Military in urban fantasy setting

Captcha · Oct 30, 2011

I have some monsters that the good folks over in the Sandbox have helped to make military-proof. (The monsters have psychic defenses, the non-military fighters have psychics of their own who can deactivate the defenses).

The monsters have attacked a site in the US, wiped out one town and working their way outwards.

So the military is frantically trying to learn how to fight the monsters, but is also trying to stay out of the way of the people who know how. And the monster-fighters are pretty anti-authority, so wouldn't agree to work under military command.

What I'd like is to embed a few military types with the monster-killers, to gather information and coordinate with the larger military efforts. (If that's totally out of the question and would never be allowed, please let me know). My question now is - what kind of people would likely be embedded? I think the monster-killers could be 'bribed' with support personnel - medics, people to provide food, fix weapons and vehicles, etc. But for the closer contact, the people who are trying to learn...

Should I just make up a branch of Military Intelligence that's concerned with psychic phenomena? Is there any possibility of having an elite-fighter type (SEAL or whatever - suggestions welcome) working with the monster-killers without having a full military team with him?

If I decided to embed a whole squad with the monster-killers, Wikipedia tells me that it would likely be led by a corporal or staff sergeant... would there still likely be commissioned officers around, since it's a whole new situation?

Obviously I can stretch things a little (psychic monsters, after all) but I'd like to keep it as close to reality as possible.

Noah Body · Oct 30, 2011

I would use my preferred standby of Army Special Forces, because their training encompasses a lot more than just direct action missions--they're usually the first in to an area of operations and accumulate intel on the enemy, as well as broker truces and arrange for sponsorship with indigenous peoples who might be sympathetic to the cause. They're extremely well-rounded, and each team is deployed in a 12 (sometimes 9) man unit called an Operational Detachment Alpha. Their usual repertoire includes direct action (attacking mission objectives), special reconnaissance (surveilling objectives), foreign internal defense (assisting other nations in their internal security operations), counterinsurgency (either enacting the mission directly or assisting those who are), civil affairs (assisting other nations or peoples in disaster response and LEO operations), etc., etc. The SEALs get more press, but they're not as well-rounded--they tend to focus on direct action missions in the maritime environment, though that shouldn't be considered a statement of exclusivity--they have the chops and capability to conduct other missions as well, but ODAs can deploy for months in a hostile environment and be expected to exist without any meaningful support.

ODAs are usually led by a captain, but can be commanded by a Chief Warrant Officer 3 as well. An element would be commanded by a staff sergeant or sergeant first class.

Captcha · Oct 30, 2011

Sounds like just what I'm looking for, Noah - cool!

Noah Body · Oct 30, 2011

Sure. Wiki actually has a pretty fully-formed page on the branch... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Special_Forces

Captcha · Oct 30, 2011

So am I reading that wikipedia entry correctly, that an A-Team would generally have a captain, a warrant officer, and then eleven or so Sergeants? No one of a lower rank?

And is it also correct to assume that they'd all be more-than-proficient fighters, and the stuff like "Communications Sergeant" is something that's above and beyond their ability to kill whatever moves?

Richard White · Oct 30, 2011

Special Ops members are at least Sergeant (E-5) before they're alloweTd to join. Most are Staff Sergeant or Sergeant First Class.

A Communications Sergeant would be cross-trained in a couple of different skills (heavy weapons, demolitions, medic), as would most everyone else on the team. With a team that small, everyone may have a specialized position, but they also know everyone else's job too - just in case.

There's also the B-Team, which supports multiple A-Teams. That's where you'll find the majority of the support personnel, intel, comms, medical, supply, etc.. Not everyone on a B-Team is necessarily Q-qualified (The Q-Course is the special operations training program, run out of Ft. Bragg (or at least it was)), but most are and the rest are encouraged to at least try to get qualified.

I worked with 5SFG when I was stationed at Ft. Campbell back in the 90's. Very interesting bunch of guys. I learned a lot of things that have no applicability to the civilian world, but boy, were they fun.

Captcha · Oct 31, 2011

Richard, was there any sort of generalized personality type you could assign to the guys you worked with? I was thinking kind of stoic and determined, but that doesn't really fit with your "boy, were they fun"!

I don't know if I'll be able to fit this into the current book or not, but now I'm intrigued. Got any anecdotes?

Noah Body · Oct 31, 2011

Richard White said:
I worked with 5SFG when I was stationed at Ft. Campbell back in the 90's. Very interesting bunch of guys. I learned a lot of things that have no applicability to the civilian world, but boy, were they fun.

You were with 5th Legion? With a ODB?

Noah Body · Oct 31, 2011

Captcha said:
So am I reading that wikipedia entry correctly, that an A-Team would generally have a captain, a warrant officer, and then eleven or so Sergeants? No one of a lower rank?

And is it also correct to assume that they'd all be more-than-proficient fighters, and the stuff like "Communications Sergeant" is something that's above and beyond their ability to kill whatever moves?

Correct on all counts, but do note that the "kill whatever moves" thing is way overstated. These are quiet professionals, and they operate under the radar. Blowing shit up and double-tapping people through the right eye is maybe 5%-15% of their job when deployed.

Richard White · Nov 3, 2011

Noah Body said:
You were with 5th Legion? With a ODB?

Not with them (I was assigned to 311th MI, 101st ABN DIV (AASLT). However, I went through DLI with a whole bunch of them and wound up running into some of them in my different assignments through 1999.

Heard a lot of good stories when we got back from Saudi/Iraq from Desert Shield/Storm. Some we could talk about over a beer - some only behind the fence. Still, good times . . . good times.

Between them and the couple of guys I knew from the 160th, I learned more about Spec. Ops than I ever wanted to know.

Richard White · Nov 3, 2011

Captcha said:
Richard, was there any sort of generalized personality type you could assign to the guys you worked with? I was thinking kind of stoic and determined, but that doesn't really fit with your "boy, were they fun"!

I don't know if I'll be able to fit this into the current book or not, but now I'm intrigued. Got any anecdotes?

Actually, if you ran into a guy from Special Forces on the street, odds were you'd never know it. Sure you could probably guess they were in the military, but I knew guys who were practical jokers, who basically became civilians the second they could get their uniform off and some who would rather read a technical manual than watch a football game.

Pretty much like any other soldier.

However, what seemed to set most of the guys apart was once you got them focused on something, they were driven to learn it completely.

For example. We were joking around one afternoon (guy in 5th Group was married to a Sergeant in my battalion), and they were trying to figure out the best way to move gear through a mountainous region. I suggested they ought to look into mules and horses. We kicked a few ideas around and I didn't think anything more of it.

Next thing I heard, they were renting horses and stabling them out on Ft. Campbell, they had vets coming in to teach them how to care for the animals, they'd hired a guy to teach them horseshoeing (just in case) and they were taking riding lessons.

Now - was this because they "really" thought they might use mules and horses in a remote mountainous region OR was it because they thought it would be cool to learn how to ride horses and play with metal and fire (making horseshoes)?

Who knows?

But, they definitely threw themselves into the project and apparently got pretty darn good at it.

Noah Body · Nov 4, 2011

Richard White said:
Between them and the couple of guys I knew from the 160th, I learned more about Spec. Ops than I ever wanted to know.

Heh...gotta love the six-gun drivers with 1/160.

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