Well, now you're getting into micro-evolution and macro-evolution. Minor local adaptations can be picked up quickly, but usually the ones that lead to speciation take some time. There is also the issue of gradual change over time vs. sporadic periods of very rapid change (a sub-theory of evolution called "punctuated equilibrium.) At any rate, by definition, all of these processes take longer than our lifetimes.

On the topic of military sci-fi or fantasy:

No discussion of fiction based in military units should exclude David Drake's stories and novels about Hammer's Slammers, a mercenary tank/infantry company set in the far future of humanity. Drake himself has said that many of the stories were based on historic conflicts; the fact that they feature hovertanks and devastating plasma weapons does not change the essentials of the wars depicted. This is gritty stuff, full of the horrors of war and what it does to the people trained to fight them.

In the fantasy vein, I highly recommend Elizabeth Moon's series, the Deed of Paksenarrion. The first book (Sheepfarmer's Daughter) is about a girl who runs away from home to join a mercenary company. The world is typical Tolkien-esque, with dwarves, elves, wizards, etc, but the depiction of military life (training, campaigning, etc) is very believable and convincing. It's much more down-to-earth than typical heroic fantasy. Through the course of the series, the heroine (Paksenarrion) rises from ordinary footsoldier to become a Paladin, and not the p.i.a. goody-goody paladin, but a real warrior chosen by the gods to defeat evil on earth. It was the first depiction of a Paladin that really made sense to me.

Another good fantasy series is Harry Turtledove's Videssos Cycle, a four-book series in which a Roman Legion gets whisked away to a fantasy world and becomes a force to be reckoned with, due to their intense discipline and unfamiliar tactics.

Does anyone notice that mercenaries seem to be some of my favorite military heroes? What is it about mercs that makes them so useful in stories?

Discuss.

I love Jim's depiction of Army life - a detailed wealth of knowledge about the NCOs, the life of privates, back channel corrections, etc, and all descriptions of officers are snot nosed butter bars.

I really liked the idea of using nonstandard missions, like signal corps in the game. It's kind of hard to come up with good war scenarios where the PCs really matter, yet the conflict seems large enough to call a war. I've had some limited success in games where the PCs are cogs in the machine that just happen to be where the enemy is applying pressure, but that's not really a scenario that can be plausibly repeated over and over.

PS

But since Navy, Airforce and Marines arn't real people anyway, we actualy only need the Army perspective. What would they say? It's cold, I need my perm? Where's my bunk, I could have sworn the deck wasn't brown?

David Weber is another fantastic source for military fiction (Both SciFi and Fantasy...ish).

Of course Marines are not real people, we are living legends

Ah, shush, or we'll make you go get your own boats.

Remember, the Marine Corps maybe apart of the Department of the Navy, but it is the MEN'S department .

Fixed.

The Men's department would be the Army. It's two doors down, right before the "Hairdresser" (Airforce).

In one of my current games we are doing both an Army and a Navy styled military. Doing this allowed for our group to give one of our players the chance to be the leader at sea then another member when we are on land. It has really helped other people to have that chance to be in charge without the Alpha player being the default leader.

Another way I've tried to give others the spot light is instead of being a character that takes the leadership role is using the displaced or in exile leader. That way I can say what I believe to be the correct course of action but being out of their element the displaced character can only suggest not actually lead the group.