Lionel Walden
Lionel Walden (American, 1861 – 1933)
I know it’s been a long while (Jellybots moves at the pace of my spare time, which is pretty slow these days), but things in the Jellyverse are stirring, so here’s Page 6…
I stayed up late last night, throwing together some ink and color for the latest in this series of Redwall/Martin The Warrior character pieces ^___^
Rowanoak is just the loveliest- co-founder of the Rambling Rosehip Players- prop-mistress, cart-puller, seamstress, baritone and formiddable badermomma warrior! She was such a great character from the book, and her friendship with Ballaw was lovely (see above)
Fur and Freedooommmm!
😀
WAHEYY!
I just wrapped up another delightful Twitch stream with some of you fine human beings- the result is that Ballaw De Quincewold- Head Hare of the Rambling Rosehip Players from Martin the Warrior is here to put on a show those rotten corsairs won’t forget in a hurry!
I love Redwall and specifically Martin so much- it’s been a blast bringing some of my favorite childhood characters to life. They’ve been living in my head for decades ^_^
I’m really excited about how this came out- hope you enjoy it, and come tune in to future streams over at:
http://www.twitch.tv/nicholaskole/BLOOD ‘N VINEGAR! EULALIAAA!
Are soldiers in the reserves given different duties in war time to soldiers who have been on active duty?
Reserved soldiers can be deployed and serve as active duty soldiers at the discretion of the army, typically to non-combat areas. Reserves and National Guard are also the ones who respond to national emergencies and natural disasters, which the active duty army typically wouldn’t do.
Reserves are also under the command of the state, unless called upon by the federal government.
Given this, it rather depends on what kind of unit it is and whether we need that unit to be activated. Otherwise, Reserves and National Guard pretty much get to keep having normal lives. They have to show up like once a week and do training and sometimes go on field exercises. So our duties would be completely different in that case. But if they’re deployed then our duties would likely be about the same, although active duty normally scoff at Guard/Reserve because they’re just “weekend warriors” and aren’t soldiers 24/7 like we are.
A note: we’ve been in war time since 2001, but units don’t necessarily deploy regularly because of it. Depending on someone’s contract, MOS, and whether they PCS, they might get through several years without seeing a deployment, or never see one at all.
I hope this was a sufficient answer to your question!
-Kingsley
Could you give me a basic rundown of how radio callsigns work in practice?
Sure. I’m remarkably surprised by how little information is accessible on this on Google.
The tl;dr of call signs is that they’re numerically designated to specific personnel and often titled based on the unit.
Units will have a specially designated call sign. It’s usually based on the name of the unit, but not the letter, meaning Charlie company wouldn’t use Charlie or C. But if Charlie Company’s like…title mascot thing is Warriors, then the call sign might be Warrior, or something thematically related to warriors like Sword.
The highest ranking officer, in most cases a company commander, will be call sign number 6. So to call your officer it’d be Warrior 6. The senior NCO, typically a first sergeant, would be Warrior 7. 1-4 will usually refer to the various platoon leaders, so Warrior 1 might be first platoon. There might be an additional designation for the platoon sergeant, such as Warrior 1A, or the platoon sergeant might be Warrior 1. Depends on the unit. 5 would usually be the XO.
So a call sign list might look something like:
Warrior 1 – 1st Platoon
Warrior 2 – 2nd Platoon
Warrior 3 – 3rd Platoon
Warrior 4 – 4th Platoon
Warrior 5 – Company XO
Warrior 6 – Company Commander
Warrior 7 – Company First SergeantNot every soldier has a unique call sign and surnames are not used as call signs. You might have a unique codeword to refer to your specific section, but that’s about it. For units with less than four platoons, Warrior 4 might be delegated to someone else, maybe logistics or maintenance or something.
Supposedly saying “Actual” is supposed to indicate that the person speaking is the actual person speaking rather than a commo guy doing it in their stead, but I’ve got no personal experience with this.Finally, a note to remember that all soldiers are trained to use a radio. There’s not always going to be a commo guy (probably a 25C) with complete control over the radio. Everyone should know how to use radio etiquette as well, which is another mythical TBA original post I’d like to make at some point.
I hope this is enough to get you started!
-Kingsley
Army Jargon Masterpost
It’s finally here! ScriptSoldier’s Army Jargon Masterpost. This is a list of army slang as best as I can recall it, but I do not consider it fully complete. This is the slang I can remember as best I can or with as little input as possible. As such this masterpost will never be entirely complete and will be updated periodically, so check back frequently and make sure you’re always up to date!
A note: I have avoided putting most of the more offensive slang, but there is some slang that has sexual allusions and probably others too. It’s hard to fully weed everything out. I’ve also only gone up to battalion level because that’s as far as the average soldier is probably worried about, but there’ll be more information on my military units post.
Please also remember that this is
1) An ARMY Jargon post, so no kidding there’s no AF/USMC/Navy slang on it.
2) Jargon can often be specific to certain parts of the army or even certain units, meaning I’ve inevitably missed some and there will inevitably be slang on this list that’s uncommon except in certain circles. It’s jargon. By nature it’s impossible to fully catalog it.
Hiya! So, I have a futuristic story in which there are aliens who use a military system based primarily on Earth’s (mainly U.S.) systems. My character is in charge of his own unit, regularly goes out into the field for, say, rescue missions, assist to planetary (foreign) defence, and destroying illegal research facilities. He also has the authority to issue commands to units other that his own, in the field. What is the most likely rank for him to be?
I’d like to just clarify a thing: soldiers can only issue commands to people in their own units. I mean, formally speaking. Sometimes higher ups will walk by and tell privates to start cleaning or something and we just have to do it because we don’t want trouble, but no one can just grab soldiers from unrelated units and make them do stuff Because Rank. At least, they aren’t supposed to. So as far as that’s concerned, there’s no rank for that.
In a war zone, especially with limited communications, soldiers might team up with people from other units in order to complete their mission. Sometimes someone might fill in for or be sent over to assist your unit; I know we swapped mechanics sometimes if we needed hands. In that case it’s less about rank being important and more about mission necessity. War zones will almost always have some exceptions.
But just like. You know. Generally speaking you can’t walk up to some random guy in uniform and be like “you’re working for me now” and expect it to work. One of the first things in the army we learn is that we do not leave our assigned place of duty without the proper authorization, so even if a colonel walked up to me and told me to go with him I’d still track down my NCO first. Anyway that was longer than I intended sorry.
Other than lieutenants, officers aren’t typically spending a ton of time doing fields and exercises and such. They usually delegate missions in the field to an NCO and the appropriate sized unit to perform the mission. So especially if your guy regularly goes on field missions, especially to destroy buildings, I’m guessing he’s an NCO.
Because it’s clear you’re intending for this person to have more power than the average NCO and yet you want them to actually attend the missions, I think a platoon sergeant E-6/E-7 (staff sergeant/sergeant first class) might be alright. They’d be a platoon sergeant in charge of between 30 – 50 people, which would be in a company consisting of about 100 – 200 people. Above them would be their first sergeant, an E-8, and their company commander, a captain, O-3.
A SFC (sergeant first class) is considered a “senior NCO,” implying longevity and experience. They usually delegate down to squad leaders (of whom they’ll usually have three to five) but will often be in the field with their platoon. They might go on missions like you’ve described, although more likely they’d be sending someone else to do the hardest stuff. It’s just a fact of the army that the lower rank you are, the more you’re sent to do because there’s more of you and you’re more expendable.
If your facilities are very specially dangerous missions, I probably wouldn’t bat an eye if a SFC went in the line of fire/ assaulting the building as well, whereas with a first sergeant I might give you a side-eye and wonder what he’s doing all the way out here when he’s got a whole ‘nother company to be looking after. Unless, you know, the entire company is there assaulting the same location and he needs to organize it. But usually it’s not that simple and I’m not sure you want to be working with 100-200 soldiers regularly.
It also wouldn’t be that unlikely for a SFC to use soldiers from other platoons. They’re all in the same company, but they’re different units, and platoon sergeants are usually cool enough that they’ll lend each other hands when needed. Plus people from other units would recognize the platoon sergeant and be more likely to fall right in if their leadership has failed. It’d be a little trickier if you went up another level because then a first sergeant would be looking at someone from another company, another beast entirely. Internal affairs within the company are easier. I’d be much more likely to trust and leave with another platoon’s SFC than I would be some random colonel I’ve never been before.
I did say it’s reasonable for a lieutenant to frequently be in the field with their platoon, so your character could also be a first or second lieutenant, and the platoon sergeant will probably work closely with them so most of what I’ve said applies to them as well. But that rank implies incompetence and newness, so that might not be the air you’re going for. Up to you.
-Kingsley
Inspiration Haven 