Challenge: You a military here
- Thread starter mattep74
- Start date
Well...I'm only 17 so if maybe we get technology to get stuck somewhere around 15-16 hundred and have me become a Prince or powerful noble who was expected to command armies at an early age. And then managed to prove on the battlefield that I'm as much a military genius as i think i am...it's possible.
Hmmm, well maybe if I joined the ADF instead of goin off to uni, and became an officer, then got sent off to East Timor during the INTERFET intervention in 1999. My unit becomes involved in a firefight with pro-autonomy militias who are a much greater threat than OTL, then under my leadership the enemy are fought off with heavy losses and I get awarded the DSC, maybe even the VC 
Or maybe if I was in the ADF as an UNMO in Timor in Sep 1999 once the referendum violence breaks out, and tog with the other unarmed int'l civ, mil, and police UNAMET staff am compelled to try to protect as many local civs as poss from the militias thru sheer force of personality...
Or if likewise I signed up in the ADF, was accepted into the SASR, got sent to Afghanistan after 9/11 (after also serving in covert ops in ET), and myself and my sqn distinguished ourselves in action against much larger nos. of Taliban, including in support of cut-off and surrounded US forces (as occurred OTL during the Shah-i-Kot fighting IIRC, where the pinned-down 10th Mtn and 101st Abn guys were rescued by the actions of a nearby Australian SAS patrol)
Or maybe if I was in the ADF as an UNMO in Timor in Sep 1999 once the referendum violence breaks out, and tog with the other unarmed int'l civ, mil, and police UNAMET staff am compelled to try to protect as many local civs as poss from the militias thru sheer force of personality...
Or if likewise I signed up in the ADF, was accepted into the SASR, got sent to Afghanistan after 9/11 (after also serving in covert ops in ET), and myself and my sqn distinguished ourselves in action against much larger nos. of Taliban, including in support of cut-off and surrounded US forces (as occurred OTL during the Shah-i-Kot fighting IIRC, where the pinned-down 10th Mtn and 101st Abn guys were rescued by the actions of a nearby Australian SAS patrol)
Hendryk
Banned
Me a military hero? Something would have to go pretty badly indeed in world history for that to happen. In OTL, I practically feigned insanity not to do military service (I was called up a few years before it went all-volunteer). I claimed I had a drug habit and a number of psychological problems; they had me examined by a psychiatrist (probably the one who filters out the obvious fakers), and then another, and eventually they came to the conclusion I was unfit to serve.
In fact nobody in my family has worn a military uniform in the last 60 years. A bunch of bleeding-heart pacifists is what we are.
In fact nobody in my family has worn a military uniform in the last 60 years. A bunch of bleeding-heart pacifists is what we are.
Let's see... I was born in 1980, and USSR and Ukraine employed (in case of the latter, still employ) draft, so there would have been a chance of me ending up in the military if I had not moved to the US in 1996, albeit fairly small unless there was a war where they would draft college students (which they do not do).
Now, alternatively, say I not only end up staying in the Ukraine, but end up enrolled in the military academy instead of civilian university. Thus, by the time I am in my early 20s, I am an officer in Ukrainian military. Come 2003, and US-led invasion of Iraq proceeds as in OTL, with small number of Ukrainian troops (including yours truly) sent in afterwards to hold some apparently strategically unimportant place as a part of the "coalition".
While there, I end up a commander of small regiment on patrol that is ambushed by a superior number of insurgents, and get to be lucky enough to not only survive the shootout, but to also destroy or capture all of enemy combatants while suffering little or no losses. Repeat it a few times, and by the time I return home, I am a decorated war hero...
Of course, there is a usual scenario of joining the army/navy/marines/air force, and ending up in Iraq or Afghanistan - bonus points for taking part in capture of one of bin Laden's top cronies or even the man himself, but that is way too close to OTL... I would have been 22 at the start of Iraqi war, so it would have been just the right age to end up in the Gulf had I ended up in the US military for whatever reason (although I would have to have been really disillusioned at the time with college, my career, my music, relationships, and just about everything else to decide to "screw it all" and go off and join the military).
Or, another scenario. The relatively peaceful initial breakup of USSR leads to war between Ukraine and Russia some time between 1994 and 1996, possibly over Crimea or Black Sea Fleet (which has been feared in Ukraine at the time might come to pass). Things go so badly for Ukraine that they have to draft 14-16 year olds as Russia simply has much greater numbers, and, in TTL they are hell-bent on retaking Ukraine through force. Give it a year or two, and I can distinguish myself somehow... there it is, a fresh-made military hero that is not even legally able to buy cigarettes, let along alcohol.
Now, alternatively, say I not only end up staying in the Ukraine, but end up enrolled in the military academy instead of civilian university. Thus, by the time I am in my early 20s, I am an officer in Ukrainian military. Come 2003, and US-led invasion of Iraq proceeds as in OTL, with small number of Ukrainian troops (including yours truly) sent in afterwards to hold some apparently strategically unimportant place as a part of the "coalition".
While there, I end up a commander of small regiment on patrol that is ambushed by a superior number of insurgents, and get to be lucky enough to not only survive the shootout, but to also destroy or capture all of enemy combatants while suffering little or no losses. Repeat it a few times, and by the time I return home, I am a decorated war hero...
Of course, there is a usual scenario of joining the army/navy/marines/air force, and ending up in Iraq or Afghanistan - bonus points for taking part in capture of one of bin Laden's top cronies or even the man himself, but that is way too close to OTL... I would have been 22 at the start of Iraqi war, so it would have been just the right age to end up in the Gulf had I ended up in the US military for whatever reason (although I would have to have been really disillusioned at the time with college, my career, my music, relationships, and just about everything else to decide to "screw it all" and go off and join the military).
Or, another scenario. The relatively peaceful initial breakup of USSR leads to war between Ukraine and Russia some time between 1994 and 1996, possibly over Crimea or Black Sea Fleet (which has been feared in Ukraine at the time might come to pass). Things go so badly for Ukraine that they have to draft 14-16 year olds as Russia simply has much greater numbers, and, in TTL they are hell-bent on retaking Ukraine through force. Give it a year or two, and I can distinguish myself somehow... there it is, a fresh-made military hero that is not even legally able to buy cigarettes, let along alcohol.
The POD is the US establishment overthrows the US government in 1970 when Nixon decided to surrender in Vietnam and I become a hero in the revolution as I upheld my oath to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States.
They did not in fact overthrow the government, there was no fighting, and I did not become a hero for cultural reasons I did not understand till I read "Generations" by Howe and Straus much later, and learned that it's only self righteous generations like mine (and Bush Jr's) that overthrow the government, not Silent generations like the one that was running the military that year. Eisenhower or Truman, maybe, but not their generation.
Those generations just want to buy a home, raise a family, and get a bass boat when they retire. Too bad they aren't all like that. I predict interesting times now that lunatics like me and my generation are in charge.
I went over to L-5 in 1979 when Kingsbury and Arnold published the specs for a cheap way to get to orbit and I got involved in space colonies and stuff. Which is why Bush, Jr's overthrow of the government is your business instead of mine.
Next Year In CircumLuna!
They did not in fact overthrow the government, there was no fighting, and I did not become a hero for cultural reasons I did not understand till I read "Generations" by Howe and Straus much later, and learned that it's only self righteous generations like mine (and Bush Jr's) that overthrow the government, not Silent generations like the one that was running the military that year. Eisenhower or Truman, maybe, but not their generation.
Those generations just want to buy a home, raise a family, and get a bass boat when they retire. Too bad they aren't all like that. I predict interesting times now that lunatics like me and my generation are in charge.
I went over to L-5 in 1979 when Kingsbury and Arnold published the specs for a cheap way to get to orbit and I got involved in space colonies and stuff. Which is why Bush, Jr's overthrow of the government is your business instead of mine.
Next Year In CircumLuna!
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The smell of the Jungle is in your nose
as is the smell of fear coming of your self
You are the FNG and this is your first patrol
The all hell beack lose
you freze
The Guy next to you goes down.
you see the enemy is less then 40 yards a way
Thats when you open fire and kill your first man .
It seems like the fire fight lasts an hr.
but it last only 2 min .
The Cong are gone .
But the boy's who are hit are sceaming for there mommies as they die .
FNG= Fucking new guy
as is the smell of fear coming of your self
You are the FNG and this is your first patrol
The all hell beack lose
you freze
The Guy next to you goes down.
you see the enemy is less then 40 yards a way
Thats when you open fire and kill your first man .
It seems like the fire fight lasts an hr.
but it last only 2 min .
The Cong are gone .
But the boy's who are hit are sceaming for there mommies as they die .
FNG= Fucking new guy
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Only way this would work for me would be if I wasn't born with all those pesky physical birth defects like a bad heart and back.
If this is the case, I probably would have ended up as a U.N. Peace Keeper during the mid-late 90's--with Bosnia and Rwanda and the rest of the missions a distinct possibility. Quite a few opportunities for outstanding military actions to be done during those missions.
If this is the case, I probably would have ended up as a U.N. Peace Keeper during the mid-late 90's--with Bosnia and Rwanda and the rest of the missions a distinct possibility. Quite a few opportunities for outstanding military actions to be done during those missions.
For me to be a military hero would require either A) a radical alteration in my basic personality, so that I'd volunteer for military service or B) for my family to have made Aliyah, so that the IDF drafts me.
Grey Wolf
Donor
mattep74 said:
If my childhood asthmas hadn't decided that it was not extinct but only dormant in 1998 then I may well have gone the route of joining the army or RAF as a graduate...but as it was when I pushed myself training at night I almost died and couldn't breathe properly for 3 days
Hmmm
Grey Wolf
Hendryk
Banned
Nope. There are few wars indeed in French history that I would have fought in. Possibly the only exception is WW2, when, assuming I could muster the courage, I would have joined the Free French, or, failing that, fought under the British or Canadian flags. But, honestly, I ain't the stuff soldiers, let alone heroes, are made of.Othniel said:
Simple. Either I stay in the USSR, which lasts longer, join the Army, and participate in an antiterrorism mission, distinguishing myself by singlehandedly killing, Rambo-style, 34 terrorists that have holed themselves up in an apartment block, or else I join the USAF after being naturalized and distinguish myself in Iraq, or in North Korea or some similar Third-World hellhole.