QUOTE (suoq @ Jun 1 2011, 10:19 PM)
Having spent too much time on the streets where most of my friends had yellow sheets and having served for four years, I have to admit that I have no clue what you're talking about. Heck, half the marines on Top Shot season 1 could have been rednecks from their behavior. Was there ANYTHING about Adam on that show that made you think he could even find the safety on the gun? Meanwhile the kid is shooting a smiley face with his rifle.
To me this sounds like Gaydar, Some people swear they can tell, but when asked which of the local rollergirls swing which way, they're not accurate.
While I will never claim to be able to tell sexual orientation or occupation 100% of the time, give me 30-60 minutes of covert or not so covert surveillance and I will be able to tell you with 90% certainty whether someone is a threat or as had training. I spent 8 years in the Marine Corps and half of it was as an Instructor at the School of Infantry. Needless to say I did not pick these skills up teaching kids how to kill other people, however I did a lot of coursework and personal research into the subject, I was planning on moving into the Intelligence field when personal issues got in the way. I cannot claim you can tell where someone received training or how long ago most of the time, however assessing the degree of threat is possible, and probable training based on observing. If you cannot tell then you simply have not been paying attention to the right things.
Canray called them tells and much like in a poker game they give you away, unless you have been trained and practice hiding them they will give you away every time. Each perceived item is not going to explain anything to you however taken as a whole you can know with fair certainty whether someone is telling the truth, hiding something, or in this case trained. Things to look for off the top of my head and there are more, once you start doing this as an exercise things stick out to you that normally would not. 1) While watching the subject in question how do they hold themselves? Remember your mom giving you crap about posture, well posture is a good indicator of confidence. Confidence comes from two places, ignorance or training. I am not saying you should ignore the slouchers, but when you do surveillance you need to prioritize, the longer you have to do it the more info you get the better your assessment. 2) People with weapons always reach and touch it from time to time, just to make sure it is there. It is kind of like checking to see if your wallet is still there, you don't realize you do it, but most people do it fairly regularly. If you watch long enough you can see a pattern of behavior that tells you what is where. If you watch someone for a period of 4 hours, you should have a very good idea of where any weapons are, what they most likely are, where any comm equipment might be, and also where his wallet is. 3) How do they look at their environment. Do they move around furtively? Likely hiding something. Do they look around in sections, is there a pattern? Guarding something possibly trained to a degree. Nervous man is more dangerous he is unpredictable, of course he can be used against calm guarding man if needed. Observe how they react to loud noises, traffic, pedestrian activity. The guy who does not look like he is looking at anything in particular, has his back to the wall and seems somewhat relaxed is probably the one you are looking for. 3) How do they walk outside of their posture? I mean everything here, how do they move their arms, how do their feet hit the ground, how much knee flex, the cant of their torso, head tilt, all of these things can tell you whether this guy is going to be a problem, or if he is a push over and you will pound them into gravy if need be. 4) Watch their interactions with others and the perceived social dynamic. Who is the Alpha? If you watch for any length of time you will know their social order, and usually top dog is the toughest dog, or at least the one willing to commit to violence with real dedication. 5) If you can listen to them, do so. The way things are said, how they are said, and their content build patterns that you can find if you listen long enough.
Anyway I could keep going on about this, but really it takes a lot of practice and a lot of study, and a lot of actual recon or surveillance to make it a useful skill. Most people suck at it because they simply don't pay enough attention to their environment, and what other people are doing. Can I look at someone and say "Yup, yup, he is a Marine." No, absolutely not, I could and be dead wrong, but give me some time, and I could be spot on. Every second of additional assessment time makes a difference, how they grab drinks, do they hesitate as if they were going to field strip a cigarette, how do they light their cigarettes, what kind of idiomatic phrases do they use, "Good to go is it not?". Everything you have done or learned is expressed in your mind, and it all comes out on your face, body, and interactions for anyone who is paying attention to use. Anyway I gotta go to work.
'Good' is what you do when you have the luxury of a choice.
apiece. They can be detonated through a wireless signal. Just get them to open the door, a spirit chugs a shoebox full of them in, hacker presses a button on his commlink. Boom.
Guess they're still a marine even if they were a desk jockey. 