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Stage, Vigi, and Opex pay..

a1b2c3

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Why I feel some warmongering among many younger forum members? Do guys you think war is such a lot of fun? I really don't know, but I'm pretty sure that's stop to be fun when guys next to you start dying.
Google Sebastian Junger and anything he has written about ‘war’ and conflict... He's probably the one best person that sums it up the best. “Funâ€￾ isn't the word most would use... it's really hard to describe.
There's really is only one way to find out. If you haven't been, you really don't have anything to add to the conversation.
 

DCLXVI

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Rapace,

Yes, I can be whatever you want me to be. Not smart, whatever you want me to be. I don't give one flying f*ck anyway. I am not deserting and doing my contract. Zero f*cks mate.
 

dusaboss

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Google Sebastian Junger and anything he has written about ‘war’ and conflict... He's probably the one best person that sums it up the best. “Funâ€￾ isn't the word most would use... it's really hard to describe.
There's really is only one way to find out. If you haven't been, you really don't have anything to add to the conversation.

Sorry, but have to add something. :)

I'm already familiar with name and work of Sebastian Junger. I have high respect for him and agree with majority of what he says. He really wound unique way to describe what happening in men's (at least professionals) head during armed conflicts.

From my humble perspective I think he is closest to truth from all man I heard talking on subject.

Highly recommended for everyone here to check on Sebastian Junger.
 

Rapace

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Google Sebastian Junger (...)
I knew of Ernst Jünger, WW1 soldier and author of Storm of Steel, a good novel about war, but never heard of Sebastian Junger...
 

Aolain1

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I knew of Ernst Jünger, WW1 soldier and author of Storm of Steel, a good novel about war, but never heard of Sebastian Junger...
Yes! One has to love Jünger... Infantry officer, Pour le Mérite decoration. Nazis tried to use him as a propaganda figure and he would not play ball with them. I use to assign his book in university Western Civ & military history classes. The students, the 10 percent who were not candidates to flunk out loved the book. And if memory serves, the more high quality female students particularly liked the book. Go figure.

Oh! And Storm of Steel isn't a novel, it is his war memoirs.
 

dusaboss

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I knew of Ernst Jünger, WW1 soldier and author of Storm of Steel, a good novel about war, but never heard of Sebastian Junger...

You should check on him. He is a war journalist with tendencies towards psychology and philosophy.
 

Rapace

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Yes! One has to love Jünger... Infantry officer, Pour le Mérite decoration. (...)
The “Pour le Mériteâ€￾ was among the most prestigious Prussian decorations, created by King Friedrich II in the XVIII[sup]th[/sup] century. The title is in French, language used at that time in many European Royal Courts. It means literally For Merit and could originally be awarded to civilians or soldiers, until it was decided to reserve it to servicemen only.
According Wikipedia Ernst Jünger was the last surviving recipient of the decoration, when he died.


(...) the Nazis tried to use him as a propaganda figure and he would not play ball with them. (...)
Jünger's attitude towards the Nazis was ambivalent. Like most of the ‘old school’ Prussian aristocracy, he scorned them, in particular Hitler himself nicknamed “the Bohemian corporalâ€￾, because they didn't belong into their upper cast. On the other hand he had some form of admiration for the renewed military grandeur that came along with the III[sup]rd[/sup] Reich.

(...) Oh! And Storm of Steel isn't a novel, it is his war memoirs.
Yes. I must have confused with All Quiet On The Western Front by Remarque.
 

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I've interacted with probably a dozen different Armed Forces just in NATO alone. They are all pretty much the same.

The only Force I've ever really been completely enamoured with is the US Marine Corps, who I consider to be a truly elite conventional force. Oh and I think Brit soldiers are very good mostly because you master the basics from what I've seen.

Outside the Americans, almost every military is severely lacking in money, equipment and resources. Conventional units in Canada are a grind without an actual war to fight. Troops spend a lot of time sweeping the floor and Officers spend a lot of time cranking out routine administration.

Why Thank You Canuckroyal
 

USMCRET

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Why I feel some warmongering among many younger forum members? Do guys you think war is such a lot of fun? I really don't know, but I'm pretty sure that's stop to be fun when guys next to you start dying.

If you want to be in the FFL or any other Military Like the United States Marine Corps Dusaboss, you better get over one thing, (when the light goes green, I have a need to bleed you) part of a Marine Corps song, you better be willing and ready to kill. Anything short of that, you will get those around you killed, no exceptions! No one likes war; however, when it comes to it after all else fails, those whom fight the hardest, fastest, and use all assets they have at their disposal will win.
 

USMCRET

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Like you said, Dusa: younger forum members. Guys that ain't fought before. There's a quote by some old Roman – Dulce Bellum Inexpertis – which roughly means “War is sweet to the inexperienced.â€￾ Billy Sherman meant much the same when he told a group of cadets that “War is hellâ€￾. Both of them had a point.

However, Erasmus and Sherman aren't telling the whole truth: yes, war is mostly a shitty experience, but it isn't all bad. There are fun times, too. Now, normally, Haji has his shit together (after all, he generally only fights on ground and at a time of his own choosing). However, every so often he'd utterly cock things up in spectacular, glorious fashion, and we'd make him pay for it.

For instance, one would-be sniper in Mosul in early 2008. We were a Route Clearance Patrol, riding around looking for IED's in the Domeez neighborhood in SE Mosul. There was one street in particular that nearly always had IED's on it, and you could count on taking small arms fire and/or RPG's along the route. It was this weird deal with a huge median between the lanes, kind of like Canal Street in New Orleans. Nasty bombed-out place, named Route Broadway.

So we get maybe 300 meters down Broadway, and surprise, there's a possible IED in the median. Naturally, we stop and check it out, and as per usual, Hajji starts taking pot-shots at us. Ordinarily, it took us a bit to figure out where the SAF was coming from; often, Haj would spray one burst and then haul ass, and we'd never find him. Not this time, though. Down the street, maybe 200 meters from our lead vehicle, was a little single story, flat roofed, kebab stand, with this tiny tree in front of it. We're taking fire, gunners on the vehicles are scanning their sectors for the asshole shooting at us... and then, the wind picks up.

The tiny tree in front of the kebab stand blows to the side, and there's hajji, FNG-type, standing now-completely exposed on the roof of said kebab stand, still hammering merrily away on semi-auto with his AK, wearing his little track-suit and blissfully unaware of his imminent doom. After months of taking fire from an unseen foe, here, at last, is he, in all his retarded glory.

We lit his monkey ass UP.

That was a fun time.

Mark 19s or 50 Cals? Man, you are right most smart Hajjis are alive, the average ones are dead.
 

Crawdad

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Mark 19s or 50 Cals? Man, you are right most smart Hajjis are alive, the average ones are dead.

IIRC, a mix of 7.62 from the lead RG's 240 and 25mm HE from the 2nd vic in the order of march, which was a Bradley.

Yep. Just when you think we've killed all the stupid ones, another one wins himself a Darwin award. Iraq may yet wind up a failed state, but we've done wonders for their gene pool.
 

USMCRET

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IIRC, a mix of 7.62 from the lead RG's 240 and 25mm HE from the 2nd vic in the order of march, which was a Bradley.

Yep. Just when you think we've killed all the stupid ones, another one wins himself a Darwin award. Iraq may yet wind up a failed state, but we've done wonders for their gene pool.

Amen Brother, get some!
 

DCLXVI

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USMCRET,

25 mm will, imagine 30...

I took the TOP (SC1) stage as a gunner for the 30 mm attached to the new VAB. Love the white hot/black hot. I could blow your car to piece at 1000 meter with just 20 rounds. God, that joystick was so fun, and how easy it was. The Legion uses the American system, SC1. It's the first and now older system, but it still sends coffin nails down range and I loved the stage!
 

Rapace

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USMCRET,

25 mm will, imagine 30...

I took the TOP (SC1) stage as a gunner for the 30 mm attached to the new VAB. (...)
A 30 mm cannon on the successor of the VAB..?! Let me put things straight. The equipment due to replace the VAB (in French Véhicule de l'Avant Blindé, that could be translated to English as Frontline Armoured Vehicle), in service in light infantry regiments and some others branches, is called VBMR ‘Griffon’ (Véhicule Blindé Multirôles, Multipurpose Armoured Vehicle). Its main armament will be a 50 cal heavy machine gun and a 7.62 machine gun fitted on a remotely operated turret. No 30 mm cannon, or maybe in your dreams.
To be exhaustive on the subject :
• The VBCI, already in service in some mechanised infantry regiments, like 2e REI, has a 25 mm cannon.
• The successor of the AMX-10 RC, in service in light cavalry regiments like 1er REC, is the EBRC ‘Jaguar’ (Engin Blindé de Reconnaissance et de Combat, Combat and Recce Armoured Vehicle) and will have a 40 mm CTAS (Cased Telescoped Armament System) cannon.
 

DCLXVI

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Rapace,

I sent that from my phone, it was an auto correct error. The whole predictive text thing. I wrote all that without really proof reading. It is correct, it is the 25, not 30. I don't know why my phone put it out that way. It always battles between numbers, French, and English. I used the SC1 and stick system, Have the videos, too, that I made. I guess I didn't word that well, either. It was the VBCI, and not the VAB, We just call the VBCI, the " New VAB" in REG.
 
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