Bucky In The Army, Part I

Bucky in the Army, part I

When a draftee got his notice to report, he was expected to show up at his local draft board on a specified date. http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/pages/exhibits/ww2/services/pdf/induct5.pdf (This links to a .pdf of a helpful pamphlet designed by Oregon officials for potential draftees, and outlines the induction process, as well as covering common questions.) Once there, he would receive a physical examination and fill out some paperwork. If he passed the physical, and couldn’t (or didn’t) claim a deferral on the basis of one of the few exempt categories, he was sent home with a grace period of about 21 days to set his personal affairs in order—arrange for payments of personal financial obligations, set up a power of attorney, and similar tasks. At the end of those 21 days (it might be a little longer, depending on delays in the training system, but that was the standard), he was expected to report to his assigned Army Reception Center (or Naval Training Station, but Bucky is not a Navy man, so we’ll ignore the Navy from now on out). At the Army Reception Station, draftees spent up to 7 days undergoing testing, were issued uniforms, were barbered to suit the army’s standards, started the necessary vaccinations, and were assigned to the army posts where they would undergo their basic training. At this point I’m going to break into the schedule to talk about how the US Army was organized in World War II. A numbering system was set up for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divisions_of_the_United_States_Army army divisions (the typical US Army division now averages 17,000-21,00 soldiers, and is commanded by a major general, for those not experienced military details) in 1917, during World War I. Numbers 1-25 were Regular Army divisions—the Regular Amy was the US peacetime army, which was quite small at that time. Numbers 26 through 45 were for National Guard units; and Numbers 46 through 106 were the Army of the United States (with some exceptions, like the 82nd and 101st Airborne, which became Regular Army divisions when they switched from straight infantry to airborne infantry.) The National Guard units already had the necessary organizational system in place (although many officers weren’t up to their wartime jobs and were replaced later), but to staff all those new divisions, the army took a cadre from an existing division—usually around 1300 men and officers. This core group would start training as the recruits were collected and began basic training. The Army also started pulling the necessary officers from officers in the existing Reserves (my father was one of these, as he did 4 years of ROTC to get through college in the Great Depression), ROTC programs, the Army’s own Officer Training Corps, and officers awaiting reassignment for one reason or another. At this point, the division would be formally activated, so it could receive its new recruits, and this expansion would continue until the division reached full strength. The entire time the US was fighting in World War II, it was also continuously training new soldiers, and for much of the time it was forming new divisions. http://www.historyshotsinfoart.com/USArmy/backstory.cfm This is what training involved for these new soldiers: 17 weeks of basic and advanced training (Basic is where they learn to be soldiers; Advanced training is where they learn their particular specialty—artillery, infantry, armored, or the support units and special skills.) 13 weeks of unit training (This is where they learn to work as a group.) 14 weeks of combined arms training and large-scale exercises (These would be division level exercises.) 8 weeks of final training (They have now been training 52 weeks—after the first 17 weeks all of it has been in the same unit, with the same people; they will have become very attached to each other, which is important in keeping an army working well.) At this point, they’d do some more training—multi-division exercises. The Army’s first big operation outside of the Pacific Theater was Operation Torch—in invasion of North Africa. Not all the troops involved had gone through this full regime of training, and the lack showed. The troops that invaded Sicily and Italy had the chance for more training. After this, the division traveled to a Port of Embarkation, and went overseas. If it was possible, they trained some more, usually for the specific mission they would undertake. So how long has Bucky been in the Army? If he was called up in early 1942, possibly while waiting for his enlistment paperwork to be finalized, he probably went into training in late February or March—which would mean embarkation leave (this would be about 10-15 days, depending on the travel involved—no flying, so they went everywhere by train, pretty much) in May or a little later would not be unreasonable. This fits pretty well with CA:TFA. So how did Bucky get to be a sergeant? Nowadays, the army has training programs for its noncommissioned officers, and a soldier has to have a certain amount of time in the service, and a good record to get into these programs. In World War II, they were still operating on the old-school principle of promoting sergeants from inside a unit, and they used a variety of ways to select them. One would be pre-enlistment skills and training—if a man was able to type, handle bookkeeping and other clerical tasks, he would be in a position to help handle the amazing amount of paperwork running an army unit requires. Another important factor might be how well he’d absorbed basic military skills, and how well he did in helping his fellow-soldiers along. Those who were natural leaders, as the phrase goes, might also be promising candidates. Ideally, you wanted someone who combined all of these to some degree, and who was comfortable with military discipline and methods. We don’t know a whole lot about what Bucky did between the time he finished school and went to war, but in those 6 or 7 years he may well have acquired skills the Army saw as useful in an NCO. So at some point between starting his unit training and going on his embarkation leave, the US Army saw they had a useful man in James Buchanan Barnes, and made him a sergeant, responsible for the training and lives of his fellow-soldiers, and for making sure the officers over him have the help they need to get things done.

(Need I say that, like everyone else, I have headcanon ideas about what Bucky did between the time he left school and joining the army? For later posts…)

Next post I’ll give some details about what Bucky would have gotten into once he got on board ship to head out to the shooting part of the war. Books and such may be recommended. *Link goes to a .pdf file

Also, I really hate Tumblr’s insistence on saving me from the burden of hand-inserting a link. Especially since their system works so well on a tablet.

Tags

bucky barnes bucky barnes meta

More Posts from Lostinthewanderingblue and Others

lostinthewanderingblue

4 months ago

"It started out of nowhere. Odd- I thought I was doing everything right"

1K notes View Post

lostinthewanderingblue

1 year ago

I tried… ;)

Tags

sam wilson falcon

4K notes View Post

lostinthewanderingblue

11 months ago

Bucky, speaking into his arm that is recording: Day 14 in the Soul Stone, so far no notable incidents, people are finding various ways to amuse themselves. Right now the tree creature is singing “I am groot” to the tune of “Despacito”, the greatest song of all time according to Spider-Boy. I can not detect any animosity between peopl-

Peter, following Sam: But why a falcon…why not… let’s say… an ostrich?

Bucky: Correction, Sam Wilson is about to murder a minor. I have to go.

Tags

bucky barnes peter parker sam wilson

35K notes View Post

lostinthewanderingblue

9 months ago

My question is: what is Steve Rogers’s body count? … We don’t talk about that a lot because he’s an American Hero ™ and American Heroes don’t ever actually kill people even when they’re, you know, soldiers in the actual fucking Army. The American Hero has to show mercy and give everybody a second chance and any time the Bad Guy dies, it has to be because he made a mistake that lead to his own death. The hero can never actually just fucking murder him in our stories because that would be wrong and a true American would never do something like that.

So, like, has Steve Rogers ever shot a dude in the face? Has he ever snapped anybody’s neck? Has he ever been struggling for his own life and used his shield to take a life?

If you have either canon comics knowledge or just Opinions and Feelings, please feel free to share. Because, like, dude was a soldier in WWII on the European Front fighting Nazis, kicking open doors with gun literally blazing, so he’s obviously killed people, but we never discuss this. How does Steve reconcile killing? Does he feel guilt? Is he comfortable with his actions? Has he killed people since he got pulled out of the ice? How does he feel about taking human lives? Does he talk to anybody about it? Does he just internalize it and let it eat him up inside?

Tags

steve rogers captain america meta steve rogers meta

6K notes View Post

lostinthewanderingblue

4 months ago

How did Clint and Caps relationship evolve from the "fuck you old man" mess it was in the early avengers

to understand their original dynamic, we’ll have to go back to clint’s childhood. first, clint’s father abused him, then orphaned him at age 8 by drunkenly crashing a car. strike 1 for father/authority figures.

his next father figure, the swordsman, acts as a mentor teaching him swordsmanship, knife-throwing, how to improve his aim, etc. clint looks up to him and practices hard to be part of the circus’ act, but discovers swordsman is stealing some of the show’s earnings, so swordsman tries to kill clint, breaking both of clint’s legs in the process, and leaves him for dead. strike 2.

older brother barney thinks clint wasted a good opportunity for them to work with the swordsman, so he leaves too. kind of a strike 3.

while clint heals, trickshot trains clint extensively until he thinks clint is finally ready to earn his keep. clint complies to try to make him happy. turns out trickshot was just prepping clint for more criminal activity, and he ends up shooting clint to a tree and leaving. strike 4.

by now, clint’s been abused, abandoned, or both by all of his father figures. he tried acting like a better son, brother, or mentee to please these figures in the hopes that they would act better towards him in return. clint now sees that it did nothing. by now he’s old enough and skilled enough to perform as a main act in the circus circuit, incidentally still being mostly run by criminals, so all authority figures are running together as “not to be trusted” at this point.

when clint joins the avengers, he’s thinking he’ll be part of a bona fide, revered team, as an equal member. instead, he finds out that all the founding members of the avengers are leaving, the other members are barely-reformed young villains (which he also is but that goes over his head), and a recently thawed captain america is being put in charge. as you might expect, he’s not thrilled.

now, everyone clearly sees cap’s put in charge because (1) he’s captain america (2) he’s led platoons (3) everyone else is like 19 and was a villain’s lackey like 1 week ago, and (4) he’s captain america. but clint sees: (1) some dude thinks he’s the boss of me! (2) i don’t need some dude to be the boss of me!! (3) it never goes well when some dude is the boss of me!!! (4) bosses don’t last long anyways, so i should be the boss of me and everyone else!!!!

even though cap demonstrates effective leadership, clint’s just waiting for the other shoe to drop. he trains with cap begrudgingly, because his last trainers had ulterior motives. with every instruction from cap, clint lets any possible objection he could have be known. if he can’t think of one, then he’ll just insult cap for being old. he completely resents cap’s authority over him.

but the other shoe never does drop. steve, being recently thawed and going through his own issues, left the team for a short period. clint thinks “a-ha! i knew he would abandon us!” but cap quickly returns. and unlike his other father figures, cap repeatedly shows genuine support, belief in clint, and concern for his well-being. as cap’s actions prove time and time again that he’s different, clint starts to warm to him; but still throws some insults to show that he’s ready to disobey an order at any moment. the insults become more half-hearted.

by the time hank pym comes back to the team, clint was regularly training with cap– and actually enjoying himself.

naturally, his defense mechanisms mean he’s still a little combative…

but over time, clint’s jeering shifts to friendly teasing. he always lets his objections be known and still argues often, but for things he has actual reasons for and no longer just because. soon enough, clint practically idolizes cap. everyone knows this because it’s completely transparent.

and so, cap will always have a soft spot for clint

and clint will always call him old. and they will insult each other, forever

519 notes View Post

lostinthewanderingblue

5 months ago

Agatha mentoring Billy is going to be like "Yeah I'm a super VILLAIN and you want to be a super HERO so I'm just going to teach you what I know and hopefully it translates over somehow. Anyway, lesson one: Always have a cloak or dress or something to flow behind you dramatically."

3K notes View Post

lostinthewanderingblue

1 month ago

The best lawyer in town.

IG || Kofi

Tags

daredevil

439 notes View Post

lostinthewanderingblue

6 months ago

archiveofourown.org

Ask Anyone Who Loves Me - Greyspaces13 - Marvel Cinematic Universe [Archive of Our Own]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

It started, as so many things in Jessica Jones’ life, with a cheating scumbag of a husband. Cases like these were a dime a dozen, and almost always turned up the same result. No woman hires a P.I. if the relationship is perfect. Or even, you know, functional.

Jessica, for her part, probably should not be judging these people. She herself has managed to fuck up every hint of happiness that ever came her way. The best relationship she’s ever had was with her victim’s widow. Still, she judges.

Tags

marvel fic Jessica jones no.16 whumptober2024 necrosis wound cleaning patricia walker

3 notes View Post

lostinthewanderingblue

2 weeks ago

I envisioned Gwen listening to “Fix You” as I painted this. Been going through a lot, but I always find solace in my friends and in painting.

Tags

spider gwen gwen stacy

7K notes View Post

lostinthewanderingblue

1 year ago

Please appreciate my first real fanvideo for the Leveage OT3 set to Flaws by Bastille! I'm pretty proud of it and my Leverage Secret Santa giftee (@nickelkeep) seemed to think it was pretty swell!

You can also bookmark this fanvid on AO3!

Tags

leverage

163 notes View Post

End of content

No more pages to load