February 14, 2011

Army Gibberish: A Primer (Video)

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Via defense reporter Paul McCleary and Gulliver of the military blog Inkspots, here’s the most horrid military-speak example I’ve ever seen of what the Army calls “command information,” which is when a unit gets the good news out about its particular job. In this case, the job is…something about networking the brigade combat team soldier blah blah blah. The producers mean well, I suppose, and it’s not wholly indecipherable if you have a Ph.D. in MBA and DOD. But it’s just not as much fun as a good, old-fashioned, mama-grizzly, Lee Greenwood-sampling rah-rah video. (I’d love to see a hawkish politician like Allen West use this as pro-military campaign fodder).

Gulliver’s started a whole online primer in “speaking Pentagonese” on his own blog and Wired‘s Danger Room. Want to cow a bloody-shirt-waving neoconservative uncle with your casual knowledge of jointness, systems interoperability, and deconflicting warfighter taskings in the field? You can do no better than G-dog’s lessons. They’re funny (or sad) enough to keep you interested, I swear.

 

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