What if Gorman was a veteran?

[Kimarhi]

I'm not decrying Aliens as a bad movie, my second favorite out of the franchise and I still hope for a modern game based on the intensity of the second film. 

Sil you can see the difference of the MOS/training here as well.  Ranger 13F vs Guard FDC.  Never even heard of a ORP.

Whenever we do a patrol we kind of just roll up in our convoy, dismount, do a presence patrol, and make our way back to the loud noisy vehicles with crew served weapons on them. 

But I'm being forced out of my armory with an option to reclass as 11b or 12b so maybe that will change.

[Local Trouble]

Realistically, at least in my experience you would call for a resupply.  At least everybody would be armed when they went in.

Nice to know I'm not the only one who believes this.  And you're actually a military man, yes?

[HappyAlien]

I never understood why they still sent Vasquez in first when they thought she had taken the power pack from her Smart gun. Sure she knew she had replaced it but as far as Gorman and Apone knew she was just carrying a dead weight. Why not have someone with a flame thrower or let Hicks with the shot gun go first?

They should have rearmed, since many of the things Ripley had told them had turned out to be true (face huggers and acid blood) they most have realised that the other parts of her story/report were true as well (7-8 foot killer aliens).

[Kimarhi]

It suffers the same thing many modern military movies do.  They want to see all the cool hooah shit but at sacrifice of actual military tactics. 

I suppose you could say that whoever was on Vasquez six could've been covering her and they might have still been using her weapon for its auto tracker........but that's kind of stretching it.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

I never understood why they still sent Vasquez in first when they thought she had taken the power pack from her Smart gun. Sure she knew she had replaced it but as far as Gorman and Apone knew she was just carrying a dead weight. Why not have someone with a flame thrower or let Hicks with the shot gun go first?

Vasquez was the unit's harsh language specialist.

[Local Trouble]

They should have rearmed, since many of the things Ripley had told them had turned out to be true (face huggers and acid blood) they most have realised that the other parts of her story/report were true as well (7-8 foot killer aliens).

That's an unpopular opinion around here.

[Xenomorphine]

Should be pointed out that Hicks' carriage of a shotgun isn't known about by his superiors. Neither Gorman nor Apone seemed to realise.

As regards Vasquez/drake, I felt the vibe was that Gorman/Apone assumed they had flamethrowers on them, like some others had.

I thought this was already explained in the movie. Gorman was the "new" lieutenant who was to good to eat with the rest of the grunts. The company apparently pulled strings to put that baffon in charge. Why? Because I figure if the regular lieutenant was at the helm those aliens would have been royally f**ked. No exclusive rights for anyone.

That'd be like Boeing being able to dictate what the US Marines do, today. The government/defence department buys stuff from them, but even a company like Weyland-Yutani would have zero say in the operation (backed up by Ripley countering Burke's attempt to do so by stating the mission is "under military jurisdiction").

Besides which, it's made clear the company, as it then stood, didn't have any reason to believe Ripley's 57-year old report. Even if they did, there were much more effective things they could have done than change out Gorman.

I'm pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that Napalm burns hotter than the melting point of lead.

In fairness, it's never specified on screen what the Colonial Marines' futuristic flamethrowers actually use or how they operate. It's wise to assume they're at least equal, though, yeah.

[RagingDragon]

But I'm being forced out of my armory with an option to reclass as 11b or 12b so maybe that will change.

If you do, you'll learn all of the standard battle drills for things like that. Even though I was an FO, the line guys loved me so I got to play infantry a lot and learn everything lol. It was great, even though my main job was much more important than playing with my rifle.

I  like to think that even if Gorman were a lot more competent under pressure than he ended up being, and more marines made it out of the processor, the end-result still would've been largely the same.

Ferro still would've crashed, and they still would've had to barricade in Ops and hold out for the second dropship. The only thing up for debate would be if the Atmo was still damaged enough to eventually go critical, but this depends on whether the damage was caused mainly by the hive battle or the dropship crash.

I know this has been put up before, but you can always try your hand at the excellent flash version of the Aliens combat board game and see if your own tactics work any better!

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/408816

I love that little gem and return to it often. It's cool because whoever you save from the Reactor mission will show up in the later levels for you to use. Apone and Drake in Operations FTW!

[Kimarhi]

Should be pointed out that Hicks' carriage of a shotgun isn't known about by his superiors. Neither Gorman nor Apone seemed to realise.

I think they realized he was carrying it (it's strapped to his back the whole movie), but since it wasn't armor piercing they didn't care.  Just like the guys that broke out the pistols.

@raging they had us training for mil to mil where we went over what I thought were all the battle drills but I guess you never know what you don't know until somebody else points it out.  We must've done 1alpha a hundred times before we left.  But we didn't get any sort of training about what you would need to do to maneuver to that position other than a very basic land nav course that wasn't much different than what you do in BCT.  Probably because our mission was static being forcepro.   

Now it looks like I'm going to be forced to reclass somewhere in the brigade but as long as it isn't FDC again, then I'm cool with it as there are no 11b or 12b slots that aren't 3 hours away from where I live. 

I'll definitely check out the board game though I never knew an online flash one existed.   

[RagingDragon]

Good luck man. If you weren't guard, I would suggest you volunteering for the 75th.

You probably know most of the standard battle drills that are taught during IBC (Infantry basic,) but as you probably know, infantrymen receive the majority of their training once they reach their permanent duty station and unit. Same with the Rangers.

Ranger school teaches you more nifty things, like recons and raids, ambushes, and the exhaustive OPorder, from the squad to the platoon level, but you don't really get any MOUT or CQB. That stuff is usually taught by your unit, who will have far more experience.

--

Yeah play that flash game, it's fun as hell! I got everyone almost out of the Reactor before an alien dropped right on top of Dietrich and then one rushed Hicks as he was trying to cover the escape. Shit can go bad in one turn no matter how good you plan, which is part of why the game is so tense and well done.

[Kimarhi]

I'd have to spend several long months on AD time as reclass before I tried out for the 75th.  Otherwise my body would get destroyed right now.  Guardsmen PT is left up to them when they are traditional guard status and I've always found it hard to push myself in that setting without competition that you get in the military.  Plus them ruck marches would be pretty foreign to an FDC guy. 

You guys have my respect for what you but your bodies through.  The highest speed fitness freaks in our battalion joined SST and got to work with SF and Pararescue and SF made them run an obstacle course every week.  The SF guys could fly through it because their conditioning was top notch, while our guys would struggled through it even though several of them were 300 plus pt test guys. 

While we were doing mil to mil I downloaded the infantry training manual and the ranger handbook to try and learn what I didn't know and from both of those manuals it was obvious that there was a lot BCT doesn't go over.  Unfortunately I have to actual see demonstrations and have to perform these actions a couple of times otherwise simply reading them I don't retain very much.

Then the battalion our battery got attached to forgot they had written MOS restrictions for mil to mil.  So anybody who wasn't a 13b, 13d, or 13f got the boot.  National Guard man.  I spent half my mobilization training learning that stuff and then got kicked off at the very last minute. 

[RagingDragon]

I'd have to spend several long months on AD time as reclass before I tried out for the 75th.  Otherwise my body would get destroyed right now.  Guardsmen PT is left up to them when they are traditional guard status and I've always found it hard to push myself in that setting without competition that you get in the military.  Plus them ruck marches would be pretty foreign to an FDC guy. 

You guys have my respect for what you but your bodies through.  The highest speed fitness freaks in our battalion joined SST and got to work with SF and Pararescue and SF made them run an obstacle course every week.  The SF guys could fly through it because their conditioning was top notch, while our guys would struggled through it even though several of them were 300 plus pt test guys. 

While we were doing mil to mil I downloaded the infantry training manual and the ranger handbook to try and learn what I didn't know and from both of those manuals it was obvious that there was a lot BCT doesn't go over.  Unfortunately I have to actual see demonstrations and have to perform these actions a couple of times otherwise simply reading them I don't retain very much.

Then the battalion our battery got attached to forgot they had written MOS restrictions for mil to mil.  So anybody who wasn't a 13b, 13d, or 13f got the boot.  National Guard man.  I spent half my mobilization training learning that stuff and then got kicked off at the very last minute.

Yeah, I'm quite a ways physically from where I was, but your right about the insane level of physical fitness. If I went back today and tried to go through RIP, I would probably die. That shit destroys your body, and Ranger school is its own beast. The marches aren't too bad (Afghanistan was worse) but I lost about 30+ pounds there.

You look like hell when you're done lol. PT was much more comprehensive when I was in 2nd Batt. though. We had obstacle courses, rope courses, combatives, all kinds of cross-training, mountain biking, etc... I was never even a 300 pt test score guy either lol. Highest pt score was probably in the 280's, but so long as you don't quit or die, they just keep yelling at you and eventually you improve lmfao.

Yeah f**king Guard man, nasty girls.. bummer you have to deal with that. Best of luck pursuing your reclass, whatever it ends up being.

[Local Trouble]

Just to recap, what's the opinion of the only actual servicemen in this thread?

[Kimarhi]

I don't believe a platoon sergeant would let you walk into the hive unarmed without rearming his platoon first. 

RD tells you his opinion if you go back to is February post.  Since he is a Ranger with combat experience take his word for it.

@RD thanks mang.

[RagingDragon]

@RD thanks mang.

Yeyahh monica.

Basically Local, think Gorman wouldn't have sent in the whole element and many more would've survived the reactor ambush. Who knows how it would've went down after that.