What is it about the military mind?

[Dravyk]

Reading an online article today I came across this:

Adding to the tension in Baghdad, a car bomb exploded Wednesday on the road to the international airport, killing only the driver, while a roadside bomb blew up near a U.S. vehicle but caused no casualties, the U.S. army said.

"There was a VBIED [vehicle-borne improvised explosive device] on the airport road but there were no civilians around and no multinational forces," said spokesman Major Philip Smith.

What is it that they always have to come up with complicated names and acronyms to explain simple concepts? Never did get that. :headwall:

Though I have to say, despite themsevlves, they are good for a laugh! :biglaugh:

[Peaches]

They have acronyms and different words for EVERYTHING. I have trouble understanding CT these days.

[Anthony]

Oh geeze.

I used to acronym everything to death. Especially phone calls.

Give it 10 years, he'll grow out of it when civiillians look at him and go, what?

[PornoDoggy]

We used to have contests to see who could speak the longest coherent sentence using the fewest actual words.

It boils down to brevity. You can say Radio Detection And Ranging , or you can say radar. You can say Sound Navigation & Ranging, or you can say sonar. You can say In My Humble Opinion, or you can say IMHO.

[Vick]

How old is CT?

Soldiers arrested for sex at the Alamo
Two teenage US soldiers have been arrested for having sex in front of tourists at the Alamo...........

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_11362...uirkies.sexlife (http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1136249.html?menu=news.quirkies.sexlife)

[Dravyk]

Poor, Peaches! hehe ... Seriously though, I can relate with you though.

PD, brevity, yeah, in those examples ... but "VBIED" over "car bomb"?

How freaking long does it take to say "car bomb"? LOL!

[Peaches]

Originally posted by Vick@Oct 20 2004, 02:13 PM
How old is CT?

Soldiers arrested for sex at the Alamo
Two teenage US soldiers have been arrested for having sex in front of tourists at the Alamo...........

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_11362...uirkies.sexlife (http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1136249.html?menu=news.quirkies.sexlife)
Hehe, I can't remember if I sent that to him or not when I saw it. Unfortunately for him, his trip to the Alamo was with me and 2 men B)

[sperbonzo]

Originally posted by Dravyk@Oct 20 2004, 11:17 AM
Poor, Peaches! hehe ... Seriously though, I can relate with you though.

PD, brevity, yeah, in those examples ... but "VBIED" over "car bomb"?

How freaking long does it take to say "car bomb"? LOL!
Every walk of life has their own set of technical terms for things, that outsiders often thnk are silly. The reason why they descibe it in such detail is that often it is important to make a distinction. Was it and imporvised device, or a limpit mine, or what? It's an important aspect of getting accurate tactical intel and communicating that back up the chain of command. The problem is that you get used to speaking that way and then you start to sound like that all the time even when talking to civilians.