Loopholes & Inconsistencies

[shadrak]

A lot of the details need to be reviewed by a military advisor:

Would like to know more about Angel's background. Was he a graduate of Federal OCS or a reserve component OCS? Public Affairs? Referenced in wiki as "commanding officer"...public affairs would be a staff officer.

Why the hodgepodge of MOS's from the reserve unit? Could be explained if they were from different units, but an 11B would not be MOSQed in an MI unit and SGT Cross (misspelled in the wiki as "sargent" instead of "sergeant") would not be in a line company in an infantry unit...and there are no infantry units in the Reserves...the only position for an 11B in the Army reserves would be as a Drill Instructor. Saul's MOS could be explained as not having been afforded the opportunity to attend a MOS school.

Ammunition at the armory...generally violates regulations but the small amount of ammunition COULD be allowed temporarily after a range--but what is the origin of the ammunition for the .50 cal.? That is unlikely to have been available at the armory.

[Unit]

A lot of the details need to be reviewed by a military advisor:

Would like to know more about Angel's background. Was he a graduate of Federal OCS or a reserve component OCS? Public Affairs? Referenced in wiki as "commanding officer"...public affairs would be a staff officer.

Why the hodgepodge of MOS's from the reserve unit? Could be explained if they were from different units, but an 11B would not be MOSQed in an MI unit and SGT Cross (misspelled in the wiki as "sargent" instead of "sergeant") would not be in a line company in an infantry unit...and there are no infantry units in the Reserves...the only position for an 11B in the Army reserves would be as a Drill Instructor. Saul's MOS could be explained as not having been afforded the opportunity to attend a MOS school.

Ammunition at the armory...generally violates regulations but the small amount of ammunition COULD be allowed temporarily after a range--but what is the origin of the ammunition for the .50 cal.? That is unlikely to have been available at the armory.

Maybe I am mistaken, but weren't Michael and Saul's MOS based on their active duty prior to going reserve? Both were in Iraq, Michael as MI and Saul in Mountain Division, then they returned and went reserve is what I thought. In that case it wouldn't matter, they could have different MOS in the reserves now right?

[Kc]

A lot of the details need to be reviewed by a military advisor:

Would like to know more about Angel's background. Was he a graduate of Federal OCS or a reserve component OCS? Public Affairs? Referenced in wiki as "commanding officer"...public affairs would be a staff officer.

Why the hodgepodge of MOS's from the reserve unit? Could be explained if they were from different units, but an 11B would not be MOSQed in an MI unit and SGT Cross (misspelled in the wiki as "sargent" instead of "sergeant") would not be in a line company in an infantry unit...and there are no infantry units in the Reserves...the only position for an 11B in the Army reserves would be as a Drill Instructor. Saul's MOS could be explained as not having been afforded the opportunity to attend a MOS school.

Ammunition at the armory...generally violates regulations but the small amount of ammunition COULD be allowed temporarily after a range--but what is the origin of the ammunition for the .50 cal.? That is unlikely to have been available at the armory.

Maybe I am mistaken, but weren't Michael and Saul's MOS based on their active duty prior to going reserve? Both were in Iraq, Michael as MI and Saul in Mountain Division, then they returned and went reserve is what I thought. In that case it wouldn't matter, they could have different MOS in the reserves now right?

Yeah, Angel's not a commanding officer. Not sure where that came from on the Wiki.

The hodgepodge of MOS's come from a lot of active duty soldiers, and some reserve, cross-training and re-classing for one reason or another. Saul didn't have a chance to re-class yet or go to another MOS school. Typically there's a waiting period depending on spots available, etc... Reserve units sometimes struggle to maintain being staffed, and you can get people from all over the place or MOS to fill in slots.

And Yes, there is not supposed to be ammo in the armory. That's intentionally fudged, but at the same time holds some truth, because it happened once that I knew about IRL. The 50 cal ammo came from Burt's "special room". They wouldn't have had that in the military armory. Only smaller-caliber ammo related to weapons qualification.

[shadrak]

Yeah, Angel's not a commanding officer. Not sure where that came from on the Wiki.

The hodgepodge of MOS's come from a lot of active duty soldiers, and some reserve, cross-training and re-classing for one reason or another. Saul didn't have a chance to re-class yet or go to another MOS school. Typically there's a waiting period depending on spots available, etc... Reserve units sometimes struggle to maintain being staffed, and you can get people from all over the place or MOS to fill in slots.

And Yes, there is not supposed to be ammo in the armory. That's intentionally fudged, but at the same time holds some truth, because it happened once that I knew about IRL. The 50 cal ammo came from Burt's "special room". They wouldn't have had that in the military armory. Only smaller-caliber ammo related to weapons qualification.

There are exceptions to policy that allow small amounts of ammo (a few thousand rounds) to be stored at an armory in preparation for range operations. I have know of instances where that "short-term" has been an entire fiscal year in order to avoid drawing and returning ammo to an ASP. In reality, units often have a small stash of ammo that violates regulations.

It would be interesting to learn what MOS Saul had planned on reclassing to.

Good background on the NTC patch, but I wonder why the commander is not a general...I assume the original commander died in the initial event. The Colonel might be the commander of the 11th ACR or a member of the staff.

NTC is a training center; it should have a large planning and operational staff with strategic and operational training capabilities...an addition of an E-5 35F shouldn't be such a big deal except for SGT Cross's experience...there should be plenty of senior NCOs and Field/Company grade officers in the S2/S3 shop that would have taken him in. This can be explained away as the majority of the staff being on leave during a long break between NTC rotations.

If this story-line were edited from the beginning, I would recommend making Michael an E7 or an E6(P) as opposed to an E5. As a "hard charger" it is not implausible that a 35F could be a SFC in 9 or 10 years (assuming he enlisted at 17 or 18). This would make it much easier to see him as the dominant leader in the group over Angel--he would have experience, age, and rank and would probably have the contact with field grade officers that would support his relationship with the Colonel. The first chapter says that Saul, if he kept his mouth shut, would likely outrank Michael--this would have to be changed to support Michael's new rank.

Angel is described as a "spoiled kid", but his family ties seem that he might be a gypsy or a member of a non-privileged group.

Bell, CA reserve center does not seem to have a unit that supports all of the character's military specialties. Could be from the MP BN with SGT Cross filling the 35F E4 position and Saul reclassing to MP with Angel slotted as a non-MTOE detachment executive officer to get him "command time" outside of his public affairs detachment.


General feedback: Season 1 was good story-wise but was very weak production-wise. Season two was decent in both respects with season 3 being excellent in both respects (voice acting improves a lot over the 3 seasons, use of sound effects, story editing, and the plot).

I have not begun Season 4, but if you intend to continue to work on the series post-production, I recommend doing some heavy editing to season 1 as it does not meet the season 2 or the season 3 standard.

Keep up the good work!

[Storm]

Did Tanya call the dead girl from 39.1 Cindy in 41.3? As far as I remember, her name was Wendy or something like that. Cindy was Angel's girlfriend.

[Kc]

If this story-line were edited from the beginning, I would recommend making Michael an E7 or an E6(P) as opposed to an E5. As a "hard charger" it is not implausible that a 35F could be a SFC in 9 or 10 years (assuming he enlisted at 17 or 18). This would make it much easier to see him as the dominant leader in the group over Angel--he would have experience, age, and rank and would probably have the contact with field grade officers that would support his relationship with the Colonel. The first chapter says that Saul, if he kept his mouth shut, would likely outrank Michael--this would have to be changed to support Michael's new rank.

That would have rivaled Burt's rank... and I wouldn't have wanted to do that. I also feel that E-5's have a much different mentality and age, and better fit for what I wanted. He's an e-6 in Irwin though...

Angel is described as a "spoiled kid", but his family ties seem that he might be a gypsy or a member of a non-privileged group.

He still had $ and came from $. Legit $, that's another story.

Bell, CA reserve center does not seem to have a unit that supports all of the character's military specialties. Could be from the MP BN with SGT Cross filling the 35F E4 position and Saul reclassing to MP with Angel slotted as a non-MTOE detachment executive officer to get him "command time" outside of his public affairs detachment.

Yeah, I sort of created a unit for them... It's a non-specific unit for a few reasons. If I chose something specific, then there might have been some story ghosting issues. Like if I based it off of a unit that exists, there would be a lot more strings to tie down.

General feedback: Season 1 was good story-wise but was very weak production-wise. Season two was decent in both respects with season 3 being excellent in both respects (voice acting improves a lot over the 3 seasons, use of sound effects, story editing, and the plot).
I have not begun Season 4, but if you intend to continue to work on the series post-production, I recommend doing some heavy editing to season 1 as it does not meet the season 2 or the season 3 standard.

Well, we got better as we went that's for sure, but you have to start somewhere. We went back and remastered Season 1 and it's much better on CD than the podcast form. So if you listen to the podcast version, I recommend going back and doing the other version.


OK, now for something new entirely. I'm finally going to fix the extra "PUCK" in Chapter 24.

For those of you who don't know, I made a pretty big mistake from season 2 to 3. I originally had a guy named "Puck" as a maller. He liked Hockey, that's where his nickname came from.

Anyway, at that point season 3 was still in outlining and planning phases and I ended up changing a character named "Pike" to "Puck". SO, what happened? I ended up with two Pucks... oops. Big oops. It's been driving me nuts. So, in the next few months it's going to get fixed and changed. I'll keep you updated on when, it'll take some time, but the name will now be "Biscuit". The funny thing about that... Biscuit is a nickname for Puck. It'll clear up the confusion and yet still remain the same.

[Litmaster]

OK, now for something new entirely. I'm finally going to fix the extra "PUCK" in Chapter 24.

For those of you who don't know, I made a pretty big mistake from season 2 to 3. I originally had a guy named "Puck" as a maller. He liked Hockey, that's where his nickname came from.

Anyway, at that point season 3 was still in outlining and planning phases and I ended up changing a character named "Pike" to "Puck". SO, what happened? I ended up with two Pucks... oops. Big oops. It's been driving me nuts. So, in the next few months it's going to get fixed and changed. I'll keep you updated on when, it'll take some time, but the name will now be "Biscuit". The funny thing about that... Biscuit is a nickname for Puck. It'll clear up the confusion and yet still remain the same.

I don't mind the 2 Pucks. How many Michaels would there be in LA at the time? I wouldn't call it a 'big' oops at all.

Also, I feel shadrak is pretty harsh with his criticism... I feel like telling him to start his own audio drama and see how well he fares. But anyway, it's the harsh stone that makes the knife sharp, so....

[Witch_Doctor]

General feedback: Season 1 was good story-wise but was very weak production-wise. Season two was decent in both respects with season 3 being excellent in both respects (voice acting improves a lot over the 3 seasons, use of sound effects, story editing, and the plot).

I have not begun Season 4, but if you intend to continue to work on the series post-production, I recommend doing some heavy editing to season 1 as it does not meet the season 2 or the season 3 standard.

Keep up the good work!

I have the remastered version of all three season's and they are amazing. Even though the podcast is free, the difference is more than worth the small amount of money. The cost is what you would pay to see three movies, and far less than buying those movies on Blue-ray DVD.