>From: donald_at_...
>It just requires you to have a university education, that's what I mean by
>showing academic ability. You can get into officer training in Britain by
>having the minimum exam results to attend university
without having been there. I don't know about the US but here that excludes
more than half the population and there is a strong class bias in those
excluded.
You do have to attend an institute of higher learning here, but the requirements for some are, basically, a high school diploma. So there are no real barriers to becoming an officer in the US. As for class playing a role, tell that to Colin Powell who was born in Harlem, or John Shaklishvili who was a stateless refugee who immigrated to the US from Poland. Anyone with the right talent can rise to the top in the US military.
>The regimental system developed in the 18th Century so I'd be reluctant to
>carry it across to Glorantha. It also worked very differently in different
>parts of Europe and at different times.
I'm speaking only of the tendency to raise troops locally, and to have the sort of provincial esprit de corps that such units tend to have. Again, not conscription. Unlike the regimental system, since the armies seem somewhat professional to me, decimation of a unit will not deplete the manpower of a town or region where they were raised (a major problem of the conscription/regimental model).
>I don't think the Lunar empire has a standing army at all. Like in many
>things the army is a mixture ...
Quite. Nothing realistic is ever simple. But ILH did give the impression that the various units do tend to be permenant.
Mike
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