Her military background doesn't sound true...

[zhenutruth]

And yes, of course, I'm over sensitive about military stuff.

"She served in Desert Storm; her tour included an incident in which she was only supposed to be the driver, but ended up shooting/driving her wounded passenger out from under enemy fire and to safety."

What was her actual job?  It wasn't driver.   Her job might be interesting.   Was she an intel officer?   Did she command a supply platoon or a helicopter maintenance platoon?   She might get detailed to drive a VIP around.   No problem with that.

"That, like most of her military career, went unrecognized by her superiors."

The only reason I can think of for the Army not to make a big deal about her heroics is that they weren't supposed to have female soldiers in combat and figure they'll get in trouble with Congress.   Which would be likely enough in 1991 when we still believed in the concept of "behind the lines".  Even then she'd probably get a Bronze Star.   Just quietly.  (At which point she'd quite honestly insist that she hadn't done anything special other than been in the wrong place at the wrong time and could think of half a dozen soldiers she served with who deserved it more than she did.) 

I'm not saying there aren't chauvinists in the military.  But just like integrating blacks when Congress demanded it, integrating women is *policy*.   And like it or not her superiors have to follow orders.   If she performed competently, she'd get promoted.   What she wouldn't get is a combat assignment or a combat command and that would limit her career prospects.  But her superiors aren't responsible for that, Congress is.

"When she realized that was going to be the story of her life if she stayed, she took the early out option. But she had a taste for action and was good at it."

More likely she wanted action and realized that she wouldn't be allowed to get it in the Army.   And she might have been OK with that, going in.   It's not as though the restrictions on women in combat are secret or something.   She seems like a team player rather than someone who'd get upset at not getting enough personal glory, otherwise the Shadow Unit would be even a worse hell than the Army.   So, she's not after personal glory.   She might be after personal efficacy.   And as much as the military is this huge thing that exists to support those few on the pointy end of the spear, she might have wanted her own place on the pointy end.

Law enforcement would give her that opportunity where the Army would not.   She could be a bright star and a fast burner and incredibly successful in the Army and she would still not have that opportunity.  (Within the military, law enforcement is still the only place a female soldier is likely to see combat and I wouldn't be surprised if they closed that loop hole after Sgt. Hester got her Silver Star.)

This is just a very minor quibble and I sort of expect to be flamed for it.  I was in the military during Desert Storm.   It's a very thin background summary, I get that.   I just don't believe the implication that her gender would have kept her from success in the Army.   In my experience the military in 1991 (I won't speak for earlier years) was a great place for a woman to be taken seriously.   I would expect a poorer environment for women in the FBI.

[txanne]

Welcome, zhenutruth! Please don't worry about getting flamed. I've read every single message that's been posted, and nobody's had any sharp words yet.

I know zilch about the military, so this is very interesting. What do you think Falkner really did in Desert Storm? You give some nifty possibilities--what's the most likely one?

And don't forget that the show's writers are very sneaky indeed. We've already got a character who never tells the same story twice; it wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that the second-in-command of a secret FBI unit had, shall we say, Hidden Depths.

[Emma Bull]

Zhenutruth, good analysis and modifications. You picked up on the character arc and motivations, and you've given us some excellent alternate reasons for things to have turned out the way we figured them. Thank you!

As for the girls-in-the-FBI thing, we're declaring that J. Edgar is even more dead than he actually is. *g*

[zhenutruth]

Thank you, Emma.  I'm glad I'm not in trouble.   

What do I think Falkner did in Desert Storm?   It could have been anything... short of combat.   I'm not really up on the Army but some things are pretty standard.   A new officer might be assigned to just about any platoon (45-50 people?)... stick names in a hat and shake them up.   The officer's duties are management and communication between the unit and command.  There will be a senior sergeant in charge of the unit to make sure the young officer doesn't screw up too badly and to keep junior enlisted in line.   The actual work and  subject expertise is going to be provided by said junior enlisted.   But she could learn it, whatever it was.   She might be able to fix a helicopter or know how to safely transport hazmat or defuse a bomb because she was (more or less) randomly assigned to a platoon with that job.

An accountant or engineer might be assigned to monitor the progress of a government contract.   That could be any sort of cool techno-doohicky (or else something entirely boring) and could easily be something classified and science fictional no one ever heard of, that didn't get delivered or didn't get bought.   She might have been in Kuwait in the capacity of overseeing a project like that, even as a very young officer.  (And it might have gone spectacularly fubar and she was *right* that her career wouldn't recover.)  And it would give her connections to people (she now hates) who produce super secret weapons or techno-doohickies. 

Or that job might have been stateside, after returning from finding innovative ways of getting sand out of helicopter rotor couplings.

An Intel Officer isn't a spy but is someone who gives lots of briefings.   Human intel would brief on who lives in the area, what their language and culture are, and how to avoid insulting them as well as who the enemy are and how they are expected to react.   Someone briefs on what the enemy has on hand to shoot back. Someone gives briefings on physical conditions and terrain.   Someone gives briefings about what sort of bugs and crawlies can kill you and what to do if you're bitten.   Someone evaluates the satellite imagery and points to the fuzzy dots and gives briefings about what they mean.   Intel would be a highly responsible post (and quite likely for someone without an engineering degree) but frustrating for someone who wanted to be in the thick of things.   On the other hand, if a person liked knowing a whole lot and enjoyed air conditioning it would be fabulous.

A combat engineer would be building bridges or roads and blowing stuff up under fire.   According to the list I found, this *is* available to women.    It would give her something quite different and at odds with an interest in behavioral psychology.  It would probably require an engineering degree.

Someone designs the little leaflets to drop from aircraft.   Someone flies them.   Someone makes sure supplies get where they are needed and there is fuel to put in the Bradeys and food to put in the soldiers.  Someone makes sure camps are set up properly complete with port-a-johns downwind instead of up.

Just about anything a civilian does will be a job in the military including grocers and television reporters.  The Army is unique in that it has veterinarians.  The Marines are unique in that they have combat artists.

[Emma Bull]

Fabulous! I'm liking Intel, possibly geography/terrain/transport issues or local population, but this gives us lots of good stuff to kick around.

[txanne]

If she worked with the local population, maybe that's when she became aware of the Anomaly.

[zhenutruth]

Or even if she didn't.

I'll assume that the Army in 1990 operated similar to the Air Force.

Regional intelligence is collected, classified, encrypted, sent out, decrypted, and distributed to various military commands.   Sort of like a news service.   So the General gets a stack of these decrypted messages to skim through with his coffee like a morning newspaper.    Faulkner, as an intel officer, might well have access to those or even have the job of reading through them.   Most of them are going to be... obscure.   A report of an anomaly might well be in them.

(Enlisted persons run the communications equipment, decrypt the classified message traffic, check the printouts (without reading them!) to make sure nothing is still garbled (read without reading!) and stamp the top and bottom of each page with the appropriate classification stamp (Top Secret!) and put it in the pile for the appropriate recipient... and no amount of brassy bluster is going to get me to give it to you if you aren't on my list, Sir!)

(Don't ask me how I know this.   It's a secret.)

[Emma Bull]

Of course it is!   

[el_jefe]

(Don't ask me how I know this.   It's a secret.)

1C3x1?

[Emma Bull]

1C3x1?

I cheerfully admit to being stumped--it's how I learn stuff!

[el_jefe]

You can be competent, even exceptional, and not get promoted. Being smarter than your boss is still a sin. As an officer, you have to play political games to impress the board, at least within the Air Force. I knew a lot of decent officers that stalled out at Captain or Major because they didn't play the game.

And I like the driving a VIP scenario. That's a job any junior officer could get tasked with, and depending on who and how she pulled someones ass out of the fire, it could hurt more than help.

She's driving, as an LT or Cpt. Her immediate supervisor, say a Major is in the passenger seat. In the back is the CO, and a some random VIP. A politico would make it better, as it could effect the storyline later. They are coming in from the airport, she's watching the road, they are kissing ass. Ambush. Vehicle is disabled. Major in the passenger seat freezes, Falkner is unarmed so she pull his gun and returns fire. Strike one. Pulls VIP from car, drags his ass away from the vehicle. Vehicle gets blown up (RGP!!!), maybe her boss was inside? Strike 2. VIP starts to do something stupid, Falkner dumps him headfirst in a goat pen, saving his life, but covering him in goat feces and other fun stuff, and proceeds to save his ass. Strike 3.

That, combined with to much strong will would be a killer to anyones career.

[Emma Bull]

We'll never know, 'cause Falkner's not talking.

Many are the possible scenarios for Stuff Going Awry. Feel free to speculate and discuss among yourselves; I figure that's the sincerest form of flattery in a storytelling form like this!

[el_jefe]

1C3x1?

I cheerfully admit to being stumped--it's how I learn stuff!

I'm asking in Air Force if zhenutruth was a Command Post troop. 1C3x1 is the "job code", the "x" is replaced by a number based on your skill level.

For example, I was a 3P052, then a 3P051. Which translates to 2 kinds of cop in the Air Force.

[Emma Bull]

Ah--cool! (I love secret handshakes. *g*)

[zhenutruth]

591x1 

Unless I've just had a dyslexic brain fart.   (I did... 491x1)

In any case they put that one to sleep the year after I separated so...