and there's grunches of people "in the zone" that selection boards look at. But there is a percentage of slots set aside for below grade promotions - and even above zone promotions - that can vary according to service needs. For the USN, the acronym "RAPped" as in "Recommended for Accelerated Promotion" starts the process if you collect enough RAPs in your FITREPS (fitness reports in the USN)you can get a look at below zone. For the Air Force, I think it's OERs (Officer Effectiveness Reports) that the selection board looks at. Same difference, different nomenclature. So, yes, in addition to getting slotted for a job that requires a certain rank, you can be promoted below zone.
USN

Re: TIG

[smittywing]

I'm pretty sure Title 10 mandates a minimum TIG to be eligible even for below-the-zone promotions.

[piplover]

Thank you for this! I know Army enlisted, but diddly squat about Air Force officers. So, question. In the Army, an LT is assigned to a untit right out of school, and they switch platoons every four or five months. Do they do the same thing in the Air Force? Becuase I can so see Sheppard being the dorky new LT who everyone makes fun of, lol.

[smittywing]

Well, that would generally go under the class of things I don't know, because I was in the Navy, but if you're talking pilots, they'd TDY until their flight school class came up, and then they'd be in flight training for a couple of years. After that, they'd get shipped out to their first squadrons where they would likely be the junior guy in a bunch of officers. They'd probably have some sort of internal second job as...parachute officer, or something, and their contact with enlisted guys would be there, and also some with the guys who fix their aircraft. But they wouldn't be in command of them like the Army platoon officers are. In the Navy, they call the new fighter pilots "nuggets" but I'm not sure if that's universal. :)