Help me add truthiness to this fictional anecdote involving the military.
February 3, 2011 9:05 PM   Subscribe

I want to write a short, not-very-detailed fictional anecdote about a soldier who gets separated from his unit during a (short) firefight and winds up lost for a few minutes in a Middle-Eastern city, before his fellows find him. This will be just a few paragraphs in a larger story.

So how does this work? Do soldiers patrol in pairs, squads, units? How many people are in a squad or unit? Any special jargon or slang that would be relevant? Do soldiers all have GPS units, making this a stupid scenario on the face of it? Do all soldiers carry radios? Are they good quality radios, or would they be static-filled and shitty? Are compasses standard issue on an urban detail? Are there any real-life accounts of something similar to this that I could be pointed towards? Who is the leader of a typical routine patrol? Sergeant? Squad leader? Lieutenant? Captain?

Would a helicopter show up to a firefight as backup, or be dispatched to search for a lost soldier? Would reinforcements be dispatched from base? After shots were exchanged and the enemy dispersed, would the soldiers sweep nearby buildings in hopes of finding the people who shot at them?

I don't necessarily need answers that have actually happened, but they need to be plausible. The conflict in the story is not specifically Iraq or Afghanistan, just analogous.
posted by jsturgill to Society & Culture (8 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
You might want to watch The Hurt Locker.
posted by Artw at 9:11 PM on February 3, 2011


Best answer: There are lots of different variables that would change these answers, but in general a squad on patrol would consist of 16 soldiers and the squad leader would be a sergeant or staff sergeant.
posted by amyms at 9:40 PM on February 3, 2011


Best answer: British Army patrols of PLATOON (approx 30 men) size use a technique known as satelliting, in which the patrol will be split up into the three SECTIONs, each of about ten men. All three will be travelling in the same broad direction over the ground, but will be seperated such that it is impossible from any one vantage point to see the entire PLATOON and what everyone is doing. A PLATOON is led by an Officer of rank 2nd Lt-Captain who assisted by a Platoon Sergeant who will, in over 90% of cases, be considerably more experienced and more capable in spite of the fact that the officer outranks him. Each SECTION is led by a Corporal, who is assisted by a Lance Corporal. SECTIONSs can be further divided into FIRE TEAMS, which are always known as CHARLIE and DELTA, led by the Cpl and LCpl respectively.

An individual fire team being separated may possibly lead to the scenario you discuss. Send me a MeMail if you want to discuss scenarios an details.
posted by dougrayrankin at 5:32 AM on February 4, 2011


You might want to watch The Hurt Locker.
posted by Artw at 9:11 PM on February 3 [+] [!]


Except the Hurt Locker was widely criticized by soldiers for inaccurately portraying normal military life in a warzone. Generation Kill might be a better choice.
posted by proj at 5:37 AM on February 4, 2011 [1 favorite]


You may also wish to consider the tale of LCpl Ford
posted by dougrayrankin at 5:38 AM on February 4, 2011


Watch/read Blackhawk Down.
posted by timsteil at 8:36 AM on February 4, 2011


Best answer:
Any special jargon or slang that would be relevant?
Point (Point man) - the man at the front of the patrol, usually out ahead more than the distance equivalent to the expected killzone of an IED/grenade. Expect this to be about twenty-twentyfive metres.

Tail End Charlie - the man at the rear of the patrol.

You should also look into what exact force you are basing this on. Each and every Army has certain items of kit which have one name if you were to request it from stores, and a totally different name that the soldiers will use to refer to it by.
Do soldiers all have GPS units, making this a stupid scenario on the face of it?
Some, though not many, are issued GPS devices, though not the sort of thing you could use to plod around some village in the Middle East. A lot of soldiers will buy themselves a GPS, though usually "just in case", without elucidating what that actually is. Furthermore, the level of detail of a small Middle Eastern town/village that would be displayed on a handheld GPS bought in the West: Where it is. It might even depict the ground as sandy coloured on an advanced model.
Do all soldiers carry radios?
Yes.
Are they good quality radios, or would they be static-filled and shitty?
No, but that's not to say that in a built up area you won't get poor signal propagation.
Are compasses standard issue on an urban detail?
Not really, though any section commander worth their salt will not only have a compass, but will also have items on their kit that you would expect for escape and evasion in a temperate environment. All of the soldiers would have received a set of orders before going out which would detail the area they would be operating in, and actions on separation etc.
Would a helicopter show up to a firefight as backup, or be dispatched to search for a lost soldier?
If a contact (someone is shooting at someone else) has taken place, the Platoon Sgt or Officer (again, rank ranged from 2Lt - Capt) will report this up the chain. At platoon level you would report it back up to Company, where it would be received in the Company Ops Room. They would, depending on whether an air asset was already in the area, look at retasking it. The potential abduction of a soldier would be a serious issue and air assets would likely be sent.
Would reinforcements be dispatched from base?
You're talking about the QRF, or Quick Reaction Force. The nearest patrol base would have a force on standby 24 hours a day to react to exactly a scenario like this. In the case of a base at company level strength, one platoon would be on the ground, one acting as QRF and another on stand-down/equipment care. The decision to "crash out" the QRF would be taken after an assessment of the situation - eg, does it really require them or is the multiple on the ground capable of extracting as is?
After shots were exchanged and the enemy dispersed, would the soldiers sweep nearby buildings in hopes of finding the people who shot at them?
Not unless they were certain that the had the tactical advantage, superior numbers and that the attack wasn't a "come-on" designed to draw them in to an IED/ambush which would cause greater loss of life.


Finally - This is all based on the British Army. One major difference I've seen between the British Army and the American is that the British soldier is taught, and encouraged, to think for themselves and use initiative. When orders are passed down, they are only passed down in terms of the effect or concept that your superiors wish to achieve. The details of how it is to be done are left up to those who are best placed to figure that out - eg, the men on the ground. By contrast, any time I've worked with the Americans, the golden rule is strict and total adherence to the chain of command. Never do anything without going up the chain for permission and then waiting for that permission to come back down.

Hope this has helped.
posted by dougrayrankin at 9:43 AM on February 4, 2011 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Yes, that's helped quite a bit. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge.
posted by jsturgill at 4:48 PM on February 4, 2011


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