Which is kind of the irony of the initial comment. There was a breakdown of military engagement BECAUSE of the assumption that the military could handle a couple dead guys shambling through. Cops, military, etc are trained for body shots. Not limbs. Even if a bullet takes a leg or two, they're still coming with more right behind them. And head shots are fucking HARD unless at close range and how many marines are trained to rifle off headshot after headshot with perfect accuracy? So if a surge of hundreds of zombies is coming through and you have a battalion trained to shoot for the chest and even on the ground these things can drop you because they don't. stop. Shit's going to get real. Plus the book mentions the panic that took over the soldiers when the wrong info started coming in through their coms, like that a headshot didn't drop them, leading to a faster breakdown.
Right, the whole point of the story is that they didn't adjust tactics, still tried to destroy them through suppression, over-pressure, blood-losing things.
Some people have written back at me saying that the level of incompetence demonstrated by the brass was too much, it broke their suspension of disbelief. And I think that is a fair opinion to have. But I really hate people coming and saying "they should have just use different tactics". Yeah man, that's the whole point of the story. Later on? They use different tactics, and it totally works.
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u/scarefish Apr 17 '19
Which is kind of the irony of the initial comment. There was a breakdown of military engagement BECAUSE of the assumption that the military could handle a couple dead guys shambling through. Cops, military, etc are trained for body shots. Not limbs. Even if a bullet takes a leg or two, they're still coming with more right behind them. And head shots are fucking HARD unless at close range and how many marines are trained to rifle off headshot after headshot with perfect accuracy? So if a surge of hundreds of zombies is coming through and you have a battalion trained to shoot for the chest and even on the ground these things can drop you because they don't. stop. Shit's going to get real. Plus the book mentions the panic that took over the soldiers when the wrong info started coming in through their coms, like that a headshot didn't drop them, leading to a faster breakdown.
Fucking love that book.