Honestly I think the Ntaa would have had a way easier go of it had their crash site been discovered, say, in the 20′s. They’d have been immediately deployed to the fronts during WW2 (as soon as they learned some English), won the hearts of the GIs, and returned to the US as heroes.
Instead, they woke up just before USSR fell, during the age of COINTELPRO, president-assassinating CIA operations in the global south, and right before the start of the oil wars and the advent of the surveillance state.
Crummy time to be a giant machine soldier, ain’t it?
OMG the other part of the AU I forgot to mention is the names
So without internet, and just coz of the culture at the time, I can’t see the Ntaa being given the opportunity to name themselves before being deployed (let alone pick names from all over the place), but the guys in their units so would.
They’d give ‘em names like “Steelhead Sam” or “Leadfoot Jack”. Galen would have been “Two-Ton Charlie”.