Technical Names for Spec Ops roles

[Lightspeed~SPARTA~]

I want to try to get this accurate for my Arma2 missions - they are Ghosts, Black Ops, Sped Ops whatever you want to call em but what do we class each unit as?

 

do we call him a Medic or a Corpsman?

 

Marksman or Sniper?

 

Sapper or Engineer?

 

Assault Rifleman or Rifleman or sumthin else?

 

Saboteur or Demolitions Expert or Demo Specialist?

 

and what about the others? Support, Havy Weapons Specialist, Machinegunner..........you get the point.

 

is this clearly defined anywhere?

 

thanx in advance,

 

Lighty.

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

Not very clearly defined in one place. You'd have to look at many sources to get your info. I'll try to help as much as I can.

 

If you're in a unit that is Army-based, call him a Medic. "Corpsman" is some wacky reference the Navy & Marines use to distinguish themselves and make everyone else's life miserable, including our current president Sometimes "Doc" is used, but I've always heard "Medic" The actual Medic of Sparta should tell you better than me.

 

Snipers like to be called Snipers, as far as I could tell, or "Hunters of Men" I would think a "Marksman" is another Marine reference or something to denote the guy in the regular infantry platoon who carries a scoped-rifle.

 

SF Engineers are Sappers, and Sappers only. They worked too hard to get that special tab on their uniform to be called something else. Of course, things may be different nowadays.

 

Not sure what a regular "rifleman" is called in an SF group. I would probably just go with "Operators" as that's popular with folks like Delta.

 

Sabeteur or Demo? I'd say go with the easiest spelling ;)

 

Communications Sergeants are called "Commo"

 

I know a lot of units are designated as ODA's, or "Operational Detatchment Alpha" which is like a basic team. (See "A-Team")

 

Wiki says this about ODA's:

A Special Forces company consists of six ODAs (Operational Detachments Alpha) or "A-Teams."[35] The number of ODAs can vary from company to company, with each ODA specializing in an infiltration skill or a particular mission-set (e.g. Military Freefall (HALO), combat diving, mountain warfare, maritime operations, or urban operations).

 

An ODA consists of 12 men, each of whom has a specific function (MOS or Military Occupational Specialty) on the team, however all members of an ODA conduct cross-training. The ODA is led by an 18A (Detachment Commander), usually a Captain, and a 180A (Assistant Detachment Commander) who is his second in command, usually a Warrant Officer One or Chief Warrant Officer Two. The team also includes the following enlisted men: one 18Z team sergeant (Operations Sergeant), usually a Master Sergeant, one 18F (Assistant Operations and Intelligence Sergeant), usually a Sergeant First Class, and two each, 18Bs (Weapons Sergeant), 18Cs (Engineer Sergeant), 18Ds (Medical Sergeant), and 18Es (Communications Sergeant), usually Sergeants First Class, Staff Sergeants or Sergeants. This organization facilitates 6-man "split team" operations, redundancy, and mentoring between a senior specialist NCO and his junior assistant.

 

Keep in mind, those are the "official" designations, and not exactly what they use to Hollywood themselves up.

 

If you've got the time or interest, a good resource would be Mark Bowden's book "Blackhawk Down" or more recently, the book about Operation Annaconda called "Not a Good Day to Die." That one references Delta teams as well as Seal teams.

[MedicSN6]

Look up the 18 series of US Army MOS. This should shed light on technical job titles.

 

I believe 18D is still Medic class.

 

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/enlistedjobs/a/18.-uJK.htm

 

For info on how the Seals are teamed... http://www.howstuffworks.com/navy-seal17.htm

[DaiSan]

Just to throw another curve, all the references above are for the standard US units available in ArmA 2. If you choose to use a mod then you will need the correct terminology for the country units you use.