I am looking for authors interested in writing in a letter or journal format as though they are American soldiers fighting in Europe during World War II. No application necessary. All I ask is that you post in the OOC channel the name of the soldier you are posting as and what his position is in the unit. Available positions are listed in the OOC. I will write as the Unit Commander. Please read posts submitted by authors ahead of you. Please make mention of the other soldiers in your unit as either NPCs or name the soldiers who are being played by authors in this story. After you make your initial post in the IC thread, create a Character Sheet and add to it as you reveal information about your character in the story. Write whatever you like in this character sheet.

As an example, I make a post, which is in essence a journal entry for my company commander. During the journal entry I mention Sergeant Awesome who is being written by @POOHEAD189. This gives poohead something to write about. Naturally, you don’t have to do this, but it could add to the amusement of the story, showing relationships and integration by the writers.

We are members of A Company 37th Tank Battalion and have an infantry platoon from A Company, 53rd Armored Infantry Battalion attached. Therefore, the unit will consist of three M4A3 Sherman Platoons (5 tanks/platoon), one M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer Platoon, one Armored Infantry Platoon (6 M3 Halftracks & 50 infantrymen) and the company headquarters (2 M4A3 Shermans). Each tank consists of a five man crew; Tank Commander (TC), Gunner, Loader, Driver and Assistant Driver/Bow Machine gunner.

You can write about events going on back home or those occurring in front of you. Write a journal or write a letter home to mom and dad. You can even include a letter from your mom that you received while in the field. I ask that you follow my post to know where your soldier is in the world and what day it is. We will begin sometime in July 1944. The 4th Armor Division, which the 37th TB and 53rd AIB are assigned to receive their first baptism of fire on 28 July 1944 after replacing the 4th Infantry Division in the front lines. Our Battalion commander is Lieutenant Colonel Creighton Abrams, who the current US M1 Main Battle Tank is named after.

@Gunther I'm very interested.

Very interested. Too many RPs here focus on the action and boom boom part of war and too often ignore the more subtle psychological effects of it.

Interested. Not sure what my activity may look like but I hope to participate in whatever capacity possible.

I intend to leave this as casual as possible, where folks can come in and out as they please; make a post and move on or hang around and write a history of a unit while in combat.

@GuntherSo we´re sort of doing diary story telling, making the narrative seem more distant?

Yes! Often times young men viewing horror up close and personal become creative or cryptic in their writing; in an attempt to conceal the realities of war from their loved ones. It was their way of protecting them. Also, the omnipresent censor enforced a redaction in some of their writings. If you would like to show those redactions in your writing, go for it. Write either letters home to loved ones or keep a journal. Soldiers were not as tight-lipped about their experiences in a personal journal; including the smallest details about their experiences in war. Several of these documents eventually were recorded into books written by veterans of the war. Today, Department of Defense (US) forbids any service member from keeping a journal or recording events in a diary. The fear is that the enemy might capture this document and use it against the soldier's unit. Today, a soldier needs to remember as much detail as he can and recall it all once he gets back to the world.

I should have the OOC posted later this week. Tonight is Game of Thrones night with the wife. She works Sunday evenings, so I save it so we can watch it together. I actually watched 7:1 three times last week. :)

Don't forget to tag me when the ooc goes up!

I'm very interested, especially considering the casual nature of the posting requirements. This is something I've actually done before on a different site and it was quite interesting.

@FrostedCaramel I would love to see or read more about your previous experience with this form of RP. I'm shooting from the hip here. :)

@FrostedCaramel I would love to see or read more about your previous experience with this form of RP. I'm shooting from the hip here. :)

It was with an ArmA group that I used to play with for about four years. When we were doing the large "campaign" that took place every year with a whole backstory and stuff as to why the group was there and lore behind countries and stuff, one of the infantry players came up with an idea called oddly enough "Letters From the Front" as well as a news version of it that I can't remember the name of.

The group itself at the time was around 450 strong with about 360 of those being active players and after every mission that took place once a week a handful of that active number would jump into that thread and "write home". The news version was just as interesting, people posing as a Reuters embedded journalist and what not writing about the fighting in this or that area or the morale of troops as well as living conditions or even the day to day routines of a soldier.

Both were interesting to read and I wish I could get back on the site itself but they have migrated server hosts and the thread may have been lost, I'm not sure since I haven't been active with them for 2 years now.

Mmmm, I like the news reporter idea. I know Walter Cronkite rode a Glider with the 101st Airborne Division into Holland in September 1944. Let's assume he wasn't the only one. I will add the reporter option embedded with the unit in France. But I only want one. That would be laughable if everyone decided to play the part of the reporter.

I have been doing quite a bit of research on the 37th Tank Battalion. They had a 94% turn over rate throughout the course of their time in WWII which was not a long time. They first entered combat on 28 July 1944 and the fighting ended when Germany surrendered 8 May 1945.

If you have ever heard of Creighton Abrams, he is at the center of all this stuff. He was a true American Badass and Patton loved him. He lost six tanks during that nine and a half month period. Not one of them was "shot out from under him" like a cavalryman's horse. They were all maintenance issues. He rode into battle standing high in the turret, exposed for the Germans to see him.

@FrostedCaramel Ever came across U.S SOCOM?

@FrostedCaramel Ever came across U.S SOCOM?

Maybe just randomly on public servers, but the 15th MEU didn't do very much inter-unit cooperation. The logistics behind that were normally too great to get everything working smoothly from separate mod packs to different time zones and such.

@Gunther I would actually really enjoy to write the embedded reporter if possible, but it won't be the end of my interest if I can't.