76 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
76 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
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Here are some of the more exotic military and geographic terms, code
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names and slang words being used in reports from the Persian Gulf.
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ATTRIT...lose troops by attrition or other means, such as enemy action.
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AWACS....Airborne Warning and Control System. A jet that monitors air
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space with its big external radar dome and guides fighters and
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bombers to their targets. it can stay in the air for more than
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11 hours.
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BDA..... Pentagon lingo for bomb damage assessment.
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BEACHES..fighting terrain, Arabian deserts.
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BUFF.....nickname for B-52 bombers, which stands for "Big Ugly Fat
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Fellow". Sometimes called "Fat Albert".
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CARPET BOMBING...called "rolling thunder" in Vietnam, intensive bombing
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in a limited space, usually by B-52s. The metaphor is to laying
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a wall to wall carpet of high explosives.
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COLLATERAL DAMAGES...military jargon for civilian losses.
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CHAF.....metal foil dispensed by warplanes to confuse enemy radar.
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CRAF.....Civil Reserve Air Fleet.
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DOD......Department Of Defense.
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ECMS.....Electronic Countermeasures, an array of complex, computerized
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equipment built into most modern fighters and bombers. ECMS are
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designed to defeat enemy radars by jamming, confusing and
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deceiving them.
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FROGFOOT..Iraq has about 60 of these SU-25 attack planes similar to the
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A-10 Thunderbolts deployed by the allies.
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FUR BALL..military pilot slang for the hectic tangle of air to air
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dogfights.
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GOLDEN BB...Soviet doctrine the Iraqis are said to be emulating in their
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air defense efforts. If enough bullets and other projectiles
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fill the sky during an air raid, at least a few are bound to
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hit the target.
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HUMVEE...High Mobility Multipurpose wheeled Vehicle, a large truck-like
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vehicle that has replaced the traditional military jeep.
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JUKE.....move quickly to evade enemy fire.
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KILLSACK...minefields and oil-filled trenches beyond the Saudi-Kuwaiti
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border which us ground forces would have to move through if a
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ground war begins.
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LANTIRN...Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared Night. One
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model of the F-16 fighter, called the "night falcon" for its
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advanced night-flying capability, has "pods" underneath which
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hold lantirn systems.
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MORT THEMSELVES OUT...jet fighter pilot slang for planes shooting one
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another accidentally. The term fratricide is also used.
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MRES.....military issued food rations, officially "meals, ready to eat".
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REPUBLICAN GUARD...The 30,000-man elite force of Iraqi troops,
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considered the backbone of Saddam Hussein's army.
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SCUD.....Soviet made SS-1 surface to surface ballistic missile.
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SEBKHA...an Arab word for underground river. Sebkhas that turn the
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ground into quagmires lie near the Saudi border and south of
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Kuwait City.
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SLAM.....Stand-off Land Attack Missile, launched from a carrier-launched
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attack plane.
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SMART BOMBS...bombs guided to their targets by on-board video or laser
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system.
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SORTIE...one mission by a single military plane.
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STEALTH..term applied to planes designed to remain nearly invisible to
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enemy radar.
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SAM......Surface to Air Missile.
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TOMAHAWK...unmanned, rocket-launched, jet-propelled cruise missile fired
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from ships or submarines.
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TOW......acronym for Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided
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missile.
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TRIPLE A'S...pilot jargon for anti-aircraft artillery, once known as
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ack-ack.
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WADI.....an Arab word for dry ravine or valley. A wadi runs all along
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the Kuwait border, and Iraqis have set up a defense line behind
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him.
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WILD WEASEL...the F-4G fighter whose main mission is electronic
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countermeasures that can knock out or suppress enemy radar
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installations.
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ZULU.....Universal Time Coordinated (UTC), formerly called Greenwich
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Mean Time (GMT). When it's 0000 Zulu, or midnight UTC/GMT,
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It's 7 p.m. on the US east coast and 3 a.m. in Iraq, Kuwait and
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Saudi Arabia. The military uses Zulu as its time reference
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worldwide.
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