From: | pentaj2@****.edu (Penta John C) |
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Subject: | [OT] Stupid Newbie Question Time! |
Date: | Thu, 12 Jun 2003 11:35:43 -0400 |
Let me explain my situation:
To help various curious yet uninformed people I come in contact with,
mostly via a PBEM I'm involved in, I'm trying to put together a handy
reference guide to various things.
Mostly I'm done, but for one issue: Military organization. It's a
geopolitical-themed PBEM I'm involved in, so this does affect things.
Unfortunately, I can find crap for info in a useful format, despite
crawling over the official sites (the *.mils and soforth), FAS.org,
globalsecurity.org, etc.
What I'm looking for:
The REALLY basic stuff of organization. Ranks are a fungible thing that
I found. Now, I need stuff like how many soldiers are in an infantry
squad, squads to platoon, and up. (I'm thinking the infantry (US Army);
Same for any other branches would be helpful, and similar things for
each of the services would earn my gratitude.) It's the kinda stuff
that falls through the cracks; So basic that nobody explains it, making
it hard for anybody who can't enlist (like me, cursed eyes) to find
such info. Even more appreciated would be such info for the non-
American systems around the world, like the UK/Commonwealth system, the
Soviet/Russian system, and any others people know.
Current (free, realistically; I'm a college student, so I'm broke..)
weblinks are fine, email'd docs that you'll allow posted to the web
(modified to remove personally-identifying details, of course) are
good. Because of the international playerbase and varying English
skills of the players, however, I'll have to ask that paper books and
similar (Janes...) be avoided: Many people just won't have access to em.
Other thing that would be handy is prices on various equipment from
around the world. I'm looking for the, uh..."sticker price" for
equipment. Procurement costs are difficult to figure out, I know, but
I've been trying for a long time to discover this sort of stuff. US
equipment is easy to find prices on. Other countries' catalogs of
equipment? Difficult on a good day, impossible on a bad day.
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Now, misc notes:
1. I understand OPSEC. I know also I'm not qualified to determine if
anything I've asked for falls under it, so I'm going to hope for the
best and hope not. But, I don't know. Please, just tell me if that's
the case.
2. I'm dealing with people who are, in some cases, seriously military-
illiterate. I will admit to myself not being much better. Please be
kind if these seem like stupid questions. I'm not as stupid as I sound,
honest!
3. I've looked on Yahoo and Google. For months.:-( Similarly, I've
looked at the Reimer Digital Library. The FMs have been non-helpful.
4. I know this is OT. Ontopic however...what're they organized like for
the UCAS, CAS, NAN, Aztlan, Tir, etc militaries?
Any help would be appreciated.
John