And in the US Army proven to smoke crack Dept...

[jeriendhal]

We bring you the December issue of Preventive Maintenence Magazine, the official Army publication of tips and reminders for proper equipment maintenence, so that problems are taken care of before shit breaks down in the middle of a firefight.

Link: https://www.logsa.army.mil/pub/psissuesA/PS_625.pdf (warning: Large, graphics intensive file)

I stumbled across this while Googling stuff about Will Eisner, who worked on the magazine when it was first created and did the designs for the main characters back in 1951. Unfortuantely it appears he came up with another of the main concepts for the magazine, which was the equipment complains to the soldiers about being treated improperly.

Look man, I appreciate that illustrated comics have a long history in the US armed forces, especially back in the days when full literacy for the average infantryman could not be assumed. But if I am ever confronted with an M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank that starts complaining aloud about it's NBC kit getting flooded in the rain, I'm taking a quick trip to unit's medical officer for a refill on my pills...

Comments

Inanimate objects are your friends...

[p-o-u-n-c-e-r.livejournal.com]

What, you didn't make friends with YOUR rifle? Give it a name, find out just how it likes its trigger caressed, discover whether its the sort that gets finicky in the wet ... ?

Or which antenna mast was vicious, just waiting for the chance to bite a chunk out of your fingers by sticking at the segment-joints then sliding down with a snap ... ?

Didn't have choice words for the obstinate truck, the mischievous generator, the unfaithful trailer chassis ... ?

You must be one of them people that gets plenty of sleep. If you were going about your business on an hour's nap every few days then you'd have PLENTY of intimate personal conversations with your normally inanimate friends.

Re: Inanimate objects are your friends...

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Sleep, what's this "sleep" you speak of? Oh, yeah, the thing I used to have plenty of before breeding children... Well, I do cuss at my PS2 from time to time, but that thing is designed to taunt me.

Would this be a bad time to mention my da's experience in the Army consisted of living in a comfy hotel room in Sicily during WWII, listening to a radio for OSS transmissions? :)

ObBujold: I can easily imagine the print versions of all those training tapes Miles forced himself to watch in TVG being similar to Preventive Maintenence in tone and format.

Re: Inanimate objects are your friends...

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Well, maybe without the "Family Feud" parody towards the back...

Very popular

[(Anonymous)]

I work at the HQ for the Army National Guard and I'd printed out the last page of the December Issue and one co-workers (a CPT) recognized it on sight! He hadn't even read that issue, just recognized the style. It has been *very* successful, he has seen the issues hole punched and threaded on rope and hung overhead in Maintenance shops around the Army. The overall website for the Magazine https://www.logsa.army.mil/psmag/pshome.html seems *very* well designed especially the indexes.

Randy