What happened to the U.S. military?

The U.S. commanded arguably the most powerful military in the Fallout universe- what where they doing before the Great War and what happened after the bombs dropped? We take a look at all extant lore to determine how the military went on to shape the post apocalypse.

[frankieb]

With Power Armor and Vertibirds being the main symbol of "vehicle" power in the franchise for so long, it would be interesting to see a future faction using other military equipment in limited numbers (tanks/fighters).

[JKoro]

I'd like to play Fallout right after bombs fell, seeing the army transition into brotherhood of steel or even enclave.
The setting itself is tense, not to mention all the drama, war, trade, alliances, story's of the groups and individuals can be told...
Not to mention having traveled to Asia or Pacific in fallout universe

[kaiyamazaki]

You know, its almost too bad there weren't Enclave Remnants in Fallout 4. Nate is probably one of the few they'd accept on and it would give more onfo on them.

[mr.anderson]

Realistically speaking there should be dozens upon dozens of remnant groups of varying sizes and affiliations after the war, not just the enclave or brotherhood. There’s countless bases across the nation and the world, and there should be military outpost holdouts as one possibility. There could’ve been many other factions with different goals than the Brotherhood and enclave depending on the region or even having national cohesion. I would compare this to the collapse of the Russian empire during the First World War, where the military fractures among political lines and each have their own goals and plans.

[Andernol]

I can imagine, just based on it being a sniper, that units deployed to the Gobi Desert may have been special operations to foster insurgency in an occupied area and/or to help disrupt trade and resource movements between the Soviet Union and China.

[scubasteve]

I agree with you that I always assumed that the Gobi Campaign was a separate, earlier incident than the Sino-American war, because it seems really bizarre for the US to attack that area of China and it would be unclear how they would have access without cooperation from the USSR

[Roozhy]

I am an apiary [honeybees] biologist.

I think I remember Deathclaws being mostly genetically modified iguanas, if so then the following may answer the question on the "intelligent genes" heredity.

The answer about death claw intelligence may not actually be in the sex chromosomes at all.

Consider that Iguanas can have a range of chromosomes depending on the species. Either being n28 or n36. Which means an n28 female and an n36 male can have cross breading, resulting in... a range of interesting outcomes.

Then consider that some extremely rare cases have been studied of the female iguana having a different number of haploid chromosomes than their same species male counterparts.

I think it's the last part which may answer the question of intelligent deathclaws.

It may be that the females have an additional chromosome or lack a chromosome which in some way inhibits the turning on/off of the alleles that the "Intelligent gene" would provide.

It may also be that the Female and male Deathclaws are two separate species with varying numbers of chromosomes even among siblings.

This may also explain how we see a massive range of Deathclaw adaptations in just a few hundred years. (We know Deathclaws are prewar and have resistance to FEV and Radiation, so this alone does not explain such adaptations.)

I hope this was helpful. If you want further explanation, then please feel free to comment.

[EDIT: Turns out they are mostly GMO Chameleons. However this does not change the theory. Read my reply to Frank Horrigan for more detail.]

[downwithputinsaveukraine]

I'd love to see a realistic game say, 35 to 40y after the bombs fell. The military has lots of underground bases, many being virtually resistant to radiation and nukes. The first generation of surviving generals and such could die off, with their children having replaced them. It'd need more tech and stuff like working cars, APCs, etc. You might even find an Aircraft Carrier that can't move and have the chance to repair it to a state of limited mobility.

[Isoroku]

Fate of US military and individual units/members can provide plenty of material for several Fallout games. Though as someone being more interested in gadgets I would like to see more of various military hardware. IRL militaries operate dozens of vehicles of various specialties, often in few variations and so so far we've got very little taste of that.

[TheUnseenSoldier]

I would add that, as a soldier in the National Guard, the National Guard isn’t a branch of the military. It’s a reserve component of the Army and Air Force (Army National Guard and Air National Guard). The National Guard simply belongs to those two branches, from which, the state is allowed to use for domestic missions.

[anenclaveremnant]

You forgot Camp Navarro (Poseidon Energy Oil Refinery turned military base and jumping off point to the Mainland for Enclave Forces) when you listed active Enclave Installations. Also, through ED-E in New Vegas, we learn that the Enclave has Outposts in Chicago as well. Also there is the Vertibird Refueling Station near Jacobstown as well (though it is minor.)

[jessebates]

I always wondered what happened to all the Aircraft carriers, Battleships, Cruisers, Destroyers, Frigates and Submarines in the US Navy. Something like 310 ships of different class exists now, who knows how many there would have been by 2077. I know there's Rivet city and a sub or two and not all would be on deployment but that doesn't explain all of them. I wonder if the is a third post war paramilitary organization that are the remnants of the US Navy that exist out there somewhere.

[vincecuhhatesu]

WELCOME TO CAMP NARRVO YOU MUST BE THE NEW REPLACEMENT YOU ARE OUT OF UNIFORM SOLIDER WHERE IS YOUR POWER ARMOR THE TRUTH IS YOU LOST A VERY EXPENSIVE MK COMBAT ARMOR YOU WILL STAY IN THIS MANS ARMY UNTIL YOU ARE 510 YEARS OLD THAT IS THE NUMBER OF YEARS YOU WILL BE IN THIS MANS ARMY

[johnnysunday]

In the BoS Tactics game there was a stage where you could pick up a tank while destroying a robot (mechanoid) factory that was once occupied by a remant of the military. I can't recall where on the map (Midwest), but it was made clear through the level that an 'Army' had occupied the location prior to the mechanoids sweeping through the region, and it is filled with a lot of lootable military weapons, including shells for the tank.

[lazarussolomon]

I have always scratched my head at this and all of the explanations for why america fell. Cause In real life the united states has dozens of detailed and indepth failsafes within Failsafes of even more dozens of plans for what to do in the event of nuclear war. Thier plans range form "we can easily survive this, let's just worry about keeping our troops and people safe" to "its over for the united states lets keep all of our important artifacts intact so that whoever comes after us can follow in our footsteps of protecting freedom." This isn't just me making things up, this actually exists. But in Fallout it seams like none of these got actived, in fact it almost seams like someone went out of their way to prevent these plans form being inacted.

[danielsancarter]

The Gobi desert irl has a lot of uranium coal and oil. China does have a portion of the Gobi desert in their borders and have some extraction projects in the desert that are currently ongoing. That would explain why the us army would invade. It's also possible that Chinese/us forces could have fought proxy wars in Mongolia

[AAdamWalker]

One reason, completely speculative, why Hong Kong might not have been mentioned as a US target - Who said in the Fallout universe that the UK ever gave it back? I mean we don't know much about how close the Commonwealth was (with the only references to the UK's geo-politics being that it was part of the European Commonwealth, which sounded like a more integrated EU, along retaining a separate military). It's not beyond the realms of possibility that the Fallout equivalent of our words Commonwealth is a much closer union, potentially meaning Hong Kong remained outside of CCP hands... just a theory.

[YourBizarreJoe]

Man deserves more subscribers for the amount of time and effort he puts into his videos, thank you for giving us this kind of content.

[willp]

I'm loving the content so far. In keeping with the "Atom's faithful" vibe, it'd be pretty cool to see a video on the various religions and cults that have popped up post war.

[glowingtrashpanda]

That sucks that people we’re leaving (I’m assuming) gross comments about your wife. Sorry that you guys had to deal with that. I thought RadQueen was a lovely addition to your content & look forward to the day she decides to join in on another video, if she ever does. Which, after the kind of experience it sounds like you guys had with the comments in the last video, I wouldn’t blame her if she doesn’t want to be in another video. Hope you guys have a great weekend & can’t wait for your next video! This one was great!