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I've recently been picking up characters that have military/special ops sort of backgrounds and engage in that sort of work frequently, however I have always been pretty dismal at setting up the particulars of missions, picking up the particulars of the speech patterns and so on. Same for spy characters, though obviously they do different things than your standard infantry soldier or someone trained in infiltration.

I was wondering if there was any general advise or references that people used that helped in this sort of area. Or something handy about the different type of firearms/equipment. I'm doing some reading/research on my own but it would be nice to talk about it with other people who play similar characters in a rp format.

Military culture varies by branch, country, and to a point, if you're enlisted or officer. Is there anything specific you wanted to know anon? I was Navy officer but I've worked enough with the other branches to know a bit.

That's really true. I should have added more specifics but we're mostly talking US Army here.

Navy will obviously differ but could you talk about like 'we need to go here to do X' sort of situations or 'This is happening' sort of briefings? Or what your basic training was like if you want to ramble about it?

Also, perhaps, the mindset specifically of being in the military- which obviously differs but I've read frequently that the way you go at things is just a little different so if there's any changes between that and civilians that you've noticed or would point out?

If there's some generalities of military service that really get glossed over.

I'm just sort of throwing a lot of questions, no pressure in answering them!

Hmmm I don't know too much about Army, and a even less on GI since land based procedures were very rare since I was 182x , i.e. POG, but there's usually a massive laundry list of shit you go through before even attending a briefing. Typically we tried to keep them short and sweet, professional and brief, but they often drag, your given the information you don't need and never the kind you do. Afterwards you get to start assembling your ruck bag, going through inspection, and having your squad leader make sure everything's in order, they you're not hungover (most are), and that your gun can actually shoot and you assembled it right

Oh, and there are tons of briefings. So many. Some only officers or Intel will attend, some are for everyone and then you'll often have even more if the situation changed or if something new popped up. Often you'll go through a laundry list of officers who'll give the BLUF on the situation. There's also post briefings , but those suck less unless something went incredibly fucking pear shaped.

You'd think the military would be the first to know or break news of developments, but thanks to the Internet and social media, sometimes grunts hear about stuff before we even get notice to assemble.

I didn't have to go through basic again since I went to Academy, but our first year is typically like that. It's tough, but the hardest part of it isn't the physical requirements, it's the mental stress. Imagine one of the lowest point in your life, you're always tired, you always feel gross, and multiply that by 10 because your RDC makes you feel like a worthless piece of crap. Small random trivia but the army calls theirs drill sergeants, and no one does the 'sir sandwich'. The 'sir yes sir' thing went out of vogue in my experience, we referred to ours by their rank.

I typed this on my phone at work and my fingers are dying, but I'll finish the rest when I get home if you'd like.

Oh although one caveat to slow pre mission boondoggling— the more urgent/dire the problem is, the more slapdash it becomes. I've know specialists who had to beg another branch and/or transport to give them a ride somewhere because someone forgot to work out the logistics.

Yep.

OP here! Thanks for the response, if you'd like to keep going I'd love to hear more but I appreciate this much at least! It really helps.

The other thing about basic is it's not really hard; the worst part of it is when you do something stupid and your squad or even platoon would have to pay for it. Its basically breaking down who you were before and reshaping you to fit the mold of a soldier. That being said, if you're older than 20 you probably won't fall for it because the army isn't the KGB, we're not that good at brainwashing.

the best part of basic in any branch is the stupid stories you come out with. everyone has a story about something they were forced to do because someone with a few more chevrons didn't like the cut of their jib. Your typical army drill sergeant will have found all kinds of novel ways to embarrass you, from making you pretend your flashlight is a light saber and having to 'kill everyone leaving the cafeteria' to giving you a new name because your share a surname with someone higher rated. Other oldies but goodies: being made the mop up the rain, a game of literal rock fetch, and being assigned as fire watch's personal ticking clock. The last one is where you get to whisper 'tick tock' over and over for hours, while keeping in time with the actual seconds. This has the great benefit of destroying your morale and the poor bastard on fire watch.

I can't recall much army specific jargon, but they're the fans of hooah, while is used for anything and everything, from a sigh of resignation to a cheer. I'm sure they have their own version of yut, but it's basically the grumpy jaded vet's way of saying they give only the slightest of fucks. The military is a bunch of bullshit, and you get really good at dealing with it. I didn't have too much of an issue adjusting from military to civilian life, but I find most people who do are those who were enlisted, or those who joined as a way to escape something in their lives. I've met a lot of people who joined in hopes of becoming better people or hoping the government helps them out in the future, and more often than not, its usually the opposite. Some come out stronger, but a lot come out with specialized skills that have no fucking use in the real world. Personally, I'd say the biggest difference in mindset for me is that I trust the people and coworkers in my life to be competent at their jobs, and smart enough to make decisions on their own. However, I don't know if I'd trust any of them to have my back in any sort of emergency situation. It was the exact opposite back in the Navy.

:|b all soldiers have their own experiences, but this is a decently general outline of what mine was like.

Thank you! Definitely -- everyone has an unique path through this but it's really helpful getting these responses. Thanks for taking the time.

Marine here. I spent a few months on Fort Lee, an army base, though. (Come to think of it, the only military branch I haven't lived with has been the Air Force. Funny, that.) My father was Army back in the 80s. (Come to think of it, the Air Force is the only branch of service my family hasn't served in. Funny, that.)

I'll preface this with some minor rambling. There are a lot of myths spread about the other branches within the branches. Everything you hear from someone that wasn't actually in the Army should be taken with a big grain of salt, especially because most of these myths are going to skew towards the negative. A sort of branch pride, we're always the best at what they do. For example, the Marines generally view the Army as a bunch of slack-jawed morons who couldn't hack it in the 'real' boot camp, the Navy as a bunch of snobs who think riding on a boat is hard work (I can't comment there, when I went on a MEU, I spent most of the first two weeks curled up in a corner, trying to deal with seasickness. Anyone who deals with that regularly is either tougher than you think or just insane.), and the Air Force gets to sit around and do nothing while buying up all the cool toys so that we're left with obsolete bullshit from Vietnam. We don't deign to mention the Coast Guard. (Honestly, you can't even get any good insults for the Coast Guard. The worst I've heard about them is 'puddle pirate', which is just... kinda silly, really. Even for a military joke.) Similarly, I've heard from an Army recruit that he's heard that Marines are all a bunch of brainwashed psychopaths, and the Navy's told me that we're so hopped up on our war boners that we forget we're just a department of the Navy and not really our own thing.

If Army briefings are anything like Marine Corps briefings, then not only are they slapdash, like mentioned above, but they can drone on for-fucking-ever. "Death by Powerpoint" gets tossed around a lot.

From what I saw, the Army was a tad more laid back than even the Marine POGs. Sarge is used for anywhere from E-5 on up to E-7 and possibly E-8. Their formations aren't as orderly, and their 'At Ease' in a formation is our 'Parade Rest', though slightly sloppier. Feet roughly shoulder-width apart, hands behind your back. (If you told a Marine in formation to go at ease, he'd relax totally.) Their senior enlisted also seem more relaxed when dealing with their junior enlisted, less yelling, more shared bitching.

They do a lot more punitive pushups. Single-count that I noticed, but that could differ from group to group.

They don't seem to entrust their junior enlisted, their non-NCOs, with as much responsibility. On Fort Lee, they still had their privates, P2s, and PFCs using the 'battle buddy' system, even on base. Your Battle Buddy is, of course, the guy who, when you're at liberty, watches the road for you when you cross, so you aren't hit by a car, and you're basically responsible for keeping each other out of trouble and getting somewhere on time. The Marines have that in boot camp. Not so much in MOS school or out in the fleet. When I was in boot camp, I heard endless stories about how a Lance Corporal in the Marines had as much authority as an E-4 in the Army. (Army ranks are weird. At E-4, you can be either a Corporal or a Specialist. Apparently, actual Corporals are super rare, and going Specialist is more common.)

Anyway. Firearms-wise, most Army folks will probably only be qualified with a Rifle. I know you hear a lot about the whole Army of One thing, but going to the range is two weeks when you're not being useful to the unit. When I was in the Marines, I only ever saw an MP with a shotgun, and I only got to qualify for a pistol when I went on a special assignment. So, yeah. Most Army folks will only know how to use a rifle. They might've tossed about five or six grenades in whatever passes for their combat training.

Dealing with Civilians... Like the anon above said, in the military, your buddies have your back. You're more relaxed around them, you talk shit a lot more, and if you fuck up, they'll probably try to cover for you. In my experience, civilian co-workers will throw you under the bus 80% of the time, or even straight up lie to make themselves look better. My father used to give me long speeches about how the Army taught him to never leave a job unfinished and to stay until the situation's unfucked. Apparently he's worked with a lot of civilians who will just drop everything at the end of their shift and walk out, as opposed to sticking around and making sure it's at least covered. I've experienced that, too. People just dipping without even telling anyone what they'd been in the middle of. One thing, at least with the folks I knew, is that we always tried to let someone know where we were. Even if it was just someone dipping out to the gym or going to make a head call, we'd at least give a heads up. It lead to some awkwardness with some of my co-workers when I tried to tell them that if anyone needed me, I'd be in the bathroom.

One of the big things they harp on in the military, Army, Navy, and Marines, is being fifteen minutes prior. Anything after fifteen minutes before you're supposed to be there and you're late. So, if anything, your guys will be used to being either exactly punctual, or a bit early every time.

I mentioned being more relaxed and talking more shit: This might be a Marine thing, but military humor is either totally mired in impenetrable jargon, or it's extremely racist/sexist/ablist/full of dead baby-style jokes. It's the kind of shit that would get people on /pol/ or reddit to tell you what an unfunny tryhard edgelord you are, but it's funny at the time. I don't know if the Army has this, but the excuse amongst the Marines is that we're all green. Some are just darker shades than others. Most of the movies tame things down by quite a bit, probably to make the soldiers, Marines, and sailors look less like rejects from a prison flick. So, yes, a lot of jokes get told in the military that would never, ever be mentioned in polite society.

As a final note: While we mostly understand phrases like FUBAR and all the little complicated designations, we rarely actually use them in conversation. I've never, ever heard someone from the military mention FUBAR in a conversation. We don't talk about S-4 or S-3 or whatever your administration branch is, we just call it 'admin' or say something's fucked. Most of the time, the kind of guy who peppers his speech in acronyms is either a fuckhead or someone who's trying to be funny. Army might be different, but resist the urge to talk about the patrol who went MIA near the LZ after things when FUBAR so you have to find them and bring them to HQ ASAP according to SOP.

And I've never heard of anyone being sentenced to peeling potatoes as a punishment. More commonly, you'll see people having to clean up or be volunteered for firewatch or duty (i.e. "Sit here, check people out when they want to leave the barracks/base, investigate any loud noises, keep a watch on everything, and make sure there's no trouble.") KP might've been a thing a few years ago, but I've seen a modern galley. Most of the shit they cook is canned or prepackaged.

This is absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much!

don't be afraid to wing it a little, especially 'cause we're talking fiction here. do your research, obviously, but don't be afraid to build or extrapolate to fit your needs a little.

can't offer a lot of specific help, unfortunately, as my only 'normal' military person is retired and so it doesn't come up often. but sometimes using codes/slang is fun, and it's a subtle way to inject a bit of the background into your character.

but mostly above anon is right-- it's going to vary a LOT.

If it's a fictional military organization, I'd say look to see if the fan wikis have information on it, at least that's what I do. But, then again, my character that's military is... more or less from a time period a 100+ years in the future from our current time.

It sounds dumb, I know, but like hell if I can remember all the particulars of the organization she works for.

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