Aliens - 1986 movie (was Dog Soldiers)

[Raellus]

My copy of the Colonial Marines Technical Manual arrived in the mail today. It's pretty dang cool. I especially like the little color blurbs between tech entries- they really add a lot of flavor to the otherwise fairly dry techical text. The multiple mentions of various OPFOR groups (Beebops, Bugboys, Slinkers) make me really curious about the conflicts that the USCMs engaged in outside of the Alien engagements committed to film, since very little additional context was given. It's clear that the Beebops are a nickname for Japanese forces, but the others are anyone's guess. Was the author just shooting from the hip or is there some more fleshed-out USCMs mythos* out there that I'm not aware of? Either way, he did a really convincing job.

On a T2K-related note, the USMC tanks ( including the M40 Ridgeway [sic]) look very much like the LAV-75 (with a dash of Merkava mixed in).

*I've seen covers from a comic book series based on the USCM but I haven't read or looked within.