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the_tyrant
11-07-10, 01:01 PM
http://www.cracked.com/article_18796_the-5-most-terrifying-jobs-in-history-war.html

somehow, being on a S-boat is paradise compared to these roles

nikimcbee
11-07-10, 04:18 PM
Ha! I knew it:know:

In 1942, Joseph Stalin established Order 227 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_No._227) to make it clear that no commander or soldier fighting in the war had the authority to retreat in battle. And anyone who defied the order would be eligible to serve in something called "penal battalions." These separate units of convicts and rejects were intentionally sent to do the ****tiest and most suicidal jobs in the war. They were to be sacrificed so as not to risk "real" soldiers.
Thus, penal battalions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_military_unit#Soviet_Union) were composed of gulag labor camp inmates, disgraced soldiers accused of cowardice and liberated POWs. You read that right ... their own POWs were punished for their stupidity of getting caught by having to serve in penal battalions, and that's if they weren't executed on the spot after liberation. So why not just run away? Because backing them up were barrier troops who were there for no other reason than to kill soldiers who tried to retreat.


Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_18796_the-5-most-terrifying-jobs-in-history-war_p2.html#ixzz14dLqmhih

Jimbuna
11-07-10, 04:28 PM
In the Brit army the pioneer corps must have been an awful job....burying the dead and cleaning out the interior of damaged and destroyed tanks.

Platapus
11-07-10, 05:27 PM
Two words

Graves Registration. :nope:

Torvald Von Mansee
11-07-10, 06:38 PM
Two words

Graves Registration. :nope:

Came here to say this.

Though I suppose you'd get used to it after a while.

TLAM Strike
11-07-10, 06:47 PM
I can think of another. Forgot what they were called (maybe August would know). But in the event that a bomber caring a nuclear bomb crashed there was a team of paratroopers who were to go in to the radioactive wreckage, retrieve the bomb and guard it until someone could show up and recover it.

August
11-07-10, 07:15 PM
I can think of another. Forgot what they were called (maybe August would know). But in the event that a bomber caring a nuclear bomb crashed there was a team of paratroopers who were to go in to the radioactive wreckage, retrieve the bomb and guard it until someone could show up and recover it.

Never heard of that particular nasty job but it sounds like something the Air Force might have.

Platapus
11-07-10, 09:04 PM
If there is an accident involving an Air Force controlled Nuclear Weapon, or a nuclear weapon in an Air Force controlled area, the unit that would respond would be EOD and specifically my old unit the venerable 2701 EODS at Hill AFB :yeah::yeah::yeah:

We were the USAF's Nuclear Response EOD team. :salute:

August
11-07-10, 09:05 PM
If there is an accident involving an Air Force controlled Nuclear Weapon, or a nuclear weapon in an Air Force controlled area, the unit that would respond would be EOD and specifically my old unit the venerable 2701 EODS at Hill AFB :yeah::yeah::yeah:

We were the USAF's Nuclear Response EOD team. :salute:

That explains a lot... :hmmm:





:D

Platapus
11-07-10, 09:50 PM
I resemble that remark

TLAM Strike
11-07-10, 09:58 PM
I resemble that remark
I think you resemble this more...

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/8647/50579145.jpg

papa_smurf
11-08-10, 06:17 AM
How about been in bomb disposal in the second world war? Everyday could be you last, you have to learn about each new bomb, and it could go off any moment and you'll go up in "the pink mist" as it was known.

TLAM Strike
11-08-10, 09:23 AM
How about been in bomb disposal in the second world war? Everyday could be you last, you have to learn about each new bomb, and it could go off any moment and you'll go up in "the pink mist" as it was known.

Heck bomb disposal in any war is like that. Do you think that the bad guys in Iran and Afghanistan don't make new styles of bombs. They are changing every couple of weeks.

I read that in the space of a few months in Iraq they went through every possible radio frequency to detonate IEDs before we jammed them all. It took 12 years for that to happen with the IRA in N. Ireland.

Herr-Berbunch
11-08-10, 10:12 AM
I can think of another. Forgot what they were called (maybe August would know). But in the event that a bomber caring a nuclear bomb crashed there was a team of paratroopers who were to go in to the radioactive wreckage, retrieve the bomb and guard it until someone could show up and recover it.


I've been on the UK Nuclear Accident Response Organisation, to provide secure comms in such an event (well, a similar event, as we no longer have nuclear bombers :wah:, it'd probable involve either road or rail accident now, or non-military nuclear carrying flights!), never got called out for anything nuclear but we did many exercises and sometimes the first to deploy overseas (Sierra Leone, Kosovo, etc... ) from the UK Mil as we were all prepped ready to go. And it would always be on a Friday afternoon after a Thursday cabinet/MoD meeting. :nope:

Aside from Graves Registration, simply being one back home to break the bad news, and hearts, would be emotionally shattering :nope:

Jimbuna
11-12-10, 09:54 AM
Aside from Graves Registration, simply being one back home to break the bad news, and hearts, would be emotionally shattering :nope:

*Talking in terms of Police work*

Delivering a death message was always the hardest task http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/wolfcop.gif

Ducimus
11-12-10, 04:19 PM
If there is an accident involving an Air Force controlled Nuclear Weapon, or a nuclear weapon in an Air Force controlled area, the unit that would respond would be EOD and specifically my old unit the venerable 2701 EODS at Hill AFB :yeah::yeah::yeah:

We were the USAF's Nuclear Response EOD team. :salute:

So that's what you did. I was wondering what your career field was, i just never asked. On a somewhat related note, the Air Force is ALOT more self contained then people realize or other branch's give credit for. There are even a number of people who become airborne or air assault qualified. Something you only think of as being Army.

I think part of the problem is the AF likes to portray itself as "high tech", so you only see the glamor imagery, and jobs in recruiting offices and such. Other part of the problem, is the (very legitimate) image of the AF as the "Chair Force". There are indeed a lot of people who "Fly a desk" in the AF.

Platapus
11-12-10, 04:31 PM
Here is the most accurate Air Force Recruiting video ever made

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jET7zGnPKjo

:yeah:

I just found an actual EOD recruiting video. They never had those when I was in (I don't think they had video when I was first in). But this pretty sums up the job... leaving out some of the more gross stuff of course. :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk_g5vDJW5w

Ducimus
11-12-10, 06:07 PM
Nice.

Hey... sweet.. we have video too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iU59A9_TcU

edit: I'll just go ahead and toss this into the ring:
http://www.trophyexpress.com/usaf/images/554thredhorse.gif

Platapus
11-12-10, 08:17 PM
Red Horse?

They are either building stuff and then killing people or
They are killing people and then building stuff or
They are killing people and building stuff at the same time

Sometimes they drink alcohol too. :hmmm:

Civil Engineers and Construction people with automatic weapons :yeah:

Pretty manly. :salute:

Capt. Morgan
11-12-10, 11:59 PM
My vote goes to the Tunnel Rats

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_rat).