Advice on writing about the military.

Ford Prefect · Post by **Ford Prefect** » 2005-10-23 02:05am

Very soon I will have to write about operations involving special forces units, and I don't know anything about military tactics or practices, and I was wondering if anyone would be able to point out dos and don'ts for any military unit when in combat.

I have to do this, because I fear otherwise the chapter will come off stupid.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2005-10-23 02:12am

I'm assuming we're just talking normal human spec ops, like Delta Force, SEALs, SAS, etc.

In that case: remember that they're still only human. They can't take on 30 billion enemies and win. They have an edge in training, equipment, and discipline, but they're not invulnerable.

Beyond that, I can't think of anything specific. Try Googling small unit tactics or something similar, which should give you an overview of infantry tactics, ambushes, patrols, etc.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2005-10-23 02:31am

Personally, I'd advise not writing miltary fiction unless you have the knowledge to write it, or you risk making an error and looking ridiculous, but's that's just my opinion on it.

If you still want to do it, this site is helpful..

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Ford Prefect · Post by **Ford Prefect** » 2005-10-23 02:51am

As the story itself isn't about such things, but rather just has it in there from time to time. Thanks for the resource Mister Fgalkin

.

XaLEv · Post by **XaLEv** » 2005-10-23 03:20am

You don't have to go to archive.org for that page.

http://www.military-sf.com/

Post by **Edi** » 2005-10-23 04:13am

If you happen to know any real military people, ask them for feedback. Have them read through your stuff and tell you what's out of place, you can iron out most wrinkles that way.

Edi

ntstlkr · Post by **ntstlkr** » 2005-10-23 04:37am

Cheers,
Canvas around for veterans, there seem to be enough of us around, to give your stuff a read over.

For myself, I grew up in a military family (Dad retired SF, Grandad flew B17s in WWII and Korea, and so on ....was kinda born into it, lol).
I served for 12 years in the Army. Experiences include assignment to Armor, Intelligence, Special Operations, Air Cav (of an Air Assault Division), and NATO (Joint) units.

Good military fiction/Sci Fi never forgets that its not about the gear, it's about the PEOPLE!!

Coalition · Post by **Coalition** » 2005-10-23 07:37am

Give them creativity, innovation, and a couple fancier weapons. After that, they stay away from regular army, unless they get a half hour of prep for an ambush (and that vs a patrol).

So they might get sent to kill a regimental command post, but they will do it by distracting all the defenders, rather than Rambo-ing through them. Extensive surveillance will be the norm, checking for patterns, patrol routes, entry routes, etc. If they can kill the regimental post by having a tank's brake slip, even better.

Have them try and use basic enemy weapons to do some of their work. I.e. kill the post with (assuming M-16 & AK-47) the M-16s they brought, or use a few of the local AK-47s to do it, they will use the AK-47s, as if ammo runs out, they still have their primary weapons.

Spoiler blasts are nice (grenade under tanker truck), where they cause a big bang and lots of light. Good way to distract the guards.

If the get chased by a large army though, they will retreat. If a large enough part of the army is chasing them, then the army is not doing something else (like looking for their wounded who are heading for the original evac point) while the combat-capable guys are hoping the wounded can tell where the new pickup point is.

Off hand, a fair fight would be between 1 of them and 2 regular army guys (fair as in both regular guys and the SF guy would be dead at the end). If they can set up ambushes, the ratio gets bigger. Unfortunately, the bad guys often have 50-100 times as many.

Post by **RogueIce** » 2005-10-23 06:34pm

You can look at FM 7-8 here (it's in PDF form). This is for Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad operations in the US Army. Since you're working with an SF type of thing I gather, this might work for you.

Rightous Fist Of Heaven · Post by **Rightous Fist Of Heaven** » 2005-10-23 08:08pm

Writing milscifi myself, Im now grateful afterwards for having to go thru that 12 months of mandatory service time. After 12 months in Jaegers its pretty easy to write about squad tactics.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2005-10-23 09:10pm

You will find a great many US Army field manuals here, covering everything from military railway operations to NBC warfare reconnaissance. They should be able to aid you in all forms of military writing.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... y/army/fm/

Post by **Coyote** » 2005-10-24 06:51pm

The most important thing to remember about Special Forces is this: their job is, 99% of the time, to sneak in, look around, and sneak back out and never be seen. No one is ever supposed to know they were there. If a Special Forces trooper has to fire a weapon and do all that hard-core kick-ass badass shit seen in movies, it actually means he's failed his mission.

It is one of the hradest things people need to comprehend about SF. Fiction almost always portrays them as a bunch of super-duper kill-em-all war gods. They sneak in before an attack and find out all the secrets, they sneak out, tell the officers, the officers draw up target folders on what the SF saw, and give the folders to the Air Force and Army or Marines, who go in there and kick the shit out of the place. Then, afterwards, the SF guys sneak back in and make sure all the important targets got hit.

The best thing they can do is come back with all the ammunition they left with.

Sometimes, SF guys do go in to blow a bridge, kill a guy, or something like that. It is rare, though, and should not be a daily occurence in a story.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2005-10-24 09:37pm

What about the contemporary use of SF that we saw in Afghanistan? That is, SF working alongside Northern Alliance on the front lines, calling in airstrikes for the Northern Alliance to intimidate and destroy hardened targets? Or, in a documentary I saw, the SF in Afganistan actually got into fighting alongside Northern Alliance peeps (how can you not when you're in the front line), and were surprised at the level of accuracy of Osama's bitches who were going for headshots and not spraying and praying.

It's a cool concept for an speculative fiction story... special forces being forced to interact and work together with primitive "natives" to call in airstrikes... just an idea. Because this is SF (sci-fi), the disparity in technology between the "natives" and the special forces will be even greater. The special forces might even have things like uber armor or shields that the primitives totally lack. On a less-wank level, maybe totally enclosed NBC protection. The primitives will literally need the special forces calling in airstrikes every 10 seconds to survive if they are facing a far more formidable opponent. Just another idea too. Maybe as a creschendo at the end when the special forces soldiers come to respect the primitive freedom fighters, something like a biological agent gets deployed by the ruthless enemy and the natives get all wiped out

, make for a tragic ending at least.

Brian

avatarxprime · Post by **avatarxprime** » 2005-10-24 10:53pm

Keep in mind though that the reason that Special Forces were used so much in Afghanistan was because they knew how to fight in areas like that. The normal Armed Forces were being trained in open expanse combat (mostly), few forces are taught as much infiltration, urban combat, and such as SF. They were simply better suited for the combat duties. That was one of the things that Rumsfield blamed on the army, well sorta, that they weren't set up properly for this new kind of "War" being fought.

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2005-10-25 01:25am

Special forces in Aghanistan mostly served as advisors to anti-Taleban forces, and called in air support. They rarely actually used their own weapons. They either told the Northern Alliance what to do, or told the Air Force what to do, instead.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2005-10-25 05:01am

avatarxprime wrote:Keep in mind though that the reason that Special Forces were used so much in Afghanistan was because they knew how to fight in areas like that. The normal Armed Forces were being trained in open expanse combat (mostly), few forces are taught as much infiltration, urban combat, and such as SF. They were simply better suited for the combat duties. That was one of the things that Rumsfield blamed on the army, well sorta, that they weren't set up properly for this new kind of "War" being fought.

The other problem, of course, was that the conventional forces were not air-mobile enough to actually reach Afghanistan quickly. Special forces were the obvious solution, being air-mobile easily and quickly, and having the capability to act as tremendous force-multipliers for indigenous anti-Taliban forces on the ground.