lolmac: (BRB)
[personal profile] lolmac2011-11-26 09:10 pm

how long has Jack been in the Air Force?

I sure hope people are still watching this comm!

Simple question: when, or at what age, did Jack join the Air Force? Any insight or clues?
brainofck: (You Idiot)
[personal profile] brainofck2010-11-23 06:02 am

So Carter says she's Level Three Advanced

Carter says her hand-to-hand skills are level three advanced. Anybody know where I can find out what that actually means? The closest thing I could find in a quick search was the Wikipedia entry on Army Combatives where Level 3 was listed on Train the Trainer - that looks pretty freakin' advanced, since they only expect there to be one person of that level per battalion...
Entry tags:

E-mail addresses

What do military e-mail addresses look like?  What would an SGC e-mail address look like?  Pentagon e-mail addresses?  Would a civilian SGC employee's work e-mail address be different than a military SGC employee's work e-mail address?  (In other words, in seasons 9-10, what would Vala, Jack, Daniel, Sam, Teal'c, Cameron, and possibly Landry have for e-mail addresses?)
ivorygates: (team GLYPH SG1 TAU'RI GLYPH (hsapiens))
[personal profile] ivorygates2010-06-04 01:33 am
Entry tags:

Resources!

I know I've been dilatory and backward at keeping up this comm and responding to queries, and I vow to do better, really! Meanwhile, while making my usual random donation to the USO [http://www.uso.org/] I found this resource, which looks like it would be pretty cool:

http://military-blogs.military.com/

It's a one-stop shop for military blogs. Check it out!
ivorygates: (Default)
[personal profile] ivorygates2010-05-29 08:11 am

New Military Comm: [community profile] monstrous_regiment

What [community profile] monstrous_regiment is about:

Military history and military fandoms are sometimes seen as "boys' interests". If a woman expresses interest -- whether academic, fannish, or just as a hobby -- it's often seen as an oddity.

This community exists as a space for women to talk about the military and related topics: history, historiography, culture, representations in media, book/tv/film reviews, research, fannish creations and meta, etc.
Read more... )
writinginct: (sg1 jack following not)
Entry tags:

SGC personnel and explosives training


So I have this wonderful bunny for my LJ jd_ficathon entry but I ran into a snafu.  Or maybe not so much as a snafu as an "I might need to fix this" sort of thing.

Anywho, my question is:  how much explosives (ie C-4, claymores, et cetera) training do new, very green SGC personnel (think the kids in "Proving Ground") have?  I have no idea how much experience they would have with explosives at the Academy, AFROTC training, or in standard enlisted basic training.

The scenario I'd like to present in the fic is one of Jack actually running a basic explosives training class for any new military or civilians that will will be going off world.  But if the actual military newbies would have already had some sort of formal training I'll need to rework the idea as not to step on that.

Thanks for the help :)

Janet Fraiser's rank

Is it true that Janet Fraiser would have come in as a Captain because she is an MD?

Also, could she be in the military early on, leave, and then come back? I'm trying to account for a gap in service.

I'm signed up for a Janet fic and want to verify my facts.

This site is awesome BTW. Though I work near an AFB, I can't exactly ask these questions. My guess is that they all know who Janet Fraiser is, though. (g)
writinginct: (sga john scruff)

How would this be handled?


I'm working on a fic set a little into the future (2024 to be exact). At the point in the story that I am asking this question about, John Sheppard has been promoted to Brigadier General.

The scene I am working on (and questioning) is one where John and his 24yr old daughter are at the beach (in beachwear) with no visible signs of John's rank anywhere. If a young officer were to approach, and if in the course of the conversation she were to mention that her dad sitting there was a general -what should the young officer do? Should he snap to? Should he salute? And would it be appropriate for John to extend a hand to shake?

lol... I guess it's probably easier to just include the bit I'm struggling with - ignore the typos and my rampant comma abuse, this is the first draft ;)

Excerpt behind the cut )

What does this need to not make those with military knowledge cringe?  I don't see Sheppard (especially Sheppard on vacation) holding to super-strict protocol, but it would be ingrained into the younger man's head.  I just don't know how that works. 

Thanks in advance for the help!  ^.^
 
ivorygates: (Default)
[personal profile] ivorygates2009-04-12 04:14 am

JACK O'NEILL: PROMOTION TIMETABLE: REASONABLE OR NOT?

Every community needs a first post, so I'm going to re-write mine about Jack O'Neill's rank and whether or not it's reasonable for him to be stuck at "Colonel" for that long. He was a colonel for at least ten years before being promoted to General (and apparently he'll be getting a third star with the next Stargate movie, taking him from Major General to Lieutenant General), and was apparently figuring he was going to retire from the Air Force with the rank of Colonel. Is his promotion schedule logical or reasonable?

We know he was a Captain in 1982 (East Berlin and East Fly) and a Colonel by fourteen years later (the first Abydos Mission, c. 1996) and we also know that with the military it's either up or out (i.e. if you're passed over for a "scheduled" bump-up in rank too many times, or, god help you, refuse an offered promotion, you are politely or not so politely invited to just leave.)

Now, certainly Jack, as leader of SG-1, was so vital in that position that he wouldn't be pushed out of the military. It's also true that while (a) Field Command (as opposed to Support and Supply) is absolutely the track to a General's Stars, by the fall of Dakara, it's possible he'd been in this particular position and at this particular rank for so long that yes, he is expecting to retire (again!) as a Colonel (a rank at which there is a mandatory retirement age, though there isn't, incidentally, for Generals...)

So ... is it common to remain a Colonel for a decade? I go with the version of canon that gives his DoB as 1952, which means he's 44 in 1996, which not only means it's a good age for him to have achieved his Colonelcy (yeah, I set up this sentence this way just to use that word; geeks R us), it also means he's staring his retirement in the face right then, since he's certainly done his 20 at this point (if you presume he had a conventional military track, going into the Academy or the Air Force by some other means at 18/19) and can retire. But then SG-1 takes precedence, and he has to go off and save the Earth for the next ten years or so. (This career track also explains his immediate retirement after his return from the first Abydos Mission.)

As for (2) his promotion from Brigadier General to Major General after only one year (in peacetime, while he's flying a desk), IMO (I am not military) it's shockingly previous. Military Beta says the formula is five years between stars, plus a Board of Review (and possibly the sacrifice of chickens): I suspect, if you want to reconcile everything and give a nod to the Real World, Jack's second star was by Presidential fiat, and he got it because he needed more brass to deal with his new position in Homeworld.

You can also handwave it on the basis of the idea that he was slated to make General rather earlier, something that was "held off" so that it wouldn't be a case of General George Hammond having to command General Jack O'Neill (though Hammond would have clear seniority due to date-of-rank), and so the second star was rushed through because it was the rank he "should" have been holding by that point in his career.

But overall (3), yes, despite his comment to the others that "it's on my list," I really don't think that Jack ever aimed to make General. Generals don't go into combat. Generals do paperwork and deal with bureaucrats and send other people off to die, and although anyone who has reached the rank of Colonel is obviously familiar with paperwork and being a member of the Chairborne Division, it's unlikely to be something Jack would be aiming for instead of aiming for retirement...