Comment by openasocket | Hacker News Reader

Comment by openasocket | Hacker News Reader

It's kind of insane how many documents the armed forces put out like this. Hundreds upon hundreds of pages dedicated to one topic or another. Everything broken down into a template or series of steps, often with little mnemonic devices to help you remember things. Everything standardized and given official nomenclature.

Want to know what an infantry platoon and squad does? Here's 826 pages: https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/ATP%203... .

What about an infantry company? Here's 618 pages: https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/ARN8519... .

And those just cover the basics of organization, movement, attack, and defense. Want to know how to call in artillery support? Here's 256 pages: https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/ARN2193... .

92 pages on military deception: https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN15310-FM_3-1... .

192 pages on recognizing aircraft by sight: https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/ARN3274... .

146 pages on "Army Ceremonial Music Performance":https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/ARN3102... .

There's just a ton out there if you want to dig around: https://armypubs.army.mil/ProductMaps/PubForm/TC.aspx .

A friend worked as a physical trainer in the military and described things like boot camp and getting soldiers on board.

One funny thing she said was the moment they got off the bus, she had someone in her face in perfect military dress, screaming at her every minute of the day and night. She figured out later that they would take short shifts swapping off, getting in people's faces, then leaving and relaxing before showering and changing clothes and doing it again for a few hours.

They got recruits from every walk of life. They were taught every skill, not only how to march or make a bed military style, but also some had to learn how to brush their teeth.

Every skill is new to someone. I guess it makes sense to document everything so you can teach it and make it uniform.

My wife trains our kids this way.

?

The smart dressing, the loud commanding voice, the whole drill sergeant approach really.

Maybe it's a form of organisational dissociation to deal with the horror of what's on the other end of the weaponry.

If you were in a position of influence in the army would you choose to soul-search about bombed children or try and construct some meaning around "Figure 4-1. Movement of the staff and command bugler around commander of troops".

It's a jobs program. Someone has to employ all those boys who majored in the humanities at the academies and other feeder schools for the officer corps.

Related: Project 100,000 - Build those org chart pyramids, grow budgets, and get promoted.

The MIC is about spending as much money as possible.

Officially, it's $721,531,000,000 FY2020

"In 2018, it was announced that the Department of Defense was indeed the subject of a comprehensive budgetary audit. This review was conducted by private, third-party accounting consultants. The audit ended and was deemed incomplete due to deficient accounting practices in the department."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_...

It's to ensure organization knowledge get passed down.

Job security ftw. Even if it's useless in practice, churn it out to make General PHB happy.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com