#military careers

[phoenixyfriend]

Something something """canon""" age difference, modern AU where Rex actually is a decade younger than Anakin

And for Reasons, 34yo Anakin and 39yo Padme have decided to invite this Hot Young 24yo Who Just Exited The Military into their bed for a quick romp that turns into something of a longterm relationship that is sortakinda sugaring

………….just realized this makes Rex only [checks math] twelve or thirteen years older than the twins.

Which is very funny to me. These tweens are so unimpressed by the GI Bill college guy their parents are wooing. Is this supposed to be their new babysitter? A nanny? Wait, he's your boyfriend??? EW.

Such a weird age difference to have with your sorta stepkids

[shreksflamingknob69]

do you remember when sherlock was like “if you’d be murdered, in your very last second, what would you say?” and john’s like “please, god, let me live.” and sherlock goes “oh, use your imagination” and then john says “i don’t have to.”

you remember that?

yeah so do i and it breaks my heart more than it should

[puretopia]

first few days going cute, only JUST learnt that infants can interact with pets ;-;;; also currently in the progress of making a 'club for the creatives' so that Heidi can host pretend art courses at the church!!

[em-kgm]

ATLAS

[ante--meridiem]

"that's a good thing to think about in your career: when you want to have children" that's easy I know the answer it's abso-fucking-lutely never

[blade-that-was-broken]

Your Soldier On AU gives me brainworms! While re reading it I suddenly remembered this video clip of soldiers graduating and that they're NOT allowed to move at all unless someone taps them (usually family)

So I then imagine Soldier JD just standing there surrounded by people having family reunions while he just.... silently accepts that no one will show up.

To make it less sad, Delta (who probably graduated with him) decided to be the one to tap him out and give him a big hug. (He deserves it)

He knew no one was coming.

He really knew it but that didn’t stop his heart from wishing, having that tiny little wishful thinking that someone would find him. That someone would appear out of nowhere and come up to him.

It wouldn’t happen.

He should have expected it.

He hadn’t seen any of his brothers in years.

He wasn’t able to find any of his brothers. He thought perhaps, on his own, he could search and find them. But he is no detective and well, he was never as smart as Clay or as intuitive as Floyd or as charming as Bruce. He tried not to think about what kind of person Branch would be. A person he would probably never get to know.

Here he was in the very last moment. After this, he didn’t have anyone left.

There was nothing else.

John Dory stood in line with his graduating class, staring straight ahead, letting his eyes blur a little. He didn’t pay attention to the family members that were bringing their loved ones into a tight embrace. He couldn’t watch. He knew he’d be standing like this for the entire length of the ceremony.

He didn’t have anyone. There was no one left. He hadn’t had anyone in years. It was okay, he figured this would be the end anyways.

He closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath before opening them again. He blinked blankly, finding one of his classmates stand in front of him. Most of the others had been tapped out, with their families, her included. She stood in front of him and it room everything he had not to let his face scrunch up in confusion.

“I’ve got you Dory,” she promised, seriously.

Delta Dawn was bound to be a masterful soldier, practically at the top of her class. She had the patience and the discipline and the strength. She was smart, tough and was great with a plan. No one would have expected her to befriend the bland, average and slightly scrappy idiot who had no where else to go. John didn’t know how it happened either. It just kind of did.

It would be no surprise if they were stationed together in the same place. They made each other better, somehow, and people noticed.

He hoped they were stationed in the same place.

She wasn’t supposed to be a soldier, her parents wanted her to follow her father’s footsteps as a politician but she was gone before they could blink.

Taking another breath, he was forced to have his vision full of her slate blue gray eyes and red hair pulled back under her cap. She stared at him, serious but still soft. She was tough as nails that one, tougher even, but for some reason John would probably never understand, she had a soft spot for him. Who was he to judge? He had a soft spot for her too. He’d probably do just about almost anything for her.

“I’ve got you John Dory,” she repeated, giving his shoulder a quick tap before grabbing his hand and pulling him in a tight hug. “It’s forever now, Dory,” she whispered.

John’s eyes filled with tears as he wrapped his arms back around her, squeezing tight. He knew Delta’s sister was nearby, probably the presence by his side that seemed to brush up against him.

“I know I’m not them,” Delta continued, right into the crook of his neck. “But you aren’t getting rid of me, Dory. During service and after. You can count on it.”

He took a breath.

“You can count on me, Dawn,” John Dory promised, quietly. “You can count on me.”

[akookminsupporter]

I am so excited about Jin coming back!!! Time really flew by. I don’t expect him to dive right into a work schedule, I really hope he takes his time to adjust back and all, but the moment a wlive notification pops up or anything of the sort, I think my heart will burst 🥹

Oh, me too. That first Wlive I feel will be chaotic, although I think many think it will be emotional. From what little we've seen or I've gathered from his posts all this time, that man hasn't changed much. I can see him in that Wlive, teasing the other members and saying how he did well in X training but X member didn't. I can't wait to see that 😂

Honestly, I think it's hard to say what the next move of the members will be once they finish their military service because they and their agency usually plan everything well in advance. It wouldn't surprise me if before enlisting he recorded several songs or at least already has a number of possible options. Or maybe he prefers to try other things, like acting for a while. Or maybe he wants to do both, I don't know. Or maybe he just doesn't want to do anything for a while or a few months, that would be totally understandable and respectable. The important thing is that he finishes his military service because that means the reunion of the 7 is getting closer every day.

[commsroom]

a pretty major aspect of wolf 359's worldbuilding that i think about sometimes is that goddard futuristics is the megacorporation, like. jacobi says, "goddard's done some good stuff", citing the development of solar energy and investments in water purification, eco-friendly fertilizers, global internet access, etc. and... i mean, yes. obviously, objectively, all good things that i wish we also had. but also all goddard-owned and beholden to their interests. that line is in response to eiffel saying "yeah, i'm sure the team retreats where you got to burn down the rainforest were amazing" - like, it's about efficiency, not environmentalism; the good parts are a byproduct.

the same thing applies to the inaccessibility of goddard's other developments - AI development is so under wraps that even maxwell, working for the "best" AI research lab in the country, was unaware of the existence of "full-minded" AI until she was recruited by goddard. and part of why she was recruited was her disagreement with the board for ethical AI development. goddard has made some incredible advancements in the field of biotech, but like... do you think those things are accessible to the average person? these life-saving medical developments and disability aids exist, but who actually gets them? cutter is financially blackmailing eiffel by paying for anne's medical bills, education, etc. - his control over all of these things gives him potential leverage over just about anyone.

and then you have just, like, the fact that goddard is involved in so many things - space exploration, air travel, utilities, the military, medicine, agriculture, probably just everyday goods... it's bad enough in real life if you're trying to avoid a few major corporations; there are going to be so many things in their day-to-day lives that they never even realized were goddard-made until they get back to earth and start seeing it everywhere. and goddard futuristics started out as the wright-goddard aeronautics company; the wright brothers are already in like, every textbook ever - imagine how that's taught in a world where so many major developments are consolidated under this one narrative? gabriel urbina made an off-hand comment once about how, yes, NASA exists in the world of wolf 359, but you have to wonder who has better funding - the US government, or goddard futuristics?

[compacflt]

Would you ever consider writing about a different path Ice and Mav could take, one where they choose to leave the Navy and pursue a more open relationship and civilian life? Thinking it would be easier but maybe the sacrifice to their careers brings its own challenges?

(hi, jan 2024 me here, this was an ask that I answered when it was sent in in May 2023 & didn't post because I felt I actually answered it fictionally in the "icedad" one-shot the week after [and you can obviously see how these thoughts affected the writing of other pieces like "tremors & aftershocks"], but I still mostly agree with this take [though it's a little overgeneralizing] & I think it sums up a lot of my final "meta" modern-military-theory thoughts on ice & mav & their relationship, so im posting it now before I post the compacflt masterpoast)

see,… the thing is, i just… can’t see that happening!! i have no idea how to write that!!! Maybe i really do have a lack of imagination. But i can’t see that happening for a number of reasons. So short answer, no.

Long answer (and it’s long):

1. lame reason to start out, but it, uh, it’s canon that ice ends up at O-10 and mav ends up at O-6. not saying that im beholden to canon obviously (my mav ends up at O-7 and my ice ends up alive) but I do base my characterizations of them on the implications of the political struggles of both their careers so… taking away ice’s fourth star is basically starting from square one wrt my characterization of him. which is a lot of work. i could start from the beginning with a top gun 1986 ice who knows he’s gay—that would be a fun AU (i think other people than me have definitely done that better, though—I’m a one-trick pony). So if that’s what you mean then disregard the rest of this post. but if what you mean is a divergence from my existing work (i.e. homophobic/rank-climbing ice&mav) then… yeah, can’t see that happening, for further reasons below.

2. wrt my characterization of him: it’s based on a broad historical overview of armed service officers and the expectations of their careers. in my view, high-ranking officers aren’t after power—or maybe they started their careers wanting power, but somewhere down the line, it just becomes an expectation. if you do everything right and follow all the rules, you are expected by the institution to lead, whether you want to or not. That’s just the pipeline. at some point you start losing agency. which is what I mean when I keep saying ice doesn’t have a choice in advancing his career (besides the meta fact that this is fanfiction and canon demands that he have 4 stars lol)—high ranking military officers are continually and continually groomed for bigger and better positions; and the longer they spend in the military, the harder it is to leave that lifestyle for something else. And with ice’s canonical (and characteristically INTEGRAL, as I mentioned a week or so ago) refusal to rebel against the wishes of the navy as an institution, plus this historical expectation to lead placed upon the shoulders of excelling officers, I really do think ice is destined for four stars & nothing less, even if it gives him chronic depression. It’s his highest priority not because he wants it to be, but because…it just is. that’s how the institutionalized system of advancement in the military works. it just is. it has to be.

3. I mentioned in this post that I can’t ever see a foot in the door with them talking about their relationship unless maverick dies and is resurrected, and I feel the exact same way about them & their retirement plans. There’s a lot that ice and mav don’t talk about: the biggest one is obviously Goose’s death, the foundation of their relationship; but also their love for each other obv, what they did to rooster, AND their careers, which have to end at some point. Them talking about everything is totally inevitable, it was gonna have to happen eventually before they died, and I think one foot in the door MIGHT have been them eventually talking about retirement (someone sent in a prompt asking for this exactly & i am brainstorming it furiously) but before the Navy FORCES them to retire… i think they would studiously avoid talking about it. For a couple reasons: a) what does retiring with each other mean? living in the same house until they die together? hard to do if you’re just good friends. talking about retirement is tantamount to talking about Them. and b) what are they gonna do outside the navy? Ice has a lot of options, as I mentioned in the slider one-shot—general/flag officers are SUPER sought after in leadership/intelligentsia/management positions post service, so maybe if he were offered a crazy cool civilian position somewhere in San Diego in like the 2000s he would quit the navy for it… but what about maverick? I have no idea what a non-navy mav would do. Civilian airline pilot? Hoo boy. I think he’d hate that. I could maybe see emergency helicopter pilot, lol, or race car driver (i just watched days of thunder can you tell?) but none of the above offers the institutionalized honor the navy does (that, as a reminder, he *killed people* to obtain in the first place). I suggested his test piloting expertise would make him an attractive technical advising candidate to A&D companies like Boeing, LockMart, GD, etc. so that might be one option. But it might have been kind of a touchy subject for him before he racked up the expertise he’d need for those high-level civilian positions… the navy was kinda his only option. So they wouldn’t talk about it because it might hurt his feelings.

4. The biggest reason: again… open rebellion like rocking the boat by quitting the navy to be in an open long-term gay relationship, in upper mil brass ranks, and even retired upper mil brass ranks, just… isn’t done. And REALLY wasn’t done in the 2000s, when i think the scenario in this ask is positioned. And it’s not like “oh but whatever who cares about the navy, ice and mav are in love, they deserve to be happy no matter what, they should do what they want, fuck the navy…” no. Ice and Mav care about the navy. Clearly. Canonically. By necessity. The military requires cohesion and on some level repression of individuality & personal expression to FUNCTION, even when you’re retired. Yes, maverick certainly strains against that repression (which is why you Could spin top gun as an anti-military franchise if you were desperate enough), but he rebels through his ACTIONS (stupid plane maneuvers) not through his personal IDENTITY. his personal identity (headstrong overtly masculine white male pilot, whether gay or straight who cares) is NEVER challenged throughout the franchise (i.e. no one really challenges his masculinity specifically) & his personal identity does not POSE a challenge to the navy. Both he and ice in their outward-facing personal identities really fit in quite neatly to the navy’s overarching identity & contribute to the navy’s cohesion in a way that is favorable to both their careers and the establishment. Lack of imagination or not… i can’t see a universe in which Ice and mav would actively WANT to rock the boat and wreck the navy’s cohesion and their reputations for an open relationship and definitively rebellious personal identities, with the obvious caveat being Maverick’s death recontextualizing both their priorities (yes we’re in love AND we’ve finally proven ourselves to be ultra-capable officers regardless of our sexuality so no one has a license to judge us anymore etc.).

And also, they’re not enlisted seamen. Nor are they mediocre officers who have the luxury of fading into obscurity. Things are different when you’re that high in the ranks, and when your job publicly matters more. sorry, but even post DADT (probably until about biden’s election), an open relationship would end their careers. They might not be fired, but they’d never be promoted again. Too much of a liability getting subordinates to still respect them, from the higher-ups’ perspective, especially if there are other qualified candidates who fit the navy’s core identity better. Like—sorry. This is such a jaded oversimplification. But if you rock the boat like that (i.e. break the service’s united front to be individualistic in a way that does not match the service’s overarching identity), from the perspective of your officer peers, you simply are a bad officer. Being an open individual in a job where you are required to fit in and represent your service is not your job. You are not doing your job well. Straight-up. Even if you’re retired. I met US Army 4-star gen. David Petraeus (retired obv) in February—he led the successful-ish surge in iraq and Afghanistan in the mid-2000s—and he’s STILL a laughingstock for his disastrous affair with his biographer a decade ago, even after he retired from AD service. That’s what people remember him for, not the fact that he was one of our only successful commanders in any of our Middle East campaigns.

Something like that might be one of ice and mav’s worst fears—being known for their affair/scandal instead of the institutionalized honor they’ve fought and killed for. That kind of thing just Isn’t Done. It's bad taste. You have to keep it quiet. If you’re an officer representing the service, you have to represent it well & according to the service’s preconceived identity, even in retirement. (see, for another shitty example of "not fitting in" even in retirement, Lt. gen. Mike Flynn [his whole scandal is actually kinda geopolitically relevant to my fic if you squint lol] whom everyone fucking hates)

To summarize: i hope I’m not mischaracterizing your ask when i reframe it like this—would you ever write ice and mav without the institutionalized pressure to advance in rank and conform to institutional norms?

and yes, I would (and will if you ask—it looks like this: ice & mav meet & fall in love & it’s boring and fine. end of story), but I guarantee you someone else already has. I’m all about interrogation of institutional norms here. And i think until maverick dies & comes back from the dead, there is absolutely no *REALISTIC* incentive for ice & mav to leave the navy and/or have an open relationship. Like it’s just not possible. Idk how else to say it.

[shallowseeker]

Reason 687,456 why Cas was The Angel's Angel

and a surprisingly good political strongman in Heaven:

[usermarquez]

imagine trying to take yourself out of the crime operations your dad participated in and passed to you after his death, only to end up biding for the entire empire......

[solarwynd]

Military service is proving to these ao3 lovers that he isn't what you created for him. I just want our man to realize whole in the service that he is worth it stop minimizing himself for people that don't care about him be selfish for once.

I feel like some of you want jimin to be exactly what y’all call some of the other members out for and that’s just not him. There’s no minimizing going on that he’s doing. He’s never been the type to hold himself back so others can shine. Even other members have had to get on him about doing the exact opposite. He’s never once been like “I’ll never be as good as “x” or spoken lowly of himself because jimin knows his worth. He doesn’t need to become arrogant to get that point across. Jimin could’ve flat out said in that letter that he did poorer on purpose because he didn’t want jk to feel bad about ranking behind, but no. He did his best, got 1st then said jk was still doing well instead. Jimin’s confident in his abilities without having to oversell it and he uplifts other people because he genuinely wants to, not out of obligation or to make them out like they’re superior to him. And I don’t think that’s something he needs to change.

[daguerreotyping]

Carte de visite of Captain William T. Barnitz, who served in the Pennsylvania 158th Infantry 1862-63

[nellasbookplanet]

Getting into andromeda after spending the last few weeks replaying the original ME trilogy is so funny, I feel like I've stepped from a hardcore military sci-fi straight into a young adult adventure coming of age story

[thatsrightice]

I’ve been doing a LOT of digging on what path the Top Gun pilots would have taken prior to the events of the movie, specifically Iceman of course, but I found some information regarding the squadrons that Iceman and Maverick would have been apart of directly prior to TOPGUN.

In a preliminary script for “Top Gun”, Maverick speaks to Iceman saying, “You were in 124 with Bargamian.” In Maverick’s line, 124 refers to the VF-124 Gunfighters, a fleet replacement squadron (FRS). Iceman would have been assigned to the F-14 Tomcat and VF-124 in the selection after flight school, and Bargamian is likely a reference to the last name of a pilot Maverick had likely known well. The squadron was located in NAS Miramar, California, and in 1972 the squadron became responsible for training pilots and RIOs in the F-14A Tomcat in the Pacific. These training fleet replacement squadrons would fly out to aircraft carriers to fly day and night carrier qualifications.

In the movie, however, Iceman wears a patch for VFA-25 Fist of the Fleet. This means that he was likely reassigned to VFA-25 for deployment. What is interesting about this is that the squadron never flew the F-14 Tomcat, rather, they only flew configurations of the F/A-18 Hornet. VFA-25 was based out of NAS Lemoore, CA, and was in Carrier Air Wing CVW-14 at the time of the movie. They deployed on the USS Constellation from February 1985 to August 1985, and from September 1986 to October 1986. Their next deployment wouldn’t depart until April of 1987.

In the movie’s opening scene, Maverick and Cougar use the flight callsign ‘Ghostrider,’ the callsign for a real F-14 squadron (VF-142). In the early 1980s, VF-142 was deployed several times on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower as a part of Carrier Air Wing CVW-7 flying F-14s. They deployed from April 1980 to December 1980, from January 1982 to July 1982, from April 1983 to December 1983, from May 1984 to May 1985, and from July 1985 to September 1985. Then they had an extended turnaround while the ship returned to the shipyard for an extensive overhaul and did not deploy again until 1987 with the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

However, you may notice that Maverick’s patch is NOT for VF-142. The patch has VF-1 written, referring to the F-14 Tomcat fighter squadron known as the Wolfpack. The Wolfpack deployed on the USS Ranger from January 1982 to February 1982 and from April 1982 to October 1982. Then they deployed on the USS Kitty Hawk from January 1984 to August 1984 before returning to the USS Ranger from May 1986 to July 1986. They deployed again on the USS Ranger from August 1986 to October 1986 and from March 1987 to April 1987.

But this does not match the logo for the squadron, rather, the patch’s logo depicts a bird in flight. Aircraft from the NAS Miramar-based squadron VF-51 Screaming Eagles and VF-111 Sundowners were repainted in fictitious markings for the film. One could presume that the logo is meant to be a nod to the VF-51 Screaming Eagles. The Screaming Eagles flew off the USS Kitty Hawk in 1981 but transferred to the east coast following an accident that killed a deckhand from the squadron and injured an aircraft’s crew when an A-7E Corsair II from VA-22 struck one of VF-51s aircraft. They flew off of the new USS Carl Vinson from March 1983 to October 1983 as the ship traveled to its homeport in California. VF-51 is the first F-14 squadron to intercept several Soviet aircraft including an armed MiG-23. The squadron cruised with the USS Carl Vinson from 1986 to 1987.

Obviously, we know that Top Gun was filmed on the USS Enterprise, so this is another inaccuracy regarding his squadron. The USS Enterprise sailed with CVW-11 many times in the early 1980s. They deployed from September 1982 to April 1983, May 1984 to December 1984, from January 1986 to August 1986, from January 1988 to July 1988, and from September 1989 to March 1990. CVW-11 consisted of VFA-14 Tophatters, VFA-41 Black Aces, VFA-86 Sidewinders, and VFA-97 Warhawks.

Basically, none of it will paint you a clear and accurate picture. Obviously, I didn’t expect it to be accurate in terms of dates or aircraft carriers lining up and overall accuracy, but the patches and bars on their uniforms would have been nice. I’ve been trying to put together a timeline for Iceman’s career prior to TOPGUN but it’s a little hard when they don’t flesh out a character with a complete and fool proof backstory. I mean, Val Kilmer had to come up with his own headcanon in order to play his character with at least a little bit of depth.

EDIT: you can find a lot of information on different Naval squadrons using the website seaforces.org, they’ll give you info regarding their deployments and what carriers they were on and what planes they flew. Also, Wikipedia is legitimately a great starting place in terms of research :)

[akookminsupporter]

A few hours into the new year and already these men are making me weep.