Content tagged with "military"
In Soldiers Of Reason: The RAND Corporation And The Rise Of The American Empire: “We would become the first aggressors for peace.” For this opinion, President Truman immediately cashiered [Secretary of the Navy Francis] Matthews. Later in the same book: There were bound to be disappointments along…
This is from the literal Latin. It’s related to the “just war doctrine,” meaning it refers to an act in which war is a justified response. I have the photo of a book page in my notes, but I don’t remember where it’s from. It discusses the run-up to the Iraq War: The president…directly [invoked] the…
This refers to who has physical control of a vessel at any particular time. To “have the conn” means you are in final control of the navigation of a seagoing vessel. The captain of a ship assigns the conn. They can give it to a junior officer and take it back at their discretion. Command of a ship…
The larger concept here is the U.S. Navy’s “hull classification system.” The Navy needs to keep track of its ships, so each one has a “hull number.” This is a code for the type of ship, then a number. No two hull numbers repeat for ships in active service. Some common hull type designations: Note…
A BLU-82 with the probe on the nose which would detonate the bomb a few feet above the ground This term seems to have originated in early baseball or cricket, referring to a ball that travels low across the ground – either a cricket bowl or a baseball hit. Presumeably, the name comes from the idea…
Yes, this is still a thing. DEFCON is short for “defense condition,” and it refers to the general state of readiness and alert for the American military. It’s actually in reverse order: DEFCON 5 is the most relaxed, and DEFCON 1 is almost at war. The levels were established in 1959: Most people of…
This is military slang meaning “all good.” It comes from how they used to measure radio signal strength and clarity on a scale of 1 to 5. So, a strong signal that was distorted would be “five-by-one” and a weak, clear signal would be “one-by-five.” A strong clear signal would be “five-by-five.” “I…