Poll: What do you think about the Space Force?

[Deleted member 28227]

I'm a civilian that works as a contractor for the Space Force. Despite what you think about the newish delineation between the branches (AF/SF) - the memes, the Steve Carrell flop on Netflix - the area that I work in specifically is absolutely critical to us all which is 'maintaining the catalog' - ensuring that we track all the crap that Elon and others are constantly sending into LEO. The monitoring of Space (LEO/GEO) again, is absolutely critical to us as humans. *inhale* having a working communication network, weather, the safety of any humans on the ISS or otherwise. The people that I work for on the government side are some of the smartest people I have ever had the privilege to design for. The math that they do on napkins around orbital mechanics, the immensity of the jobs that they do - all on archaic systems - it's impressive as hell.

If you have any question of if this shit really matters or not... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

~Written from a cabin in the middle of nowhere on Starlink internet, which is made possible because of the smart as hell people at the USSF

Ok... but this scene is pure gold

 

[Deleted member 39961]

I'm a civilian that works as a contractor for the Space Force. Despite what you think about the newish delineation between the branches (AF/SF) - the memes, the Steve Carrell flop on Netflix - the area that I work in specifically is absolutely critical to us all which is 'maintaining the catalog' - ensuring that we track all the crap that Elon and others are constantly sending into LEO. The monitoring of Space (LEO/GEO) again, is absolutely critical to us as humans. *inhale* having a working communication network, weather, the safety of any humans on the ISS or otherwise. The people that I work for on the government side are some of the smartest people I have ever had the privilege to design for. The math that they do on napkins around orbital mechanics, the immensity of the jobs that they do - all on archaic systems - it's impressive as hell.

If you have any question of if this shit really matters or not... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

~Written from a cabin in the middle of nowhere on Starlink internet, which is made possible because of the smart as hell people at the USSF

I love this.

 

[SFC B]

Might want to give this a read…

On Killing Remotely: The Psychology of Killing with Drones: Phelps (USMC Ret.), Lieutenant Colonel Wayne: 9780316628297: Amazon.com: Books

On Killing Remotely: The Psychology of Killing with Drones [Phelps (USMC Ret.), Lieutenant Colonel Wayne] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. On Killing Remotely: The Psychology of Killing with Drones

www.amazon.com

My point being that these people have NOT been screened, trained or prepared properly to engage and process violence. They are more vulnerable and become "injured" much more easily than necessary due to being selected and employed based mostly on technical acuity. Having spent THOUSANDS of hours watching and analyzing ISR feeds (what we loving call Kill TV) while being ON the ground and in the air with actual threats and violence when 3 different special operations task force elements I feel pretty qualified to delineate between the effects of watching/pulling a trigger remotely and physically taking rounds, pulling triggers and cleaning up injured and dead.

I watched his video synapsis of his stance and feel very comfortable in my response.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

My point being that these people have NOT been screened, trained or prepared properly to engage and process violence. They are more vulnerable and become "injured" much more easily than necessary due to being selected and employed based mostly on technical acuity. Having spent THOUSANDS of hours watching and analyzing ISR feeds (what we loving call Kill TV) while being ON the ground and in the air with actual threats and violence when 3 different special operations task force elements I feel pretty qualified to delineate between the effects of watching/pulling a trigger remotely and physically taking rounds, pulling triggers and cleaning up injured and dead.

I watched his video synapsis of his stance and feel very comfortable in my response.

What are your thoughts on the effects of not operating in-theater. I found that interesting. That pilots on domestic bases had more PTSD than pilots who were actually abroad on bases, that going home at the end of the day was actually problematic.

Also wasn’t meant as a “you’re wrong” I just found it fascinating.

 

[GigiBobert]

I don't like Family Guy, King of the Hill or The Simpsons. They lack old-fashioned wholesomeness. Wait Til Your Father Gets Home, The Jetsons and The Flintstones were much more appropriate family-oriented animations for women and children present.

Can't do Family Guy and never watched The Simpsons. I always liked King of the Hill. I just thought of it as a documentary about Texas.

 

[TomTeriffic]

Can't do Family Guy and never watched The Simpsons. I always liked King of the Hill. I just thought of it as a documentary about Texas.

Is your wife just like Jane Jetson? Does she grab all your hard-earned money with supersonic speed to head to the Nordstroms' shoe department in the space-age mommy van? I love that piano chopsticks music when Jane grabs the fat wallet from the hands of skinny George.

 

[TomTeriffic]

So if you intended to be some hardened killer of wild animals. Why mechanic versus infantry?

Much less field duty. More weekends off to hunt something for recreation.

 

[GigiBobert]

Is your wife just like Jane Jetson? Does she grab all your hard-earned money with supersonic speed to head to the Nordstroms' shoe department in the space-age mommy van? I love that piano chopsticks music when Jane grabs the fat wallet from the hands of skinny George.

I did like the Jetsons! (We are probably aging ourselves here) I think Elon Musk needs to work on a flying car though!

 

[pyrotechnic]

I'm a civilian that works as a contractor for the Space Force. Despite what you think about the newish delineation between the branches (AF/SF) - the memes, the Steve Carrell flop on Netflix - the area that I work in specifically is absolutely critical to us all which is 'maintaining the catalog' - ensuring that we track all the crap that Elon and others are constantly sending into LEO. The monitoring of Space (LEO/GEO) again, is absolutely critical to us as humans. *inhale* having a working communication network, weather, the safety of any humans on the ISS or otherwise. The people that I work for on the government side are some of the smartest people I have ever had the privilege to design for. The math that they do on napkins around orbital mechanics, the immensity of the jobs that they do - all on archaic systems - it's impressive as hell.

If you have any question of if this shit really matters or not... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

~Written from a cabin in the middle of nowhere on Starlink internet, which is made possible because of the smart as hell people at the USSF

Yeah that's cool and all man. But what you fail to realize is that unless you're at the tippety tip of the spear one's service is to be ridiculed and put down.....unless you play a ****in bugle apparently.

 

[SFC B]

What are your thoughts on the effects of not operating in-theater. I found that interesting. That pilots on domestic bases had more PTSD than pilots who were actually abroad on bases, that going home at the end of the day was actually problematic.

Also wasn’t meant as a “you’re wrong” I just found it fascinating.

I find it hard to get my head around. Before I joined the Army I was an LEO back in IN. I will say that I got out of that quickly as I wanted to have a family and the "always someone around who hates you and wants to harm you and your loved ones" made that decision easy. LEOs have similar stress to actual combat and there is no "safe space" or down time to speak of, especially when your department has take home vehicles acting as a billboard of home. On the other hand, even though it takes some time and effort to readjust once one returns from combat, you have that relative safety of our society and all of the support of family, friends and mental health support.

I cannot speak for those UAV operators, but find it hard to believe having support of family, all of the comforts of home and no actual danger to be more problematic. What I believe to be more likely is that those sent downrange get a better perspective of danger and the reality of war in context. Sort of like thinking one has it bad until you see another in a much worse situation. As such, when self reporting they are much less likely to report negatively to the same degree.

 

[MS 9x56]

I was an Army truck mechanic in the 20th century. That black box (PCB) on the firewall of a diesel truck was marvelous and mysterious enough for me then. I was in Germany with a truck that did not even have a cab heater in 1995!

In the 70’s we were still using jeeps that didn’t even have a roof. What they did have though was a sweet mount for an M60.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

I find it hard to get my head around. Before I joined the Army I was an LEO back in IN. I will say that I got out of that quickly as I wanted to have a family and the "always someone around who hates you and wants to harm you and your loved ones" made that decision easy. LEOs have similar stress to actual combat and there is no "safe space" or down time to speak of, especially when your department has take home vehicles acting as a billboard of home. On the other hand, even though it takes some time and effort to readjust once one returns from combat, you have that relative safety of our society and all of the support of family, friends and mental health support.

I cannot speak for those UAV operators, but find it hard to believe having support of family, all of the comforts of home and no actual danger to be more problematic. What I believe to be more likely is that those sent downrange get a better perspective of danger and the reality of war in context. Sort of like thinking one has it bad until you see another in a much worse situation. As such, when self reporting they are much less likely to report negatively to the same degree.

I actually read the book as part of a psychology class. I think the parallel you draw to LEOs is pretty fair. It’s been a decade or so since I read that book and some others, but the general ideas they were exploring were around how we process violence, trama bonding, etc.

Essentially if you are in a firefight and then come back to base you share that experience with others, have a debrief formal or informal… even just gallows type humor with your unit, and because of the setting are able to compartmentalize everything.

All these natural coping mechanisms that humans have developed over thousands of years are stripped away when you kill people via video game in a trailer then go grab some Taco Bell. Then instead of spending time with others that were there you go home to your wife and kids and pretend like nothing happened and don’t talk about it.

I’m sure you have a much more nuanced first hand perspective to this but it’s interesting read.

 

[MS 9x56]

I'm posting military stuff here because military-dot-com closed down their discussions boards and other gun/hunting sites banned me for being overkill on soldier talk. It would be nice if there was a prime social media outlet where American soldiers and Vets could "talk shop". They could discuss the Army today or the Army in the good old days. Gun people and hunting people tend to have a close tie with military culture and sometimes the law enforcement community. In America today, the vast majority of new recruits into our military service are hailing from Red states and I figure most of the hunting/gun camp hails from there too. One of the reasons I joined the Army was my fascination with weapons.

I was somewhat of a gun buff even back in the 1980's. I found out many of the soldiers did have much of a passion for guns, however. I have also learned over the years that most people don't join the police force or military because they are gun buffs. Firearms aficionados. In the Army, an M16 does get to be quite a pain to carry over hill and dale after a while. Very rarely does a soldier not on a range or battlefield have any live ammo with BULLETS to shoot. I would pull guard duty in the field all alone in the dark with nothing but blanks to shoot if some wild animal attacked me out of the woods. I felt that stupid mil-spec AR rather useless weight to me in scary places without real bullets. One time I was reading a Guns and Ammo magazine in the barracks and another soldier (one that sounded like he was from California or some big metropolis, certainly not one with a burly good-ol-boy drawl) asked me in a disgusted tone why I was reading all about that gun stuff.

Should have signed up with MP’s we got to carry ammo in all our weapons. Not chambered of course. My favorite battle rifle was the German G3 in a real 308 caliber not a damn varmint caliber.