In the movie Full Metal Jacket, Joker is working for “Stars and Stripes”. After the Tet offensive, Joker makes one crack too many and his CO tells him to go straight to Phu Bi (i have no idea if that is spelled right) be Use “Captain January is going to need all his men.”
Questions:
- when Joker is graduating from basic training, his DI reads the billet (or specialty) number (or whatever the proper term is) and says “42-12, basic Military journalism”, and after Hartman trashes him, joker says “I wrote for my high school newspaper.”
Was that the only requirement that someone needed to get the chance to write for Stars and Stripes, and if so, did just about everyone try to get that job? I have to say, if my choice was 0-300 infantry, or military journalism, I know which one I am taking.
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for the Marines assigned to S&S, were they just on loan? If so, how long could they stay until they were forced to rotate into the field?
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when Joker’s S&S CO sends him out to the field, it seems as if he was punishing him and kicking him off the paper. But when Joker gets to Cowboy’s unit, he says he is still on S&S, along with Rafterman. How did this work? Would he be assigned to Capt. january’s platoon until he was called back to S&S, Was he sent out there to write some articles for S&S and then come back, or what?
Joker eventually gets into a fire fight and kills a sniper. When would he go back to the S&S camp “in the rear with the gear?”
- Rafterman volunteers to go with Joker. And he is permitted to go with Joker. Was he sent to just take pictures for Joker’s written assignments, or was he going to fight?
- does this system work basically the same way today?
Thanks