I am trying to find information on stimulant use - prescribed and possibly
experimental - in the military, specifically.  This is for fiction based in the
real world but in the sci-fi genre.

a) I need to know what if any would be used and what the dosages might be and
how they are administered.
b) I need to know repercussions if they are used beyond their normal dosing time
period and amount.
c) and I need to know any repercussions for their too abrupt cessation of use
and any complications that might ensue if cross-used with painkillers.

I have the basics of amphetamines and their various permutations, but if you
know more than can be wiki'd, I would appreciate it!

If this too much to ask for here, please feel free to email me off post with
info or a place for further research.

Thanks as always!!

The BGen as Vietnam pilot is a bit iffy.  Current (as of 2009) 1-stars in various services were commissioned around 1976-82; current 2-stars around 1973-76.  Knock that back 5 years for your story to 1971-77 for the BGen.  I don't know how long it takes to get a pilot combat-ready, so I don't know if we were still fighting when your character would have been over there.  Someone who survived combat as a pilot would be on a faster track for promotion, which would shorten his time to getting his first star.

 

I respectfully disagree with Frieda, though, on the number of general officers on military bases -- some of them are full of brass.  In the Air Force, Langley, Barksdale, Offutt and MacDill all have generals coming out their ears.  Nellis (Las Vegas) has a Major General & a Brigadier General, though the 99th ABW, which seems to have administrative responsibility for Groom Lake, is commanded by a Colonel.  Operational responsibility appears to be with the AF Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, which is commanded by a Major General.

Alrighty. I'm not sure how to start this, but here goes:


The base commander(currently a Lt. General) is trying hard to keep his fat out of the fire, so he fudges some paperwork to make it look like someone just underneath him in his command(currently a Brig. General) made the final decision to approve the weapon for combat. Would these be appropriate ranks for these officers? I'm also looking for the Brig. General to have been a fighter pilot during Vietnam, and had simply risen through the ranks. Is this feasible?

Also, I have written in the Senator as having a couple of Secret Service agents along as bodyguards. Would this be appropriate/allowed on the base, considering it's pretty much the DoD's holiest of holies?

Alrighty. I'm not sure how to start this, but here goes:

To set the scene, the segment in the story I'm writing takes place at the Groom
Lake facility(Area 51), in 2004. In the events of the story, an experimental
orbital weapon was improperly field tested but was sent over for a trial run
supporting combat troops in Iraq. Unfortunately, the weapon malfunctioned on its
first actual use and ended up killing a Marine instead of the enemy combatants
it was aimed at.

Fast-forward a couple weeks, and here's the scene I'm trying to set up: A
Senator that heads a joint committee specifically to oversee DARPA black
projects researches the accident and personally travels to Groom Lake to
investigate what had happened and to witness a test-firing of the weapon. It is
quite apparent he is pretty steamed over the whole fiasco and is looking to pin
the blame on one of the brass which made the decision.

The base commander(currently a Lt. General) is trying hard to keep his fat out
of the fire, so he fudges some paperwork to make it look like someone just
underneath him in his command(currently a Brig. General) made the final decision
to approve the weapon for combat. Would these be appropriate ranks for these
officers? I'm also looking for the Brig. General to have been a fighter pilot
during Vietnam, and had simply risen through the ranks. Is this feasible?

Also, I have written in the Senator as having a couple of Secret Service agents
along as bodyguards. Would this be appropriate/allowed on the base, considering
it's pretty much the DoD's holiest of holies?

Hi, everyone. I'm a lurker here, but reading messages on this list has helped me
so much with many military questions I've had. Thank you. I have a question now
that I've been unable to find the answer to, and I'd appreciate any and all
help.

I'm working on a sci-fi story set on a large capital ship in space. I've been
trying to follow Naval customs with it, though there is lots of room for changes
or different interpretations. I don't need anything strict or by-the-book.

One supporting character will be an onboard psychologist, something along the
lines of a grief counselor for the ship's personnel as they're in the middle of
a war. I found some info on clinical psychologists on the U.S. Navy's website at
http://www.navy.com/careers/healthcare/medicalservicecorps/clinicalcareproviders\
/clinicalpsychology/ , and it mentions that such a person can be commissioned as
a Lieutenant. Would that be an appropriate rank for someone in the field or on a
ship, or would higher-ranking people generally be assigned to ships in a
warzone?

Are military psychologists referred to by their rank or by "Doctor"?

Also, would any officer be able to attend a counseling session with any of the
psychologists onboard, or would junior officers be paired with the lower-ranking
psychologists and the senior officers be paired with the higher-ranking
psychologists?

Thanks in advance! (Hopefully this message is formatted okay. Sorry if it's
not.)

-Katie Z.

Thank you for the info, Becky! I was grateful to see you know SGA, especially. 
I just need an OC doctor for a fic; he will be a Marine Colonel on Atlantis for
temporary assignment, and he'll be taking over for Keller while she's gone for a
few weeks.  I was trying to avoid him and Sheppard calling each other Colonel
back n forth :) so knowing "Doc" would be okay helped a lot.  Thank you again!

Normally, a base that is run by a Lt Col wouldn't have a full bird
colonel as head of the medical group - that would be another Lt Col or
a Major.  You'll have to have a pretty good reason (some medical
specialty or a temporary assignment to study something?) for your
Colonel to be assigned there.

That said, Medical is a specialty and they are not line officers
(those in the pipeline for base command).  If the base commander and
the XO were incapacitated at a small base (such as Atlantis) and the
next in the chain was pretty low ranking (1 Lt? which is also not the
case on Atlantis as we met female majors), then the head of medicine
*might* take over.  However, command of a fighting unit is not his
expertise, so while he might take on admin, if they were in the middle
of an emergency such as an attack, he'd lean heavily on the next
highest officer & the senior enlisted.

As for how they address each other, it would be Colonel in both cases.
  Introductions are made with full rank, but after that, it's the
shortened version.  Actually, any use of the full rank in casual
conversation could be construed as a put-down or insult.  (The medical
guy saying, "The Lieutenant Colonel thinks he knows how the Pentagon
works.")

Noteworthy in the Air Force -- it is not at all unusual for higher
ranking people to address those of lower ranks that they work with a
lot by their first names.  Sheppard could easily address his XO as
"Evan," though Lorne would address him back as "sir" or "Colonel."
This is not nearly as likely in other services.

A lot of how your medical colonel addresses Sheppard will have to do
with his personality.  If he's a nice guy who's sensitive to the
situation, he'll likely refer to him as "the CO" and will not address
him by first name except in private.

As for what people call the medical guy, from what I've seen, they're
"doctor" when they're acting as a doctor and by rank when it's admin
or a formal situation.

Anyone feel free to correct me -- I'm not in the service, just work
with and observe.

Becky


On Fri, Apr 10, 2009 at 8:40 PM, everybetty <EVERYBETTY@...> wrote:
>
>
> I have a male character who is a full bird Colonel in the US Marines. He is
> also a medical doctor. I'm afraid my knowledge of this type of character
> begins and ends with MASH. Would/Could he be called Doc, or Doctor Jones
> while working in a military hospital? How do Colonels address LT Colonels
> and vice versa? And if a LT Colonel is the ranking military officer, and a
> full Colonel is there as a doctor, would he have any say as to how military
> operations are handled? The fic will be in the world of Stargate Atlantis,
> so it is a mixed civilian- military environment, but a LT Colonel is in
> charge there. I don't want the presence of the Colonel doctor to 'mess up'
> the status of the current leader, and I would also like to know how they
> would address each other in a medical setting (the doctor treating the Lt
> Col). Thanks for your patience! I just want this to read well and respect
> military reality.
>
>



--
A hundred objective measurements didn't sum the worth of a garden;
only the delight of its users did that. Only the use made it mean
something.
-- Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign

I have a male character who is a full bird Colonel in the US Marines.  He is
also a medical doctor.  I'm afraid my knowledge of this type of character begins
and ends with MASH.  Would/Could he be called Doc, or Doctor Jones while working
in a military hospital?  How do Colonels address LT Colonels and vice versa? And
if a LT Colonel is the ranking military officer, and a full Colonel is there as
a doctor, would he have any say as to how military operations are handled?  The
fic will be in the world of Stargate Atlantis, so it is a mixed civilian-
military environment, but a LT Colonel is in charge there.  I don't want the
presence of the Colonel doctor to 'mess up' the status of the current leader,
and I would also like to know how they would address each other in a medical
setting (the doctor treating the Lt Col).  Thanks for your patience! I just want
this to read well and respect military reality.

Can anyone direct me to a site where I can find out about current and past US
Army bases in California? I need to build sort of a timeline for where they were
at what times, and what their main focus was. Would greatly appreciate any help
on this :D

Hey,

I'm writing this fic for NCIS and I need to know some stuff about the
Marine Corps birthday ball.

-Who can attend? Only active-duty Marines or can retired Marines
attend too?

-If a retired Marine can attend is it only if invited by someone
else? Is there some sort of restriction there? I really wanna get
this right coz it's central to a crime at the end.

-Also I need this to be a really, really big celebration (for the
crowd) for the plot to work. Are there like several official balls on
the same night? If so which is there usually one that's the biggest
event?

-As far as guests, who'd be the highest ranking type of (non-
military) person who'd show up? The president? A senator? Foreign
head of state? Or is this just about the Marines?

-And just to double check, Navy corpsman can attend the ball too,
right? The party idea is no good if I can't the get guilty guy in the
door!

Thanks if you can help, I know there hasn't been a lot of traffic
here lately,

C.

An English gent told me about a really neat site.  At it, a number of
national libraries have come together to offer books published before
1920 or out of print online.  The books are offered in a number of
formats (not being knowledgeable about computers, I use PDF).

I found W.W. Loring's "A Confederate Soldier in Egypt" (1884), Winston
Churchill's "The Malakhan Field Force" (1886) and "The River War"
(1889), and Theodore Dodge's "Hannibal" (1867).  Hog heaven for
military history types.

The address is:

www.archive.org

Give it a try and pass the word on.

Walt

At a guess, I would think not.  I think under the old "Rocks and
Shoals," he could be charged with of Silent Insubordination as often
as he refused to answer.  Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice,
I think he would have the same Miranda rights ("You have the right to
remain silent...") as every other American.

On your second question, probably not.  As I understand it, people
held in Gitmo are declared "enemy combatants" as they don't meet the
test as soldiers.  Traditionally, civilians taken under arms during
combat operations could be treated as spies and executed.  Two
teenagers in Germany, captured in June 1945 carrying antitank weapons
after the German surrender, were hung by the U.S. occupation forces
in August 1945. In wars with large numbers of civilian combatants the
democracies have generally treated captured insurgents as POWs
(Vietnam comes to mind where the Viet Cong was treated as a defacto
government).  The present prisoners in Gitmo are are not considered
soldiers because Al Qada isn't considered a government.  Prosecuting
them as members of a criminal gang is awkward because they are
basically stateless persons operating outside U.S. territory in an
area having no recognized (at least by the U.S. and allies)
government.  One of the better ideas I heard was to treat them as
pirates as they meet the legal requirements (though watching the
various navies fumble, stumble, and fiddle about off the Horn of
Africa, this may not be such a good idea).  Basically, the U.S. seems
to have punted.

One thought; how about checking with the public information officers
for the Navy Department or Marine Corps at DOD?  Generally, they're
happy to help writers get it right on military subjects.  They may be
able to put you in touch with a JAG who can answer your questions.

Walt -- a barrackroom lawyer (when he wasn't in a berthing
compartment)


--- In fanfic_military@yahoogroups.com, "James M. Keane"
<jimkeane758@...> wrote:
>
>  In my story a Master Chief Petty Officer is arrested (by NCIS) for
> murder and other charges. His reply to any question is the
> classic 'Name, Rank & Serial Number'. Is that permissible or can he
be
> forced to answer?
>  On another note, he is implicated in the sale or theft of military
> secrets. Would this come under the Patriot Act which could deny him
> representation and many other rights?
>

In my story a Master Chief Petty Officer is arrested (by NCIS) for
murder and other charges. His reply to any question is the
classic 'Name, Rank & Serial Number'. Is that permissible or can he be
forced to answer?
  On another note, he is implicated in the sale or theft of military
secrets. Would this come under the Patriot Act which could deny him
representation and many other rights?

>The original network did not pick it up for a second season; that's
>when CBS picked it up.  Instead of the blond commander who always
>gave Harm and Meg a hard time, we then had Admiral Chegwidden the JAG
>in charge

John M. Jackson joined in the first season, not in the second.

>and no Meg because Tracey Needham was by that time on "Life
>Goes On" in a recast of the oldest daughter in the family.

Not quite true -- she wasn't resigned because Don Bellisario didn't
want her back.

>Mac joined the cast as a USMC Lt. Colonel;

She joined with the rank of Major.

>she was promoted to
>Colonel after Harm was Lt. Cmdr. and before he was promoted to
>Commander, because at the beginning of Season 5, either when he
>returned from an absence or when she joined him somewhere (can't
>remember exactly), he noticed her change in rank and saluted her.

He was on carrier duty -- he'd left JAG and returned to the fleet as
a Tomcat pilot. She came to his carrier to prosecute a high-visibility case.

Thanks for the information. Sorry I replied late.

--- In fanfic_military@yahoogroups.com, LR176@... wrote:
>
>
> Okay, we have the basics down. Our future civilization is involved
in an
> Interstellar War. We have both a "Army" and "Navy" Concept.
Actually this would
> probably be correct. Whatever the technology, any space war would
probably be
> fought for bases, as WW2 in the Pacific was. Robert Heinlein (ex
US Navy
> officer) laid all that out pretty well, but added a third
component in, I think
> "Between Planets." A Planetary Defense Force.
>
> IF your Navy is off doing something, you still need a way to fight
off an
> invasion, or at least delay things so much your Navy can show up
and make a real
> fight of it. Something like the Air Defence Command of the 1950's?
> Short-ranged interceptors and guided missiles?
>
> Now what would the Navy ships be like?
>
> Okay, assuming you wish to fight interplantary Space Opera naval
warfare type
> engagements, you will need dedicated warships. Again, three
concepts: a BIG
> powerful type, a far-ranging one, "take care of itself type", and
an Escort
> type. Battleship, Cruiser and Corvette? To fight, a lot of the
ship's interior
> space would be taken up with the equivalent of propulsion,
computers and weapons
> systems.
>
> Now, adding the "Army" component. Soldiers and their weapons and
stores are
> what is called "Volume Critical". This means they take up a fixed
amount of
> space. Warships cannot spare this space. This is why civilian
passenger liners
> and cargo ships are pressed into wartime service. (i.e. the
Falklands War). They
> have the space. It is easier to add landing craft to an ocean
liner than it
> is to put a 3,000 man brigade on a cruiser, with all their
supplies and gear.
> (Although THAT been done too.)
>
> Now, in your case. Also remember your soldiers have to be
transported over a
> "troopship" period of weeks, perhaps? Yet arrive in fit condition
to fight?
> They have to have space to exercise to keep in shape, and perform
maintenance on
> their vehicles and weapons. You can add some "strap on" defence
weapons on
> your transports and cargo ships, but they can't fight an enemy
warship, whatever
> it's size. The Merchant crew would not have the training, for one
thing. Plus
> "protecting the transports" is something a Naval commander has to
worry
> about.
>
> Now, getting your troops down to the planet. You'd probably be
better off
> with a lot of a "general" craft than a mix of armed and unarmed.
You have no idea
> what you will find. The HIND-A helicopter example is excellent. It
was
> intended to be a flying reconnaiasance vehicle. It could both
fight and land (and
> then support) a weak infantry squad.
>
> Now the reception they get. Quite often, inferior forces can
really tear up a
> technologically superior one. The British at Isandlwana, 1879, the
Italians
> at Adowa in 1896 and the Spanish at Anual in 1921 learned this to
their sorrow.
>
> LER
>

> I think Montauk and/or the tip of Long Island would be ideal.

I just recalled that there is also a biological weapons research laboratory,
around there.

- Eric

Well, there's definitely something which has been going on for a long time,
over at Montauk. It's a mystery, as to precisely what it could have been,
but the rumoured information about time travel could feed in well to that
sort of show. Dulce, New Mexico, also reportedly has massive subterranean
facilities, which draw masses of power.

Well, there's definitely something which has been going on for a long time,
over at Montauk. It's a mystery, as to precisely what it could have been,
but the rumoured information about time travel could feed in well to that
sort of show. Dulce, New Mexico, also reportedly has massive subterranean
facilities, which draw masses of power.

There have actually been a lot of recently released records and even
official concept art, for undersea bases , which the US Navy at least
planned and very probably built. They were mostly supposed to be for
refitting submarines, to eliminate the need for them to return too
frequently at the more vulnerable, open air places. The art shows that most
of them would have been constructed in a spiral design, to maximise space
within a relatively small area (even though the actual place would have been
huge, because of all the stuff which woudl have been required). Am not
certain what those would have used for power sources, but it isn't out of
the realms of possibility to imagine a nuclear reactor or so, for each one.
Am fairly certain that some of them used heavy mention of geothermal power,
however.

- Eric

Okay, I know, it's always Stargate with me.  But, this is a little
different.

Where in the early-mid1960s would you put a topsecret project that
shouldn't be in the direct shadow of another high security
installation, and will suck power like a thousand Animal house
fraternities?  I'm thinking more East Coast, but might be wrong

Sincerely,

Cynara

Harm started as a Lieutenant in the original first season where
Tracey Needham played his partner Lt. Meg Austin. About halfway
through season 1 (episode 13 "Defensive Action") he was promoted to
Lt. Commander. (What aired as Episode 10 showed him as Lt. Cmdr., but
it aired out of sequence because he was Lt. in the next two episodes
and promoted in #13.)

The original network did not pick it up for a second season; that's
when CBS picked it up.  Instead of the blond commander who always
gave Harm and Meg a hard time, we then had Admiral Chegwidden the JAG
in charge and no Meg because Tracey Needham was by that time on "Life
Goes On" in a recast of the oldest daughter in the family.

Toward the middle of the show (Season 5, episode 9 "Contemptuous
Words") he is promoted to full Commander, and in the last episode of
Season 10 he becomes a Captain. He is wearing Captain rank insignia.
(The England billet was a Captain's billet.)

Mac joined the cast as a USMC Lt. Colonel; she was promoted to
Colonel after Harm was Lt. Cmdr. and before he was promoted to
Commander, because at the beginning of Season 5, either when he
returned from an absence or when she joined him somewhere (can't
remember exactly), he noticed her change in rank and saluted her.

To my recollection I don't think there was a promotion for her for
the post on the West Coast she was offered.

The last episode of the series saw them getting engaged and having to
decide which one would resign their commission and which would take
the new billet.  Great fanfic fodder, I'm sure.






--- In fanfic_military@yahoogroups.com, "ariesrising3"
<ariesrising3@...> wrote:
>
>
> > You're missing something. :) Mac is a Lieutenant Colonel(snipped)
> Thank you! I remembered she had been promoted, and for some reason
I
> thought it had been from Lt. Col to Col. Probably because I haven't
> heard anyone call her Lt. Col lol.
>
> Aries
>