Howling Wilderness

[Apache6]

I've always thought it was completely unrealistic that the Nation (US) did not sustain a boot camp program where they continued to train replacements.

Would the quality of training have declined? Yes. Would the units be less well equipped? Yes. Would individuals still enlist based on the fact that they (and their families) were going to get fed? Yes. Would their be conscription? Yes; into both "Federal and State units."

If you look at Germany at the end of WWII, they were still training units and individual replacements.

For role playing this gives lots of opportunities.
1) Your a grizzled veteran given command of a dozen ill equipped, half trained "children." What do you do to ensure they survive?

2) Your a ill equipped, half trained "youngster," assigned as an individual replacement to a company of grizzled veterans. How do you adapt? Do you desert or try to excel?

3) You are press ganged into the Army. What now?

4) You are an over age veteran, called out of retirement and asked to form a unit out of a unit of ill equipped, half trained "children." You have to stop an attack from a superior force in 10 days. What do you do for training, fortificagtion...

5) You are a disabled veteran tasked to form an lead an elite strike force out of a squad of physically fit but ill equipped, half trained "children."

I added a bunch of green recruits in a potential players tasking that can be found by searching State Reconstruction Team 9.