I've recently gotten back into Wing Commander and thought occurred to me I was hoping someone could clarify for me.
Do you think that during the 30 (?) years of the Kilrathi War that there was ever a conscription or Israeli-style forced service in Confed?
It takes a lot to fight a war and this is war lasted decades over several star systems. I know the population was exponentially greater than current Earth, but were volunteers enough? We know in Freedom Flight, I believe, the Confed navy had eight carriers, which would include a crew of several hundred people each. I don't have the books in front of me at the moment, but I believe Bear described the Vukar Tag attack fleet included at least a hundred more capital ships, several thousand more people and I doubt that was the full fleet.
We know Confed has marines, stationed over several star systems would need several thousand more people, and those would probably just be the ground pounders, not including all the support staff. The navy needs a lot of support staff, too, and then there's the command staff at Sol.
Then if they had an army and something akin to the National Guard, there's probably an armed forces of several hundred thousand people if not millions.
If there wasn't forced service or some sort of draft, what do you think kept up the influx of volunteers? Do you think the idea of survival of the species was enough to fuel the war machine? We know from Freedom Flight there were people opposed to the war, who wanted peace with the Kilrathi, and then the Mandarins also took up arms against Confed, there was dissent.
There were points that would have undoubtedly fueled patriotism and a desire to serve, including the initial attack on McAuliffe at the start of the war, for instance, and false armistice (and the nuclear attacks on Earth) probably helped fill recruitment centers, too.
But what about outside of all that? There were several points where Confed was not doing too well, the assault on Vukar Tag (from my recollection from rereading it last year) appeared to be an all-or-nothing assault that if failed, would have spelled doom for Confed, though correct me if I am wrong on that. The false armistice also dealt a blow to Confed, destroying several worlds and ships and hurting production facilities on Earth. By Wing Commander III, Tolwyn said they were losing.
So, if not forced service or conscription, what do you think helped the Confed war machine run?
Do you think that during the 30 (?) years of the Kilrathi War that there was ever a conscription or Israeli-style forced service in Confed?
It takes a lot to fight a war and this is war lasted decades over several star systems. I know the population was exponentially greater than current Earth, but were volunteers enough? We know in Freedom Flight, I believe, the Confed navy had eight carriers, which would include a crew of several hundred people each. I don't have the books in front of me at the moment, but I believe Bear described the Vukar Tag attack fleet included at least a hundred more capital ships, several thousand more people and I doubt that was the full fleet.
We know Confed has marines, stationed over several star systems would need several thousand more people, and those would probably just be the ground pounders, not including all the support staff. The navy needs a lot of support staff, too, and then there's the command staff at Sol.
Then if they had an army and something akin to the National Guard, there's probably an armed forces of several hundred thousand people if not millions.
If there wasn't forced service or some sort of draft, what do you think kept up the influx of volunteers? Do you think the idea of survival of the species was enough to fuel the war machine? We know from Freedom Flight there were people opposed to the war, who wanted peace with the Kilrathi, and then the Mandarins also took up arms against Confed, there was dissent.
There were points that would have undoubtedly fueled patriotism and a desire to serve, including the initial attack on McAuliffe at the start of the war, for instance, and false armistice (and the nuclear attacks on Earth) probably helped fill recruitment centers, too.
But what about outside of all that? There were several points where Confed was not doing too well, the assault on Vukar Tag (from my recollection from rereading it last year) appeared to be an all-or-nothing assault that if failed, would have spelled doom for Confed, though correct me if I am wrong on that. The false armistice also dealt a blow to Confed, destroying several worlds and ships and hurting production facilities on Earth. By Wing Commander III, Tolwyn said they were losing.
So, if not forced service or conscription, what do you think helped the Confed war machine run?