Royal (Imperial) Manticore Army

Arol wrote:It really does seem like the Royal (Imperial) Manticore Amy is getting short changed in the Honorverse.

Sir Robert Jackson, Baron Karstadt Sea, Marshal of the Royal Manticoran Army would agree with you! The vast majority of people joining The Royal Manticoran Navy (the Official Honor Harrington Fan Association) select RMN for their branch, with RMMC a distant second (10-20% of members), and the RMA only about 1%. People love to be on spaceships!

Although I myself am navy, one must admit that the RMA has super snazzy looking uniforms! And, to put in the plug that Lord Karstadt Sea would give: lots of opportunity for people who join the RMA--it's wide open!

Here is an issue of The Manticore's Tale with an article on the RMA (download the Second Quarter edition. Article is on page 16) with a photo of members in said snazzy uniforms:
http://www.trmn.org/portal/index.php/documents/viewcategory/30-2014

And here are issues of the Tower Update, newsletter of the RMA: http://www.trmn.org/portal/index.php/documents/viewcategory/23-2014

And, by the way, it is still called the Royal Manticoran Army (not Imperial, even now that there is a Star Empire of Manticore).

Well said, Westmarch.

And now that the Soldiers of the Kingdom have been bandied about so quickly, let's go back to the comments about Masada. While I disagree with who got the "ball rolling" as it were, the question remains.

Its been 20 years. What are we still doing there?

So, why an Army was asked.

The usual argument is that any world can be defeated through the use of naval forces. Embargoing needed supplies can bring a dependent world to heel; they must submit or starve. In the worst case scenario, the average RMN super dreadnaught carries enough firepower to destroy most of the world’s surface..

Destruction, however, is not possession. Most "aggressors" want some part of the world or its industry intact. If the world has the means to resist, troops will be needed to go down, take physical control of the world’s important locations and hold them for an indefinite period of time.

Besides the necessity of actually occupying ground, people need to be able to see and touch the instruments of power. Even on friendly worlds, parades, formation drills and firepower demonstrations help to assure the population that their protectors are on the job and able to guard against whatever threats present themselves.

Furthermore, even on the Kingdom worlds and in peacetime, there are always jobs for ground troops. Natural disasters, local squabbles larger than the local police forces can handle, Manticoran bases and establishments need guarding from enemy forces, etc.

Just a thought.

RJ

Neitz wrote: ... one must admit that the RMA has super snazzy looking uniforms! And, to put in the plug that Lord Karstadt Sea would give: lots of opportunity for people who join the RMA--it's wide open!

No wonder recruitment is down if all the Army enlistment add tells you is you get a snazzy uniform!! What happened to all the great enlistment slogans from the past:
We Want You - Join The Navy And See The Galexy, and best of all : Be All You Can Be!
Tell the good Marshal he needs to do something besides offering a snazzy uniform, he has to sell it!

Invading Mesa by Tenth fleet would be very simple. Tenth Fleets OOB is IIRC;
20 SD(P) 2 sqd + div
8 CLAC's 1 sqd
16 BC's 2 sqd

Tenth Fleet invading Mesa would look something like this,

Main Force
1 BatRon of 8 SD(P)'s
1 BatCruRon of 6 BC's
2 CLAC

Mesa Terminus Force
4 SD(P)
2 CLAC
2 BC's

4 HL Intercept Forces
1 CLAC
2 SD(P)
2 BC's as escorts

The main Forces job would be to secure the orbitals and any orbiting infrastructure, blast any stupid MSN ships and intercept any fleeing merchants.

The terminus force job is to close down the terminus and intercept any ships coming in from Visigoth

The four hyper limit intercept forces are to intercept and stop any ships trying to flee the system.

saber964 wrote:Invading Mesa by Tenth fleet would be very simple. Tenth Fleets OOB is IIRC;
20 SD(P) 2 sqd + div
8 CLAC's 1 sqd
16 BC's 2 sqd

Tenth Fleet invading Mesa would look something like this,

Main Force
1 BatRon of 8 SD(P)'s
1 BatCruRon of 6 BC's
2 CLAC

Mesa Terminus Force
4 SD(P)
2 CLAC
2 BC's

4 HL Intercept Forces
1 CLAC
2 SD(P)
2 BC's as escorts

The main Forces job would be to secure the orbitals and any orbiting infrastructure, blast any stupid MSN ships and intercept any fleeing merchants.

The terminus force job is to close down the terminus and intercept any ships coming in from Visigoth

The four hyper limit intercept forces are to intercept and stop any ships trying to flee the system.

I know I don't want down in the middle of that mess. You have just come up with the best argument for joining the Royal Manticorian Navy. Have my own bunk every night, be clean most of the time, good mess and some idiot won't be trying to blow my head off.

Don

Arol wrote:No wonder recruitment is down if all the Army enlistment add tells you is you get a snazzy uniform!! What happened to all the great enlistment slogans from the past:
We Want You - Join The Navy And See The Galexy, and best of all : Be All You Can Be!
Tell the good Marshal he needs to do something besides offering a snazzy uniform, he has to sell it!

You should ask before you make such ASS-umptions. I wrote exactly this: "Although I myself am navy, one must admit that the RMA has super snazzy looking uniforms!" I think it is a stretch to expect that I would have recited their recruitment slogans before anyone even asked about them!

But now that you have mentioned it...

Under the Marshal's direction, the RMA has developed even more posters and slogans than the other service branches.

Some examples:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202533461522109&set=gm.812161298818249

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202529726668740&set=gm.811824065518639

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202523317588517&set=p.10202523317588517

Enjoy! Perhaps Sir Robert will post some more.

Thanks again, Westmarch, your posts are more than adequate to show that the RMA is doing that and more.

Yes, prior to the upcoming conflict with the Sollies, there was little combat opportunities for the RMA, other than occupation of captured Peep planets. That's how it was written by the Creator, and the hand I was dealt.

Regardless, the RMA now has a visual presence as well as canon material from which to build upon, both in the books and in fandom. We know it’s difficult to get fans interested in the RMA when the RMN has all of the shiny things. But we have the unique opportunity to create or help create our own history (or future) as well as other items that could be approved for canon. It’s a great time to be in the RMA!

So, as the poster say's - "If the beret fits you, join the Army to-day!"

RJ

Neitz wrote:You should ask before you make such ASS-umptions. I wrote exactly this: "Although I myself am navy, one must admit that the RMA has super snazzy looking uniforms!" I think it is a stretch to expect that I would have recited their recruitment slogans before anyone even asked about them!

But now that you have mentioned it...

Under the Marshal's direction, the RMA has developed even more posters and slogans than the other service branches.

Some examples:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202533461522109&set=gm.812161298818249

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202529726668740&set=gm.811824065518639

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10202523317588517&set=p.10202523317588517

Enjoy! Perhaps Sir Robert will post some more.

My bad! Sorry!
But info regarding the RMA, was kind ‘a hard to find.
I’m sure that in the fullness of time; cannon and Writer permitting, the RMA will receive the recognition it deserves.

Hi Hutch,

ART ended in July, and CoG in October, and remember HA-H was rather calm when Zilwicki finally got to her, so things are well at Beowulf, given he could do only ~5 LY/day it took him some twelve plus days, to gauge how long the ground fighting on Mesa took.

Captain Hawk might have been reassured if Zilwicki had provided a DNA sample by swabbing his mouth etc, but RFC wanted the drama of an unknown stranger only HA-H recognized.

I suspect the RMA is needed more on Mesa than Visigoth, for all its a RF member, after all the initial job is what the RMMC does.

L

Hutch wrote:

Arol wrote:*quote="Hutch"*...Stopping the seccies and slaves may be a harder task, given the numbers and that Mike has very few Marines, but if the Visigoth wormhole is available to her (no reason it shouldn't be), then she's only 60 LY from the Beowulf terminus and home--and maybe we do get to see the Manticore Army, Arol....
IMHO as always. YMMV.*quote*
Wasn’t there a confrontation brewing around Beowulf and its wormhole?
Can't remember from my first readthrough?

Arol, there may be a bit of...unpleasantness...in Beowulf system, per A Rising Thunder, but it will be directed at the planet, not the wormhole--I don't know if Alice Truman is still there in person or not, but a bunch of Mantie SD(P)'s certainly are, so Mike won't have any problems getting couriers/ships though there.

As for Visgoth....hmmmm, what about Visgoth?

There are lots of authors who persue the Army model of engagement but RFC does not. Realistically one could lose the whole Army and replace it with the Marines. Although the National Guard of old might Be the Honorverse Army of now. Somewhere a young lord should have gone to, to serve. Somewhere safe with limited chance of mental error. Even if the error wasn't so much of an error but fog of war and bias.

If you want Army Action John Scalzi has you covered.

Of course what Air Force and Navy personnel fail to see it doesn't matter how many bombardments or bomb runs you persue, in the end you need to send in the ground troops. However, those ground troops could be the Marines.