US vs UK Carriers ?

We just enjoy being mean... :evil:

 

Hey now, the epaulette is pretty cool. Can I get one of them?

 

Well, I'd hate to join the infantry because you'd likely die in your first battle. Infantry's important, but infantrymen are vulnerable to about everything. If I was forced to join the military, then I'd be in the Air Force flying B2s because they are safe.

 

Actually I think that although more people die in the Army than the Navy and Airforce, the casualty ratio is lower because the Army is that much bigger... Think about it, if you were a soldier you might have seen three major battles throughout WW2 (unless you were on the Eastern front) but in the Airforce you might be required to fly regular sorties every single day which puts you at risk of enemy fighters or AAA

 

Good point. Still, I like to be safe and fly B2s.

 

flying military aircraft is dangerous even in peacetime..my dad was in a natioal gaurd fighter squad (he was a teenage armorer) in the late 40s over 10 years almost half the pilots were killed ,just in accidents..military ac are not built with saftey formost in mind..

 

That's why I'll never, ever, join the military.

 

They sunk a WW2 aircraft carrier off the coast of Florida as the worlds biggest fake reef. Took them over nine months of hacking and cutting(most of which was removing hazardous waste- lead paint, wiring. that kind of stuff) and something like 20 explosive charges to sink her.

And they sunk her upright.

PS: I'd join the military if they cut out oh....90% of the parade crap. Knowing how to stand straight won't help me in combat.

 

But that part is still essential. It instills discipline and obedience to commands, which is necessary if you are ever going to get soldiers to run forwards at somebody who is shooting at them.

 

Discipline is the only difference between an army are a well armed mob.

 

Ebar has a point. Well-armed mobs can have the best guns, RPGs, bazookas, maybe even a few AFVs if they managed to steal them, but only armies have discipline.

 

And the armies will win in the end usually.

 

Blaster:
One lesson I have learned from many years of living is "Never say never." They may decide to reinstate the draft by the time you come of age... depending on what country you call home.

On the issue of never wanting to be an infantryman...

Sometimes 'grunts' saw a platoon of tanks as nothing more than a group of large, noisy, thrashing beasts that did nothing but draw fire that turned them into coffins for their crews.

Many would have rather burrowed a bit deeper in their foxholes than to be a ball-turret gunner in a B-17 or B-24... sitting there flying straight and level in unpressurized aircraft at subzero temps, while '109s and Focke-Wulfs shot them to pieces. The 8th Air Force suffered tremendous losses in aircrews as they attempted to take the war to German Reich.

Be a fighter pilot?
Sounds like a dream come true... unless you were a US Marine aviator early in the war, flying F2A Buffalos off Midway island against the superb--at that time--Japanese Zero. Or a P-39 pilot trying to mix it up in an aircraft that couldn't get above 16,000 feet. I imagine they were always getting bounced from above.
I've often wondered what motivated them to fly so eagerly to their deaths? They will always have my heartfelt admiration.

Very few would have traded places with submariners either. The vast majority of sailors in German subs went to the bottom... their ranks saw some of the highest casualty rates of any service during the war.

Nope, sometimes, being an infantryman is no worse than any other service... and occasionally a bit better in terms of survival-odds.

Tim

 

the parade ground crap is all about conditioning young men to obey without thinking ...like pavlovs dog ...and so it has always been and will ever be ...democracy and free thought are not welcome in the military with good reason...

 

Yep. Any military organization cannot be a democracy if it is to be effective in combat. Some people can't get that fact through their heads. :roll: