In article , dg411{at}FreeNet.Carleton.CA
says...
>
> "J" (janderson_ishere{at}yahoo.com) writes:
> >> No, they join the Home Guard in a war. "Dad's
Army". No doubt if
> >> invasion is threatened again we will have a "Mum's
Army" as well.
>
> " No doubt ", indeed, well, among people who know AbZero
about the actual
> military.
>
> For those with a Polaroid of a clue, well, we know that the training that
> people need to be able to competantly operate modern military hardware
> isn't something that a 45 year old can deal with, or that can be learned
> in a month.
>

I don't think that the technology of small arms and anti-tank
weapons has changed that much since WWII---when 45-year-old
home guards were used in England.   You're not going to be
strapping those home guards into fighter aircraft or the
gunner's position of an M1A2.

At 45 years of age, training to use the equipment is not
as much an issue as is the physical training to engage
in offensive combat operations.   That would probably limit
older folks to defensive operations where knowledge of the
local area might give them some small advantage.    As we've
found out in Iraq,  it doesn't take sophisticated weapons and
years of training to tie down several divisions of a modern
military force.
> >> Count me in, I'd give it a go, even at 75.
> >>
> >> Geopelia
> >
> > Fine with me.
>
> Indeed, as she'll then die... swiftly. Hopefully without taking any
> useful soldiers ( IOW, men ) with her.
>
Home guard troops would probably only be used when there were few
useful soldiers left!   As for getting men killed---there's still
a good chance, as,  even in WWII, only about 1/3 of the men in the US
in the 19 to 50 year age groups  were in the active military, and
that group was only overseas for about 16 months out of the
4 years of the war.

http://www.census.gov/PressRelease/www/releases/archives/
facts_for_features_special_editions/001747.html


Obviously  'home guard' troops in the US and England didn't do
much fighting, but I wonder how their equivalents did against
allied forces in Germany?

Mark Borgerson



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