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• I can't figure them out either. (Score:1)

  by brian_d_foy (44)

  Typically an army shares a basic hand signal vocabulary but small units develop stuff to fit their particular mission. They have to be distinct and easily recognizable to work though, since we typically use them at great distances (think of an baseball infielder making the sign for two outs, for comparison). Besides that, the American military, at least, has ways to confirm signals and pass them along. I hardly ever see that in movies.
  
  Watching most military movies is like watching most computer movies o
  • Re:I can't figure them out either. (Score:1)

    by pudge (1)

    Somehow I figured you might respond. :-)
    
    Yeah, I'm sure many / most portrayals are bad, though some are obviously quite good, detailed, and accurate. I was specifically thinking of this while watching Stargate SG-1, which is (or was at some point) granted the seal of approval by the USAF. "The USAF carefully reviews every script for accuracy in scenes involving military storylines, procedures, conduct, chain of command, and policy." (From the DVD of the first three episodes.)
    • Re:I can't figure them out either. (Score:1)

      by brian_d_foy (44) <brian.d.foy@gmail.com> on 2002.10.24 11:17 (#14198) Homepage Journal

      Huh---we were sitting around making fun of Stargate [imdb.com] this weekend. :)
      
      Our complaint with this and similar movies is that they pick a bunch of bozos to be soldiers.
      
      The commander guy (Kurt Russel?) radios pack to their base camp "Secure base camp." We, in our live action version of MST3K, respond "Oh, you mean stop goofing off and don't let the natives keep stealing stuff, because that wasn't clear before."
      
      That movie was full of people asking to die or to kill their buddies. In real life we do not walk in front of muzzles or let a teammate walk in front of ours. One of my friends who just got back from a Close Quarters Combat [campcqb.com] school tells me his instructor would beat him with a PVC pipe as he did that---really. I remember a similar thing from basic training. We wear helmets, so we do not get smacked on the head directly, but the back ot the thighs get lots of bruises. You learn quickly that way. :)
      
      I have a couple of pictures from the last tire house I went through. The safety NCO is always ready to slap the shooter upside the head (a sort of LART) [panix.com] and even when I lead a dynamic room entry [panix.com] the safety NCO is right behind me.

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      • Re:I can't figure them out either. (Score:1)

        by pudge (1)

        To clarify, I meant the (first Showtime, now SciFi) TV series [imdb.com], not the movie. It's completely different acting, writing, producing, directing. The TV series got the USAF seal of approval in 1999, five years after the movie was released.