NationStates Jolt Archive

(OOC: This is just an OOC/reference thread, for anyone who might possibly be curious. It outlines the various aspects of training for those in the military)


Step #1 - Survival

The potential soldier is dropped off in a secluded spot of the Sahara Desert in Mali, without food or water, for thirty days. Once thirty days have passed, a military transport will return to see if the soldier is still alive. More than 9% of them fail to survive this step. However, for those that do survive, they are brought back to civilization, awarded with a hot meal and a long shower (up to 45 minutes), and given a one day break before step #2.

Step #2 - Buffing up

The potential soldier is sent to a martial arts dojo, where he rigorously trains under a black belt martial arts master for six months (they aren't required to get a black belt, just get six months of basic martial arts training), or longer if they desire (few do, however; less than 15% of RB soldiers train for more than seven months, and less than 1.5% have black belts). He is trained to be able to chop through a block of wood with his bare hand, and then instructed in the art of killing a man without aid of a weapon. Techniques for killing a man in one blow using their bare hands are taught. Then, the soldier is sent to a gym, where they spend the next six months training under a fitness trainer (one trainer for every 30 soldiers). Each day, they undergo three hours of push-ups, three hours of sit-ups, two hours of jumping jacks, two hours of pull-ups, and one hour of bench pressing. Then, they are sent outside to run 500 laps (approximately 25 miles total).

Step #3 - Proficiency in weapons

Afterwards, they are trained to be able to assemble, fix, and use over 1,000 types of weapons. They have nine months to complete this step. Those who cannot assemble, fix, or use 990 of the 1,000 weapons after nine weeks is automatically disqualified.

Step #4 - No pain, no gain

Ahhh, step #4. The most dreaded of all steps. Here, soldiers are subjected to some of the most barbaric, atrocious, inhumane acts of torture ever conceived, so they gradually build up their resistance to pain to the point where they are nearly immune to it. Examples of torture include having their fingernails and toenails ripped out, near-drowning, electric shocks, being beaten by metal pipes, nerve-stabbing, open eye torture, and having their genitals immersed in freezing cold water and then boiling hot water. Most soldiers call it quits after a few minutes. Only a handful satisfactorily complete this step.

Step #5 - Communication

Not an easy step, but a walk in the park compared to #4. The potential soldier is sent to a language school, where he must learn up to 10 different dialects- excluding English, Thai, and Farsi. However, he or she can choose which languages he or she wishes to learn.

Step #6 - Guerrila warfare

For the next eight months, the potential soldier is trainined in dozens of guerrilla warfare styles, implementing the techniques of the Americans during the War for Independence, the Rhodesian Selous scouts, Maoist guerrillas, and Che Guevara (because, as J.L. says, "to defeat one's enemy, one must learn one's enemy's battle style, implement it, improve upon it, and use it to beat the enemy at his own game, wiping him out like the squalid pest he is").

Step #7 - No pain, no gain...again

This time, the potential soldier is trained to withstand psychological torture of all types, including being forced to watch family members and friends being tortured or killed (the family and friends aren't tortured or killed, the soldier is just taught how to respond if such a thing should occur), Chinese water torture, etc.

Step #8 - Conventional warfare

The soldier is drilled in conventional warfare tactics used by dozens of nations throughout hundreds of wars, and learns what works and why, and what doesn't work and why.

Step #9 - Survival, again

The soldier is stranded in Antarctica for three months, with inadequate protection against the elements. If the soldier can survive, he is sent to the savannha of Africa for another three months, learning to survive by extracting water from plant stems, cooking rotten animal carcasses and eating them without getting sick, and drinking animal innards for the nutritional value.

Step #10 - Immunization

Okay, this isn't really much of a step. The soldier is given every injection known to man, to maximize resistance to not only diseases, but biological and chemical warfare.

Step #11 - A few things useful to know

The soldier is taught to blow up bridges, jump out of a plane without a parachute and manage to catch the parachute in mid-air and put it back on and pull the string before it's too late, blow up buildings, locate and de-activate booby traps, and other useful assorted skills.

Graduation

If the soldier can complete all eleven steps, he is officially admitted into the Roach-Busters military.

YOur to easy on them....

Step #4 - No pain, no gain

Ahhh, step #4. The most dreaded of all steps. Here, soldiers are subjected to some of the most barbaric, atrocious, inhumane acts of torture ever conceived, so they gradually build up their resistance to pain to the point where they are nearly immune to it. Examples of torture include having their fingernails and toenails ripped out, near-drowning, electric shocks, being beaten by metal pipes, and having their genitals immersed in freezing cold water and then boiling hot water. Most soldiers call it quits after a few minutes. Only a handful satisfactorily complete this step.

I would add nerve stabing, and open eye torture.

Step #7 - No pain, no gain...again

This time, the potential soldier is trained to withstand psychological torture of all types, including being forced to watch family members and friends being tortured or killed (the family and friends aren't tortured or killed, the soldier is just taught how to respond if such a thing should occur).

I would add Chinese water torture, and being forced to kill there own, and force to kill own family...

OOC: Although it's indeed funny, and if they succeed they make the best soldiers in the world; I don't think anybody would survive or succeed the training. Ever. Really.

Two questions:

1) Why would anyone join your army if 96% of recruits die in the first month / doesnt this have disastorous effects on your population?

2) Assuming an 80 hour work week (quivalent to two full time jobs) your recruits have about 30 minutes to learn how to assemble, fix and use each type of weapon. Not very much at all...

The guide itself is very good and imaginative and very enjoyable, you just might want to cut down on... well the death rate.

YOur to easy on them....

Step #4 - No pain, no gain

Ahhh, step #4. The most dreaded of all steps. Here, soldiers are subjected to some of the most barbaric, atrocious, inhumane acts of torture ever conceived, so they gradually build up their resistance to pain to the point where they are nearly immune to it. Examples of torture include having their fingernails and toenails ripped out, near-drowning, electric shocks, being beaten by metal pipes, and having their genitals immersed in freezing cold water and then boiling hot water. Most soldiers call it quits after a few minutes. Only a handful satisfactorily complete this step.

I would add nerve stabing, and open eye torture.

Step #7 - No pain, no gain...again

This time, the potential soldier is trained to withstand psychological torture of all types, including being forced to watch family members and friends being tortured or killed (the family and friends aren't tortured or killed, the soldier is just taught how to respond if such a thing should occur).

I would add Chinese water torture, and being forced to kill there own, and force to kill own family...

I added those. Thanks.

Two questions:

1) Why would anyone join your army if 96% of recruits die in the first month / doesnt this have disastorous effects on your population?

2) Assuming an 80 hour work week (quivalent to two full time jobs) your recruits have about 30 minutes to learn how to assemble, fix and use each type of weapon. Not very much at all...

The guide itself is very good and imaginative and very enjoyable, you just might want to cut down on... well the death rate.

Will do. Thanks.

Other then that you training is very similar to mine.

Interesting... very interesting. Not my way of doing things, but there you go. Personally, I think your casulty rate is too high, meaning your army, however good it is, if it is highly damaged, it will take a huge amount of time to rebuild to that standard, during which time your enemy will move in and pwn you. Trust me, you are much better off training them to a high standard, sure, but don't spend so much time trying to make them into superhuman S.A.S types.

Well, I've got nothing more to say than this:

1) With all this, it's surprising you have a military at all, considering what each and every one has to go through.

2) With the amount of training you're giving them, it's probably going to take years for RB to get any new soldiers.

3) The average American soldier costs around 800,000 dollars. With the type of training you're giving them, the cost per soldier may be close to a couple million.

4) All those years, and all those millions you spent to train them can be quickly ended in a few milliseconds with a 30 cent bullet to the temple.

Oh, and RB... pain isn't necessarily a bad thing. An RB soldier might die of blood loss because he was shot in the back 6 times, but the soldier didn't notice it because he was 'immune to pain'.

OOC: Harsh, to say the least. I honestly don't think you'd get too many new recruits.

However, I totally know Step #11 (the jumping out of a plane and catching a guy with a parachute)! That's exciting. For me at least.

OOC:Meh... my traning method is much faster, cheaper, and gets the same results. I wont tell it to you, but I will give you a hint, It involves technology.

PS:And no, it does not involve androids, cyborgs, robots, or anything Future Tech... although its debateble that this technology can exist.

OOC: RB, can I use this for my Lighthorses? I'd modify it and throw in genetic engineering too, the RALM has those facilities on hand.....but it would be essentailly the same.

And as for the cries of "too harsh!" the Chinese Marines in RL reportedly drop their men on isolated Chinese islands with only salted rice and water for survival training, and the SAS requires a week trying to evade capture with only a survival knife as its final exam, so meh.

If I am wrong on those points, they will be gladly erased.

OOC:I find your tactics very interesting. In my opinion instead of giving these brutalities to citizens give them to people that have committed crime. If they are going to be killed, just give them this course. If they survive than they can have their freedom and be part of the armed forces. ;) You save money on building prisons and you don't have to rehabitat the criminals. You kill 2 birds with one stone.

Very nice analogy of training. I have something similiar...bring all my recruits into the wastelands, and come back in a month. Any of them that don't die gets into the army...for more training.

[OOC- Well, I've got to say, you must just hate artillery with a passion. One gun section of 155mm smoothbore openeing up with fragementation and you've just lost a battalion of those insanely trained, insaney prepared, and yet insanely low in number soldiers.

It's like the SPace Marines. Sure, they kick your ass, but for every one that dies there just aren't any to take his place......unlike the Imperial Guard! In short, I wouldn't tremble but laugh if this army ever tried to attack me. Because they'd just be mondo special ops soldiers. Which is good, but not the best for many situations.

However, inventive ways of training and sure to produce excellent soldiers. A ten for effort and originality, but a one for feasibility military-wise. The Russian judge gives you a three.

EDIT- And 25 miles a day? For six months? Right. Because that's a phsical impossibility with the amount of other training those guys are doing. They would tear oyut every ligament in their leg after a short period of that. I'd say tone it down to maybe 15 miles every day on average. Besides, shorter, faster days are far better then just long distance days. The short days give a bit of a break and increase muscle strength, while the long days increase muscular and breathing endurance.

Note that that's just from a runner, so feel free to take it with a grain of salt.]

OOC:I gotta do one of these for my army...which goes through even worse stuff than you put your's through...

(It doesn't matter how hard you train 'em, in the end a bullet to the head leaves them dead. Unless they're the Terminator... then... well run.)

One Green Sun soldier read this and remarked,
"Ow! Just reading about this makes me hurt!"

He was then forced to do three-hundred push-ups using his tongue.

Well.........I'm starting to think of using I.G.N.O.R.E. cannons against RB. Now this ain't cause of his early on testing....but weapons proficiency with over 990 and running 25 miles a day for 6 months. And it's almost impossible for people to survive that long in a desert enviroment without food and water. Unless they go into some serious almost life threatening trance like state or have EXTREME prior knowledge of the land. Revise it even though it's rather damned good.