[Matt W]

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

This looks like one of those areas where you need to be careful not to ascribe prescience to the planners - remember that the planned deployment of the Project would occur in a time when there were going to be scattered remnants of the US military as well as a lot of veterans among the survivors. Much of the work and materials and expertise would already be available and the US would not generally have descended into mutual hostility.

No "mutual hostility"? Then why does the project need all those guns? The 4th edition specifically references "Mad Max" in a training/explanatory vignette. The Morrow Project is expecting to find a failed or failing state.

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

I think that restoring the military would be a high-level function, not one parsed to individual teams beyond a very basic, temporary level.

Perhaps I was unclear. This is not about "restoring the military". This is about a paramilitary security force. Perhaps it would be better if I called it a Constabulary Force or a Gendarmerie?

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

Considering that the Project is presumably planning on (a) dealing with immediate threats itself, (b) working to restore the United States Military under some new national government, and (c) notoriously worried about arming people against itself, I would say the Project would encourage only a small defensive force and only if it was unusually necessary.

a) The Project isn't a security force, its aim is Reconstruction. It's really not efficient to have the Project do all the fighting.
b) This isn't about a new US Army, it's barely a gendarmerie
c) Notoriously worried? Where do you get this from?

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

As to costs, I think it likely that the Project would be encouraging a commune-style economy at the local level, until large-scale security had been established and actual commerce made capitalism feasible again. So at first... no one. Because no one is getting paid, everyone is pitching in to survive. For that matter, it is unlikely that any but the largest communities will have any full-time soldiers, not when basic survival takes so much work.

I disagree about the Project's economic/political objectives, but agree that "large-scale" security is necessary to achieve any national objectives. This is about how that "large-scale security" is going to be initially established. IT'S NOT ABOUT SOLDIERS

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

It is likely to be a "whoever can and will fight" scenario. Beggars can't be choosers.

That's just asking for trouble. Crazy/stupid/ignorant people might be willing to fight - but they might also be happy to kill the local Jews, Blacks, Hispanics and Gays. My point, again, is that this is a paramilitary Security Force. Not an army

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

For a solid decade post-war, anything more than "killing bad guys" is going to be escalated either to Morrow units or to reconstituted units of the US military. For newbies, stick to the basics.

No... It's the other way round . " Killing Bad Guys" is the task that should be escalated to the Army. On a local level, you need people that can improve local security and have the skills to de-escalate local tensions and negotiate a way out of violent conflict. To me, this would seem useful (not to mention much more civilised and helpful in rebuilding the USA)