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When stories collide.

LonelyDad 🚫

Well, they don't really collide, but I needed a catchy title.

In Fantasy Lovers latest chapter of Lucky Jim III, Fort Polk is mentioned a few times. Since I have very little else to do, I fired up Google Earth and looked at Fort Polk. What I saw intrigued me enough that I went to Wikipedia and looked up Fort Polk. Lo and behold, the 10th Mountain Division seen in rlfj's Grim Reaper story has moved from Fort Drum in Upper New York to Fort Polk in southern Louisiana.
I know most of you could care less, but I just thought it was a neat piece of trivia to share.

Replies: Reluctant_Sir

Reluctant_Sir 🚫

@LonelyDad

Yup, and they should be renamed to the 10th Swamp Division... ain't no real mountains in Louisiana! The highest hillock in Louisiana is 535 FEET.

LonelyDad 🚫

One wonders where they are going to train to do their mountain thing.

Replies: irvmull LonelyDad

irvmull 🚫

@LonelyDad

One wonders where they are going to train to do their mountain thing.

Colorado for the cold and the terrain. Texas for the heat.

LonelyDad 🚫

@LonelyDad

Do a complete training exercise: Military airlift to somewhere in the Rockies, do the training and fly back. That way one is sure that the movement plans really work and that anything that needs to be changed/added/deleted can be taken care of for the next exercise.

Remus2 🚫

Sounds like classic military brass logic to me.

LonelyDad 🚫

Well, the Rockies aren't all that far away, and it would make a good exercise in moving men and equipment to a battlefield, and then home again, as well as whatever exercise they were executing once they got there.

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@LonelyDad

Well, the Rockies aren't all that far away

From Louisiana, they'd have a choice between the Rockies and the Appalatians.

Replies: bk69

bk69 🚫

@Dominions Son

From Louisiana, they'd have a choice between

mountains and foothills.

richardshagrin 🚫

they'd have a choice

Maybe there are underwater mountains to climb. Parts of Mexico with mountains may be closer than the Rockies, from Louisiana.

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@richardshagrin

Maybe there are underwater mountains to climb.

How do you climb a mountain under water?

Parts of Mexico with mountains may be closer than the Rockies, from Louisiana.

There would be significant difficulties, that have nothing to do with distance, involved in the US military running training exercises in Mexico.

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Dominions Son

How do you climb a mountain under water?

Probably a lot more easily than climbing a mountain that's above water.

The world's tallest mountain is mostly underwater - Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

AJ

AJ

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@awnlee jawking

Probably a lot more easily than climbing a mountain that's above water.

A diver swimming around an underwater mountain is more like a bird flying around a mountain than like a person on the ground climbing a mountain.

Replies: Uther_Pendragon

Uther_Pendragon 🚫

@Dominions Son

During WWII, the British had a "Lowland Mountain Division."

Replies: Dominions Son StarFleet Carl bk69

Dominions Son 🚫

@Uther_Pendragon

During WWII, the British had a "Lowland Mountain Division."

Did they have a desert swamp division too? Or maybe an Arctic jungle division?

Replies: StarFleet Carl

StarFleet Carl 🚫

@Dominions Son

Did they have a desert swamp division too?

No, but China has the People's Liberation Army Navy.

Replies: Mushroom

Mushroom 🚫

@StarFleet Carl

No, but China has the People's Liberation Army Navy.

I for one love poking fun at the PLAN.

Before they got taken over by politics, I used to participate in a lot of military debates. And in most ways, the PLAN is run like it is headed by a bun of COD fanboys.

But it must be remembered, that the actual location of a military unit is not how it is designated, but how it is trained and it's doctrine.

And the 10th Mountain is still based out of Fort Drum. The Division HQ, along with the 1st and 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team is all still based at Drum. Only the 3rd IBCT "moved" to Polk. And even that was administrative. It is actually the 3rd BCT, 36th Infantry Division.

Replies: richardshagrin

richardshagrin 🚫

@Mushroom

"moved" to Polk

So they could play polker.

Replies: bk69 Dominions Son awnlee jawking

bk69 🚫

@richardshagrin

No polka reference? You're slipping.

Dominions Son 🚫

@richardshagrin

So they could play polker.

They'd rather play poke-her, but the brass frowns on that these days.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@richardshagrin

So they could play polker.

They thought they'd see lots of itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polker dot bikinis being worn ;-)

AJ

StarFleet Carl 🚫

@Uther_Pendragon

During WWII, the British had a "Lowland Mountain Division."

It's the 52nd (Lowland) Division. They were trained first in Mountain Warfare operations, and later in Airborne Operations, so the way you incorrectly phrase it, you could write it as the 'Lowland Airborne Division'.

The reason I say it's incorrect is that it's the 52nd Division, with (Lowland) showing that it was a territorial unit when it was originally formed during WWI, similar to the 54th Massachusetts, or the 2nd Wisconsin, 6th Wisconsin, 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, and 24th Michigan all formed the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, of the 1st Corps - the Iron Brigade.

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@StarFleet Carl

similar to the 54th Massachusetts, or the 2nd Wisconsin, 6th Wisconsin, 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, and 24th Michigan all formed the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, of the 1st Corps

Actually, not similar. Up to the Civil War the US government had a very small standing army and was reliant on borrowing state militia units.

When you see references to Nth (US State) those are state militia units, not territoriality defined US Army units.

bk69 🚫

@Uther_Pendragon

During WWII, the British had a "Lowland Mountain Division."

Wasn't that to differentiate it crom the kilted, bagpipe equipped mountain division?

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫

@bk69

Even the Scottish Lowlands have mountains.

AJ

gruntsgt 🚫

well to paraphrase Grim about the Military Brass 'Why are we training in Upstate New York winter for Iraq Desert summer?".
Enough said.

Replies: PotomacBob

PotomacBob 🚫

@gruntsgt

well to paraphrase Grim about the Military Brass 'Why are we training in Upstate New York winter for Iraq Desert summer?".
Enough said.

Way back in the day when many of us faced the draft for Vietnam, I knew a guy, from Louisiana, who spoke Mandarin Chinese fluently. The Army sent him to Greece.

shiloh1 🚫

I had basic training at Ft. Polk. Makes you appreciate being from any other state. In the summer yet. Thought I would die.

oyster50 🚫

You guys missed the fun of doing Viet Nam prep training in the desert outside Fort Bliss, Texas when I was in Basic in 1968.

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When stories collide.

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