Army Acronyms and Whatnot Vol. 5

20JUL2021; 2240, TUE

It's almost another Buddy Check 22nd and we're in the waning minutes of the 10pm hour (aka 2200). Somehow, I only mentioned the roughly 22 Vets that commit suicide everyday in solely one of these debriefs; despite a completely different one being typed up and posted mid afternoon on a random 22nd of the month.

One more service member ending his/her life intentionally is one too many. "Periodt".

At any rate, I realized recently that I began this blogging bonanza to help me process my personal experience as one of "Uncle Sam's Misguided Children". With that being the case, I'm pretty sure that the time has come for another military post.

It's been almost exactly two months with approximately a dozen posts in the meantime between time. Since there's unfortunately a chance that I might not wake up tomorrow, and I don't know of anyone else doing this arguably vital work, "Here we go!"- Mario (of the Nintendo fame).

One of my favs that I only just remembered to add to my brainstorming doc: EOD (Explosive Ordnance [not to be confused with Ordinance] Disposal). The long and short of it is that they are the BAMFs who hightail it to your position when you find bombs that you can't render safe on your own.

I don't know much of anything about them, other than that which was portrayed by the almost decent film from '08, The Hurt Locker. Of course, my memory fails me on the finer points of that phenomenal film also.

Another one that I know for a fact I have yet to mention in this series: MOA (Minute Of Angle). Every sniper worth his/her weight in salt has heard of this one and knows that it's just a fancy way of measuring the accuracy of a projectile weapon.

The next topic I wanna touch on briefly: Rumor has it that there's simply no possible way to make it to the highest enlisted rank in a battalion sized (or larger) unit without getting at least one Article-15. Some of the other branches refer to them as Captain's Mast.

Just another way of saying that you were disciplined, with the documentation of it, for the purposes of the matter staying in your ERB (Enlisted Record Brief), or official military records, forever. It's nothing short of a miracle that there's not one in my files.

In any event, I wasn't really trusted with frags (aka fragmentation [or regular hand] grenades) outside of training. Considering how completely off my last training throw was, and the way that some Vietnam Vets committed fratricide (killing an ally by "friendly fire") against an assortment of their ostensibly asinine officers, by "fragging" the ones giving the orders, I'm not too bent out of shape.

Random: The rank that I was wearing on my uniform more than all the previous ones combined, almost, was Specialist, with the pay grade of E-4. Since that rank is the very last one prior to leadership positions, and it looks like a shield somewhat, those of us who were in the "E-4 Mafia" were often told that we were "rocking a sham shield".

Supposedly, we were more likely to delegate our tasks to those down the totem pole than any other rank. And that's despite "finally getting paid for the work we do", as one fellow Grunt so eloquently put it.

Also random: "Early is on time; on time is late; and late is unacceptable!" On a similar tangent, "If you're five minutes early, then you're late, dammit!"- some SDS (Senior Drill Sergeant) I stumbled upon by pure happenstance.

Speaking of which tho, I know next to nothing about the Space Force, but trust and believe: For the other five branches, you best be prepped for some "double timing", or doing "the Airborne shuffle" (jogging) from point to point, proceeding your potentially permanent oath to The Constitution. "Full stop."

Final one for this post, and I believe the last to mention the fourth dimension explicitly: When you "mark time", it appears as if you are marching; however, you're not moving from your present location that you were in when the command was given. Certainly not the sexiest part of being "a certified killer"; tho, it's pivotal nonetheless.

I landed on almost exactly 700 words (at least in my rough draft), and the time has come to proofread this lucky post before submission; as well as praying for it to be selected as a "top story". Either which way, enjoy the relative enlightenment and check on your (Mil) friends/fam at least once a month; on the 22nd preferably.

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Prayerfully, someone somewhere gets something pertinent (re: useful) from this post. If that somebody's you, then please think about considering a Like/Tip/Share, and/or checking out some of my other posts.

TIA (Thx In Advance). Peaceful Tidings.

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