Discussion:
OT
G***@aol.com
2006-11-13 04:01:01 UTC
Permalink
WWII paratroopers got an extra $50 a month*. When you consider that
a Private made $21 a month prior to 1943, you can see why a lot of
people volunteered for the Airborne!
Or not:

"Oh, once I was happy, but now I'm airborne,
Riding in gliders, so tattered and torn,
The pilots are daring, all caution they scorn,
And the pay is exactly the same!"

WWII Airborne divisions had parachute regiments and glider regiments . . .
some fo the glider troops were simply infantry redesignated as "glider riders"
without additional pay or benefits. It was late in the war before the glider
troops got extra pay and a badge of their own.

LKW
h***@buffnet.net
2006-11-13 07:09:16 UTC
Permalink
For those who are interested...
<begin quote>
The Department of Defense (DoD) faces a growing burden in providing
peacetime health care for military personnel, retirees, and their
dependents and survivors--who all together number over 8 million. Adjusted
for the overall rate of inflation in the U.S. economy, the department's
annual spending on medical care almost doubled from 1988 to 2003, rising
from $14.6 billion to $27.2 billion. Furthermore, because DoD cut the size
of the active-duty force by 38 percent over that same period, medical
spending per active-duty service member nearly tripled, rising from $6,600
to $19,600.(1) Medical spending rose from one-quarter to more than
one-half of the level of cash compensation (defined as basic pay, the
housing allowance, and the subsistence allowance), and it is likely to
continue to increase.

<end quote>

I've also been looking to see what other kinds of "compensation" there
might be involved and thus far have identified

"Imminent danger pay"
"Family separation pay"

http://armedforcescareers.com/articles/article12.html gives rough numbers
involving recruitment costs for those who are in the same
nation/continent/region for various of the different services. At roughly
1% of the entire DoD's budget for that year (1999) - if extrapolated to a
Traveller universe, might prove a useful guide for recruitment costs for
those on the same world kind of thing. Add in the transporation cost
(would transportation costs be included in Recruitment costs or in another
budget entirely?) and subsector armies might cost more per troopie in
recruitment costs than a mere 1% might imply.

More as I dig further. I will at least try to give URL's for those sites
I visit for others to read at their pleasure :)
h***@buffnet.net
2006-11-13 08:38:44 UTC
Permalink
For those who are interested, I stumbled over a website that is located at:

http://www.cqcmagazine.com/jul-05/military/index.htm

(Note, this appears to be a July 2005 issue - so it is somewhat out of
date...)

It states the following near the bottom of the webpage:

"According to a recent Associated Press article, combined world military
spending exceeded 1 trillion dollars for the first time since the Cold
War. The causes for increased spending include the U.S. war on terror as
well as increased spending by India and China. The U.S. budget at 47
percent accounted for almost half of the $1.035 trillion budget, roughly
2.6 percent of the global gross domestic product, according to the
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Adjust the budget for
inflation and it amounts to roughly 6 percent less than the Cold War peak
budget from 1987-1988. "

I found that to be an interesting piece of information as relates to the
discussions regarding the use of Gross Domestic Product values of worlds
to project what the Imperium might spend on its military. Just a tidbit I
thought might be fun to share...
h***@buffnet.net
2006-11-13 09:40:49 UTC
Permalink
Hi Doug and List,
Heavy infantry - you touched on that briefly saying that the ratio of
Infantry units to armor would change as compared against lift infantry.
But one thing I came across was the reference to the Type 62-C Reardon
Medium duty Battledress. In it, it states that these battledress
vehicles are issued to rapid-interface units and elite or heavy infantry
units (page 86).

I look at the battlesuit as a piece of equipment, and I have to wonder (as
you're the author!) how you visualize the use of such equipment as issued
to Heavy Infantry. I can imagine three possible deployment schemes for
this piece of equipment:

A) issued one or two to a squad, used much like a Squad automatic weapon
as a force multiplier

B) issued to a full squad and used as an assault spearhead

C) Issued to everyone and perhaps removing the use of Astrins from the
TO&E or perhaps issuing twice as many Astrins on the assumption that each
battlesuited Soldier takes up twice the volume as one unsuited soldier.

D) Something I'd not thought of?


As I see it now, the FFW uses:

GURPS TL:
12 - Field Army strength and Battalion strength (elite)
11 - Small Corps and Divisional strength
09 - Large Corps unit

Hmmmm.

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