OOC Thread

[Wolfman]

No offense intended to the actual company. I have been referring to the outfit from Poohbah’s stories.

[Poohbah]

They stole the name from Stephen Hunter, just like I did.

[Wolfman]

Maybe a disclaimer on stories where they appear so that people don’t get confused?

[jemhouston]

They stole the name from Stephen Hunter, just like I did.

I take they're the bad guys in Hunter's novels. Why use a bad guy's name for your company?

[Lordroel]

So when did the Second Russian Civil War began and end, officially i think in 2010 with the fall of the Rump Soviet Union but when did the major fighting stop.

[Matt Wiser]

The Second Russian Civil War began the same day the Armistice took effect: 14 Oct 89. It ended in June of 1993 when the Rump Soviet State was forced to acknowledge the independence of the former Republics, the Russian Republic, and the Far East Republic. Skirmishing between several of them continued off and on until May of 2010, and the final act of the USSR's existence, when they foolishly picked a fight with the four largest all at once: Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and the Far East Republic. Their use of tactical nuclear weapons and an attempted strategic attack with SLBMS on both the UK and the U.S. resulted in both SAC and RAF Strike Command taking out Red ICBM Launch Control Centers and nuclear weapon storage, either conventionally with GBU-28 or with either ALCMs, SRAM-II, or B-61 and WE-177 gravity bombs. And someone-believed to be the FER, used an SS-20 to destroy a Red Biowarfare Facility. While at least one Red SSBN was destroyed with a Sea Lance NDB. Then several Soviet Generals decided enough was enough, and arrested the Politburo and brought an end to the conflict. While the end of the North Korean regime that same night has been called by some a separate conflict, it really wasn't.

[Wolfman]

Good riddance to the NorKs…

[Lordroel]

Posted this on my forum, Wolfman sugested to ask if it and the text can be coniderd canon.

Photo: A an Antonov 32B, used by the 6th Special Operations Squadron in 2015, most likely captured by the United States during the Baja War in 2010.

[jemhouston]

Posted this on my forum, Wolfman sugested to ask if it and the text can be coniderd canon.

Photo: A an Antonov 32B, used by the 6th Special Operations Squadron in 2015, most likely captured by the United States during the Baja War in 2010.

It looks like the engines abused steroids.

[Matt Wiser]

Posted this on my forum, Wolfman sugested to ask if it and the text can be coniderd canon.

Photo: A an Antonov 32B, used by the 6th Special Operations Squadron in 2015, most likely captured by the United States during the Baja War in 2010.

Looks good.

[Poohbah]

I would say the engines abusing steroids is also canon.

[clancyphile]

Posted this on my forum, Wolfman sugested to ask if it and the text can be coniderd canon.

Photo: A an Antonov 32B, used by the 6th Special Operations Squadron in 2015, most likely captured by the United States during the Baja War in 2010.

It looks like the engines abused steroids.

I like to think that Japan's F-2 is an F-16 that went to BALCO or Biogenesis for some steroids or VGH (Viper Growth Hormone).

[Matryoshka]

I’m pretty sure that it was here that I recently learned how in the Soviet Union, a conscript received only a month(!) of basic training before being assigned to their designated unit, which handled what a Western force would consider ‘trade school’/MOS training (and also conducted the bulk of the dedovshschina, if I'm not mistaken). Did this practice extend to the VDV units assigned to Afghanistan in the 1980s (and the CONUS in RD+20), or did the Soviet-Afghan War cause modifications to policy that saw recruits retained within the USSR for longer training before deployment?

I ask mainly because I remember seeing a movie called 9th Company which implied that the VDV recruits portrayed by the cast were in their depot in Kazakhstan for rather longer than four weeks before being deployed, which I would presume means that the depot was combining basic training with MOS skills to ensure the troops who went into Afghanistan were more useful from the outset. It’s entirely possible that the movie misled me, of course (moviemakers being inaccurate for effect? Perish the thought!), but sending ‘VDV’ grunts into the Soviet-Afghan War with only a month of basic training and expecting them to be militarily useful sounds like... questionable judgement to me, even by Soviet standards!

[Poohbah]

I’m pretty sure that it was here that I recently learned how in the Soviet Union, a conscript received only a month(!) of basic training before being assigned to their designated unit, which handled what a Western force would consider ‘trade school’/MOS training (and also conducted the bulk of the dedovshschina, if I'm not mistaken). Did this practice extend to the VDV units assigned to Afghanistan in the 1980s (and the CONUS in RD+20), or did the Soviet-Afghan War cause modifications to policy that saw recruits retained within the USSR for longer training before deployment?

I ask mainly because I remember seeing a movie called 9th Company which implied that the VDV recruits portrayed by the cast were in their depot in Kazakhstan for rather longer than four weeks before being deployed, which I would presume means that the depot was combining basic training with MOS skills to ensure the troops who went into Afghanistan were more useful from the outset. It’s entirely possible that the movie misled me, of course (moviemakers being inaccurate for effect? Perish the thought!), but sending ‘VDV’ grunts into the Soviet-Afghan War with only a month of basic training and expecting them to be militarily useful sounds like... questionable judgement to me, even by Soviet standards!

VDV training was rather longer, if my hazy recollection of threat briefings is correct. I want to say 11 weeks, but that might be me conflating VDV and USMC training.

[Matt Wiser]

Have a Phabously Phantastic Christmas, everyone!

[Wolfman]

Merry Christmas!