Solomon Todd and his military sevice

[el_jefe]

From egg #3

Daphne Worth watched from the corner of her eye as Todd stood up from his desk behind Chaz's, lunchtime Tupperware and a pair of lacquered chopsticks balanced on his maimed left hand. He had the knack of holding it so it looked like the missing fingers were just folded under, part of the self-invisibilizing that formed such a complex interaction with his bibliography of tall tales.

[Elizabeth Bear]

Sol's missing the ring finger and pinky off his left hand, which is his non-dominant hand. He's self-conscious about it, or possibly aware that it's a distinguishing mark, and tends to conceal it as much as possible.

Supposedly, he lost the fingers to frostbite. Of course, it's a funny combination of things to get frostbitten... and he's also been heard to make other, apparently straight-faced claims about what happened to them....

[AntoniaTiger]

Didn't the US Army have its own journalists? (Al Gore?)

It doesn't seem crazy (but it may be wrong) that he gor some  course credit for whatever training the Army might have given him, and the actual journalism he might have done.

(Seems to be something within the Signal Corps, these days.)

Of course, that assumes that the people doing training and assessment and posting didn't have an overriding need for something else. But it's also a military niche that could put him in a lot of different places, from downtown Saigon watching a VC being summarily executed to a Huey, full of AirCav, trying to stop somebody bleeding out in his lap.

Just guessing

[BruceCohenPDX]

Didn't the US Army have its own journalists? (Al Gore?)

It doesn't seem crazy (but it may be wrong) that he gor some  course credit for whatever training the Army might have given him, and the actual journalism he might have done.

(Seems to be something within the Signal Corps, these days.)

Of course, that assumes that the people doing training and assessment and posting didn't have an overriding need for something else. But it's also a military niche that could put him in a lot of different places, from downtown Saigon watching a VC being summarily executed to a Huey, full of AirCav, trying to stop somebody bleeding out in his lap.

Just guessing

That's the theory, that you can get credit for training in the service.  Theoretically, the training I got in the Army was worth 2 years of college, but somehow I could never convince a school to believe that.  Things may be different now ...

As for what Sol did in the service, the jobs I can think of that would give him the most chance to move around, are journalist, criminal investigator, courier, counter-intelligence operative, or clerk to an Adjutant General's investigative or trial team.

[el_jefe]

That's the theory, that you can get credit for training in the service.  Theoretically, the training I got in the Army was worth 2 years of college, but somehow I could never convince a school to believe that.  Things may be different now ...

Some of my training qualified under the CCAF (Community College of the Air Force) and was accepted as electives. Despite being relevant to my degree. But that is relatively new.

[swampyankee2u]

That's the theory, that you can get credit for training in the service.  Theoretically, the training I got in the Army was worth 2 years of college, but somehow I could never convince a school to believe that.  Things may be different now ...

Some of my training qualified under the CCAF (Community College of the Air Force) and was accepted as electives. Despite being relevant to my degree. But that is relatively new.

Depends on the school -- there are a couple, specifically University of Maryland, that have made a deal with the devil in exchange for the income of remote campuses in places like germany and Korea -- they do apply much of the formal training as credits, in some cases close to 2 years worth -- it is also part of the "diploma mill" that helps enlisted doldiers in the Army get promotion points....or become eligible for OCS