NationStates

The Fatatatutian military has no central training command. Specialized training is organized by the appropriate branch and overseen by the Council of Generals or the Council of Admirals.

Parachute School

The Parachute School, also known as Jump School, is operated by the Parachute Army which currently constitutes more than thirty parachute regiments. It accepts trainees with basic training, though it has also been known to run occasional civilian courses as well.

Ground School includes safety training and parachute rigging. All trainees learn to pack their own parachutes, though in regular service parachutes are usually packed by specialized riggers. Ground School also has several advanced courses in airborne warfare tactics for squad leaders and officers.

Tower jumps are also considered part of Ground School.

To qualify as a Parachutist, a trainee must complete a number of "standard jumps" - i.e. low-altitude static-line jumps - first without equipment and then with full infantry equipment. The Parachutist qualification badge consists of a pair of wings suspended from a parachute.

Qualified Parachutists may take additional courses to become a Master Parachutist. Requirements include high-altitude jumps, free fall, night jumps and water jumps. Commandos often take several of these advanced courses but do not necessarily fully qualify as Master Parachutists. The Master Parachutist badge is the same as the Parachutist badge with a star at the top.

Master Parachutists can go on to train as Jump Masters. The C-130 Hercules transport can drop parachutists in several configurations: via the port and/or starboard doors and/or via the rear ramp. Since the C-130 can carry two platoons, it is possible to drop them simultaneously or separately, depending on conditions in the drop zone. The Jump Masters job is to coordinate the jump from inside the aircraft, in cooperation with the platoon commander(s). Jump Masters do not jump themselves. The Jump Master badge is the same as the basic Parachutist badge with two stars at the top.

The Parachute School, currently located at the headquarters of the 365th Parachute Division (the fabled Tuesday Division), is a live-in facility with dormitory and mess facilities so that the trainees can devote their full time to training instead of housekeeping.

Graduates of the Parachute School are entitled to call themselves "parachutists". "Paratroopers" is used less often, though the standard term of address is "Trooper".

Air Cavalry School

The Air Cavalry School (ACS) provides training in heliborne assault for the eight regiments of the Air Cavalry Brigade (technically a division by strength). It also provides training in helicopter insertions and extractions as requested by police forces and the Navy's Marine Corps. The Brigade has a reciprocal agreement with the Army's Search and Rescue branch to provide insertion/extraction training in return for practical experience in the field. Door gunners and gunship crews are trained at the Infantry School's machine-gun and mini-guns courses where the Brigade maintains liaison officers.

The most prominent feature of the ACS campus is the twenty-meter abseiling tower which simulates four helicopters so that a whole platoon can be trained at once in abseiling or fast-roping. There is also a four-meter "abseiling wall" for trainees to practice at a safer height.

Ground classes in the use of ascenders and descenders, etc. are conducted on open-air classrooms with roofs but no walls. Air assault trainees are also trained in the proper use of body armour. Classes in air assault tactics are available for squad leaders and officers.

Practical training in abseiling, fast-roping, touch-and-go landings and "touchless" landing and extraction is available with the school's own squadron of eight UH helicopters. The nearby airstrip at the Air Cavalry Brigade's headquarters provides transportation for trainees to and from all parts of the island. The school is also near a major road so tourist buses are frequent visitors.

The Air Cavalry School is a live-in facility with dormitories and mess hall so that trainees can devote all of their time to training. The current Commandant is Colonel Pomerantz.

The motto of the ACS is, "They choose to fly where eagles dare." Graduates are entitled to wear the Air Assault qualification badge which depicts a diving eagle with lightning bolts in its talons.

Infantry School

"Infantry School" is a generic term for a large number of intermediate and advanced courses sponsored by the Light Infantry and the Heavy Infantry and conducted at various locations throughout the island. Recruits who have passed Basic Training but have not been selected for service in a regular regiment are encouraged to take courses voluntarily to increase their chances of selection in the future. Many occupation specialties, such as machine-gunner, require Infantry School courses.

Many courses are concerned with special weapons - e.g. machine guns (SAW, GPMG and HMG), grenade launchers, rocket-propelled grenades, recoilless rifles and mortars. Every sqaud has a couple of members with a machine-gun certificate and a couple of members with a grenade-launcher certificate (hand grenades are covered in Basic Training), so more than half of all infantrymen have some Infantry School training.

There are also more specialized weapons courses for snipers, anti-materiel weapons, demolition, etc. Air gunners (e.g. helicopter door gunners and gunship mini-gunners) have a special course in cooperation with the Air Corps in addition to the regular weapons course.

Other courses include intermediate and advanced unarmed combat (the beginner version is taught in Basic Training), wilderness survival, urban warfare, etc.

Most courses are conducted in the field with trainees carrying their weapons and learning to use and maintain them under field conditions. Eating, sleeping and marching with their weapons helps them to learn a practical balance between food and ammunition, the two main loads of the Fatatatutian infantryman. However, live ammunition firing is generally done at fixed locations so that brass can be policed and recycled for economic and environmental reasons.

Certain courses involving the history and culture of the Army, as well as courses requiring mathematics and science, are given at Fatatatutti University (FU) and many of them are open to civilian students.

Because of its diverse and diffuse nature, there is no "graduation" from Infantry School. Some courses, such as Sharpshooter, do entitle the successful candidate to wear a qualification badge.

Naval Officer Training Programs

Fatatatutian naval officers are trained in the traditional way, as midshipmen, which is a kind of apprenticeship. Midshipmen volunteers are accepted at age sixteen (in a few cases as young as twelve) and serve only in the summer, then return to finish their civilian education for the rest of the year.

A midshipman is expected to learn every job on the ship, from swabbing the deck to navigation. Different types of vessel have different ranges of jobs, of course, but the midshipman doesn't always get to choose his/her ship. Since submarine duty is more dangerous and more technically demanding than duty on surface ships, submarines carry fewer midshipmen and never underage ones.

Each midshipman is assigned to a Training Officer and his/her progress is assessed by the Training officer and the ship's commander. When the candidate has reached an acceptable level of expertise, he/she is graduated as an Ensign.

In-service training for officers is largely on a hands-on basis while serving on a ship. There are also shore-based classes available, often through Fatatatutti University (FU), on naval history and cultural, mathematics, etc.

Navy Staff College

The Navy Staff College is not a specific institution. Rather it is a collection of classes given at various locations for continuing training of staff officers, e.g. officers on the administrative staff of a squadron or flotilla. Topics include strategy and tactics, logistics and transport, intelligence gathering, analysis and use, etc.

Submarine School

Submarine School, better known as "Sub School", is a prerequisite for any personnel serving on a submarine. The only exception is intelligence agents being put ashore in foreign nations and even they are required to take the course in escape techniques.

There is a long waiting list to get into Sub School, even longer now due to the popularity of the Submarine Service's more aggressive stance against the slave trade. Admittance is generally first-come first-served but there are exceptions for applicants with appropriate previous training and/or experience - e.g. electrical. It is possible to improve one's chances of acceptance by taking courses in sonar, etc.

Sub School has a large on-shore component where trainees learn the various working systems of the submarine - diesel engines, electric motors and generators, batteries, compressed air systems, sonar, periscopes, etc. Every crew member is required to know every job on the boat, though in practice the specialists in each area are used whenever possible. There are simulators for some equipment such as hydroplanes - i.e. trimming the boat. In a sense, the most important simulator is the living quarters of a Fish-Class submarine because that's where the trainees live during their training. To further simulate the confinement of the submarine, they are not permitted to leave it except for classes.

There is a shallow tank for practicing escape techniques. For more advanced deep-water escapes, a real submarine is used, a pre-Fish-Class boat affectionately known as "the Bus".

Some courses are shared with members of the surface fleet. The Torpedo School, for example, is housed in a former submarine tender which has deck-mounted torpedo tubes for destroyer crewmen and underwater torpedo tubes for submariners. Torpedoes are one of the few weapons where live firing is common (without live warheads, of course).

Graduates from Sub School are entitled to wear the submariner badge which depicts a Fish-Class submarine over the motto, "Run silent, run deep."

Amphibious Warfare School

The Marine Corps' Amphibious Warfare School is Fatatatutti's only amphibious warfare capability. We have no intention of invading anybody so our only use for amphibious warfare is for counterattacks on our own shores in case of invasion. Amphibious warfare would be used similarly to the Air Cavalry, to outflank and harass enemy positions.

The Amphibious Warfare School is completely self-contained, housed on its own landing ship with Fatatatutti's only eight landing craft, so that it can move at will around the island to practice amphibious landings on different kinds of beaches and with different inland terrain. As limited as our amphibious capability is, we can land a battalion in two waves. In time of war, the Marine Corps could increase its amphibious capability by several hundred per cent in a short period of time.

The Marine Corps often has the cooperation of the Army in providing shore-based opposition to their landings. There is also a reciprocal agreement in which some Army units receive training in amphibious warfare.

Guerrilla Warfare School

The Guerrilla Warfare School (GWS) is seen as Fatatatutti's "last stand". In the unlikely event that we are overrun by foreign invaders, we hope to be able to field millions of guerrilla fighters who will resist and harass the enemy forever. The mission of the GWS is to train as many military members as possible in the principles of guerrilla warfare so that they can lead cells of guerrillas when and if the need arises. The GWS also conducts seminars in guerrilla warfare for children, senior citizens, the disabled, etc. to emphasize the fact that anybody can fight for freedom.

The GWS is a "floating" school - i.e. it has no fixed location. Trainees live in the bush, foraging for food; there's a running joke that guerrilla food is not for the sqeamish. They receive no support from the Army except for arms and ammunition. At any given time, the exact location of the trainees is highly secret; new trainees are given a rendezvous point but they are invariably intercepted before reaching it.

The GWS cooperates with other Army units, particularly the Light Infantry, one of whose roles is to patrol the interior looking for just such guerrillas. There is a particular rivalry between the guerrillas and General Castro-Stalina's Air Cavalry Brigade, probably due to her longtime association with the Light Infantry. There is a constant state of "warfare" between the guerrillas and the other Army units which hunt them relentlessly.

Besides learning to "think like a guerrilla" the trainees sometimes have guest lecturers, one popular example being General Castro-Stalina's lecture on The Three Moving Parts of the ETA Submachine Gun. The ETA was designed specifically for guerrilla warfare at the Takeapenny arsenal. There are millions of barrels and billions of rounds of ammunition cached at various locations throughout the island. The other parts can be made in any well-equiped garage.

There is no specific "graduation" from the GWS. Trainees typically receive as a "certificate of completion" a black-and-white photograph of their class standing on a windswept mountaintop with ETAs pointed at the sky.

The theme song of the GWS is Tomorrow Belongs to Me.

Officer Candidate School

Fatatatutti has no elite academys. All officers have to come up through the ranks. Recruits who show leadership ability are quickly promoted to non-commissioned officers. Non-commissioned officers with an apparent aptitude for handling larger numbers of troops from a greater distance are invited to attend Officer Candidate School (OCS).

Officer candidates take primary courses in communications, logistics, strategy and tactics, etc. and are graduated as lieutenants. Officers' training is seen as an ongoing process so all officers take intermediate and advanced courses as they progress through the ranks.

In addition, a Fatatatutian officer is expected to be able to operate any of the equipment under his/her command, so paratroop officers take pilot training, heliborne officers take helicopter pilot training, etc. (Though those courses are an integral part of an officer's training, they are not actually a part of OCS.)

Army Staff College

There is no fine line between officer "candidates" and in-service training for officers. Staff officers often take classes at Fatatatutti University (FU) in civilian-related areas such as administration. The Staff College also includes classes for Staff Sergeants.

Clown College

It may seem like a joke to some but in fact the Fatatatutian military does partially support the Clown College. It may seem like a double joke that the Clown College is part of Fatatatutti University (FU). Clowning, juggling and other types of performing are a longstanding and respected tradition in Fatatatutian culture.

Clowning involves makeup and juggling is related to sleight-of-hand, so that's where the military comes in. Operatives of both Army Intelligence and Naval Intelligence take classes in disguises, picking pockets, etc. at Clown College.

Our current Defence Minister, Harmony Chang, is a graduate of Clown College with a major in juggling and also a former commando.

Air Corps Flight Schools

There is still some controversy over whether the Air Corps is a part of the Army or a separate branch. In practice there is little distinction made between Air Corps pilots and Army pilots. Transport pilots and ground attack pilots work hand in hand with the Army while fighter pilots are more or less independent.

Flight training is based more on aircraft type than on branch of service.

Primary training is in the single-engine Stork, which is also used by the Army for liaison and reconnaisance. The Stork is very easy to fly but it also has very low performance, so an intermediate course in a higher performance single-engine aircraft is usually necessary before going on to practical training on in-service aircraft.

Multi-engine training is in the Fatatatutian version of the C-130 Hercules. Helicopter training is in the HU utility helicopter. High-performance jet training is in a two-seat variant of the FDR fighter. The single-seat variant of the FDR is used for the advanced air combat training known as "Top Gun" School.

Navy Flight Schools

Naval pilots also get their primary training in the land-based Stork. Intermediate training is in a pontoon-equiped aircraft with somewhat higher performance. Such aircraft were once used for fleet reconnaisance but they have been mostly supplanted by satellite and AWACS-type technology.

Multi-engine training takes two forms: four-engine flying boats which are used for liaison with our naval forces worldwide (primarily submarines) and the land-based C-130 Hercules. Since one of the Marine Corps' roles is to guard our supply bases worldwide, Marine pilots learn to fly the C-130 Hercules as well as longer-range transports.

Helicopter training is in the H20 amphibious helicopter.

Since Fatatatutti is fairly new to carrier-based air operations, there is some question about whether the carrier-borne aircraft are under Navy direction or Air Corps direction. The Air Corps has longterm experience in takeoffs and landings on very short emergency airfields in Fatatatutti's mountainous interior, so carrier-based pilots can be trained either at sea or on land. In both cases, the tailhook version of the FDR is used.

Both the Army and the Navy will accept recruits with civilian pilot training. In such cases, the primary training and possibly some of the intermediate training can be short-circuited, depending on the individual's qualifications.

Armoured Warfare School

The Armoured Warfare School (AWS) is colloquially known as "Oz". Since our Tank Corps has a disproportionate number of ethnic German members, they often call it the PanzerSchule.

Some armoured regiments only accept recruits who already have basic infantry training. Others provide their own rudimentary infantry training, especially in the use of small arms. Most tank crew members also take the machine-gun course at Infantry School. Motorized Infantry attached to the Tank Corps also take much of their training at Infantry School.

The AWS provides specialized courses for tank drivers, gunners and loaders as well as intermediate and advanced courses for tank commanders. Tank crews take courses in maintenance and emergency repairs while support crews take more advanced courses in overhaul. Because of Fatatatutti's difficult terrain, which is not well suited to tank operations and causes a lot of mishaps, there is also a lot of emphasis on recovery operations.

Since driving motor vehicles is not as universal in Fatatatutti as it is in many nations, most Tank Corps members without driving experience take a basic driving course so they can fill in in case of emergency. For similar safety reasons, all members of a tank crew are trained to do each other's jobs if necessary.

Fatatatutians are very environmentally conscious so they don't want tanks tearing up the terrain unnecessarily. Thus, a lot of practical training is done on the beaches which are essentially self-repairing and, realistically, where a lot of the fighting would be done.

Gunnery School

Fatatatutti's rough terrain precludes much use of heavy artillery. We have some 155mm self-propelled guns that are restricted to roads but most of our artillery is in the 75mm to 100mm range and most of it is air-mobile. Our Gunnery School, also known as Artillery School, devotes almost as much time to moving and siting the guns as it does to firing them.

We do have several firing ranges. Environmental concerns forbid most off-range live firing in peacetime. The former practice of firing out to sea has been largely curtailed because it is even more difficult to recover and recycle spent shells from the sea than it is from land.

Artillery is generally controlled at the regimental level so advanced classes for officers exist only up to the regimental commander.

The Navy has no specific Gunnery School. Instead, training is on each individual vessel.

Commando School

There is no Commando School per se. The commandos only accept transfers who already have a high degree of specialized training in parachuting, weapons, etc. However, commandos do receive training for specific missions in areas not covered by regular Army training.

Army and Navy commandos usually attend the same training courses such as scuba-diving and demolitions. (There is also no distinction made between Navy commandos and Marine Corps commandos.) In the case of demolitions, civilian instructors are sometimes brought in. Conversely, commandos sometimes bid on civilian demolition jobs to keep in practice.

Explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) is a field occupied solely by commandos. Their in-house training programs are the only ones available in Fatatatutti.