Greetings All, In all the discussion of military SF, I'm surprised no one has
mentioned my favorite David Drake stories. Drake wrote a series of stories
about the 121st Marine Reaction Company in "The Fleet" series of story
collections edited by Bill Fawcett. They are also in the Drake story
collection "The
Military Dimension- Mark Two".
If I remember correctly the unit is three line platoons and one weapons
platoon. The line platoons would be three squads of unarmored infantry, one
powered armored assault squad, and a command team. The weapons platoon is four
tripod mounted rapid fire plasma weapons and a command team. I would call a
line platoon six line infantry teams, two PA teams, and a command
team in Dirtside II. I would call the heavy weapons as man-portable
DFFG-1,
must be stationary to fire. The infantry teams are issued IAVR and GMS-L
as needed. The PA teams and the company command team carry shoulder fired
plasma weapons- use as IAVR but pull chits as a DFFG-1. Now- go kill
some Weasels!
> John wrote:
> If I remember correctly the unit is three line platoons
One of the things I like about David Drake are his believable combat
groupings!
Not being picky, but perhaps there are six Plasma guns in Delta Platoon;
Capt Kowacs calls to D-6 to target a Weasel heavy weapon in "Rescue
Mission". And I think maybe the 3 round plasma weapon in the Company HQ det
maybe a personal affectation carried by Cpl Sienkiewicz
clerk/bodyguard. This might even pass as the IAVR type of weapon; 3 shot
disposable.
Given that the whole company is 103 personnel have you given any thought to
the actual man power breakdown? Mind you I guess 103 is somewhat less than the
Establishment Strength. Still 4 by 6 man squads per pl, with 6 by 4 man Plasma
teams would comfortably fit the bill?
Huah!
> Glover, Owen wrote:
> Not being picky, but perhaps there are six Plasma guns in Delta
In the Belgian armed forces 6 usually means the commander. Our jeep mounted
intervention teams (Cobra 1 to 4) all report to Cobra 6. I
assume this is pretty much NATO standard protocol, so your D-6 would
probably be Delta platoon commander.
Actually, in UK and Australai "0" is the HQ call-sign. eg 3 Pl comd
would be 3-0. At battalion level 9 or Niner is the Bn Comd call sign.
Hmm, back to where we started.
> ----------
> Glover, Owen wrote:
> Actually, in UK and Australai "0" is the HQ call-sign. eg 3 Pl comd
Bn Commander is called "Sunray" I believe, his XO "Sunray Minor". Don't ask me
where the army blokes get their inspiration (as if Viper, Cobra, Hurrah, etc..
make any sense;)
In Canada it goes something like this (its been a while since I carried the
radio):
Say you're talking to someone on the radio and you want the guy in charge to
get on the handset you ask for it like this:
"3-2 this is 3-2a fetch your Sunray, over"
For the 2ic:
"3-2 this is 3-2a fetch your Sunray Minor, over"
Of course exact syntax can vary. In the above 3 is the company, 2 the the
platoon and a the section. In an infantry battalion net the numbers
go like this: 1-4 infantry companies, 5 mortar platoon, 6 recce platoon,
7 anti-armour platoon, 8 the support battalion and 9 is hq. It seems
that Australian and Canadian are pretty close.
> Ludo Toen wrote:
> Glover, Owen wrote: