Military Stuff I know about (Just a little info here)

Well, what do I know about the military? I guess I know about some things; the army in particular. I can tell you about the chain of command. Officers, for instance, arent enlisted, everyone else is. At the top of the enlisted ranks is a "Command Sergeant Major he has 3 rockers under 3 chevrons with a star (surrounded by oak leafs) separating them in the middle.<<< ))) : something like this but turn the "<" toward the top. Under him is a plain sergeant major with just a star between the rockers and chevrons, then you have what's called 1st. (first) sergeants who have the same rockers /chevrons but have a diamond between them. Usually this Noncommissioned officer is incharge of personel at "company" level. Under him is the Master Sergeant who has just rockers and chevrons (3 each also) but nothing between them. Then, under him is a SFC (sergeant first class) who's rank looks like this:<<<)). Then the Staff Sergeant: <<<) . Then the sgt (sergeant) : <<< (also known as (buck sergeant) then corporal << who is the same pay grade as a specialist who sports a tiny shield as a rank symbol. The corporal however acts as, and is for all practicle purposes, considered an nco. Under the specialist is the pfc, then the private (e-2), private (e-1).

Okay, that's the Non comissioned officer rank structure. Now Let's talk about some weapons:

I've personally fired the m-16a1/a2/a3 ... I've fired the AT-4, the LAW (light anti tank weapon), m-60 machine gun, claymore mines, gernades, 44 magnum rifle (civilian) 9mm pistol, 357mag, 38cal, and more.

I loved my m-16. There is a target we use that looks like graph paper with a circle in the center. Depending on where each 3 round shot group hit (assuming they hit in a relatively small cluster) could be adjusted by moving the front and rear sights of the weapon.


I drove military Hummvees (how ever you spell it. The "nomenclature" of the one I drove was an M1028 (shelter carrier). They don't use keys to start, they have a switch that's located on the left side of the steering wheel. The way the vehicles are locked is via a steel cable that's welded to the floor that wraps around the steering wheel then gets pad locked... When I drove mine, I was concerned with the lack of armoring the vehicle provided. The doors and ceiling were a vynal/rbberized... the body of the vehicle (hood) was fiberglass, and the only metal was located just to the front of the rear wheel (a kind of faux door to a nonexisting back seet).

Once, we had loaded all our vehicles on a train removing all their wind shields, and packing them in a seperate container, to go to the desert. When our wind shields got to the desert, 90 percent of them were broken.

The army has what they call CQ or (charge of quarters). CQ consists of an NCO and a subordinate who stay by the phone, awake, during off duty hours. Their purpose is to be a point of contact in the event that the troops need to be alerted. Also, they served as telephone answering people (receptionists) for the barracks, and watchmen to ensure help is called in the event of an emergency such as fire/fight.

I hated CQ... especially after staying up the entire night before. Have you ever gone more thatn 48 hours without sleep... starts messing with your head, doesn't it?

I was commo, I could tell you about some of the older stuff, but I cant say anything aboout the newer stuff unless i feel like going to jail... We used a AM Radio for some of our long distance and teletype needs. It was an AN/GRC 106 with an md522 modem. We used an old, ancient, encryption device (which shall remain nameless), a UGC-74, teletype, and a teletype that was so old it ran that ticker tape stuff like in the '40's and 50's... The equipment I used was tucked into a camperlike shelter, nestled in the bed of a chevy pick-up. I should say, I spent many a night sitting in that shelter just flipping through all the frequencies on that radio listening to allot of different things. Our frequency range that the radio would operat in wasfrom 29.999 MHZ down to 2.999 mhz ... I recieved lots of ship to shore commo, and plenty of overseas religious services as well as sthe nucleur clock in grenich village. This clock can be heard on just about all frequencies that are multibles of 5.

Our more advanced commo equipment consisted of radios that only transmitted and recieved info as data streams that could be multiplexed. Some of those radios changed frequencies at regular intervals making interception of transmissions next to impossible.... not to mention other electronic precautions that were made in this effort.

Our uniforms, Fatigues (BDU's) were ugly, unless they were pressed. Our pants had to be "bloused". That is, they had to be tucked into our boots, then pulled out a little to that they draped about an inch bellow the top edge of the boot neatly. A frequent problem I have with military movis where the army is shown in bdu's is they never have the earplug case that we were always required to decorate our bodies with.

I have to say, I tried to watch that FOX show "over there" but I couldn't because it seems to me that the entire show is unrealistic. One thing, we never got our lieutennant's attention by yelling just plain "lieutennant!" We'd say, "Lieutennant Beck", or "Lt" but never lieutennant. Also, the army, especially in the field is no where near as formal in day to day contact with each other as the show makes pretend. In the field, officers are not to be saluted, for instance. Also, soldiers stop standing at parade rest when conversing with nco's shortly after boot cam, and they don't do about faces when a conversation is over, even if the conversation is a butt chewing. The only time we did an "about face" to an officer or anyone else was during a soldier of the month interview, or some other formal interview by superiors, or when in formation being inspected by an officer.

Well, that's all for now... Tell me, if you read this, does it mesh with your view of what the army is like?