Army Acronyms and Whatnot Vol. 6

29JUL2021; 1120, THU

Speaking of Star Wars tho, I'm pretty sure that this featured image might could win some sort of accolade for capturing such a large number of Padawans and Younglings, in a single still shot, accompanied by a couple of USA soldiers and a Stryker. "Long live the [Jedi order]."

That reminds me: If anyone is thinking about considering a campaign for Grand Master of The Order, then be prepared for setbacks and such. Random: Any other stans pretty much today years old when they discovered that there's such a title?

This intro to the debrief is a poignant reminder: One of my sergeants legit joked that his religion was the Jedi Order so that he could contend that asinine tasks go against his beliefs. Matter of fact, I believe that his actual wife (potentially it was one of his exes) sent him a toy lightsaber so that he would have "proof" for his superiors when they inquired about his religious beliefs.

In any event, now for the cannonball:

I briefly touched on this in another post already; but in the Army, colleagues that are peers are referred to as Battle Buddies, or Battles for short. In order to "work smarter [instead of] harder," sometimes you have to break matters down "Barney style" for your Battles; or rather as if they were six years old.

For those of you who are too young to remember: Barney was a big, purple tyrannosaurus-rex with a green stomach and green spots on his back. If he showed up at your Born Day party or even just on your "boob-tube" (as television is sometimes colloquially known) from time to time, you were blessed and highly favored!

At any rate, if you were caught fraternizing, or flirting essentially, with a subordinate (someone who's obligated to obey your directives/orders), it was most def a bad time. "Point blank".

In a similar vein, I previously mentioned G.I. Joe, but forgot to include the fact that junior enlisted soldiers (pay grades E1-E4) are often signified with the term "Joe". For example: "I need seven Joes to volunteer for Rearguard (staying behind to protect the garrison [aka home-base; which is usually stateside]) while the rest of the company goes on deployment."

The opposite of rearguard would essentially be Advanced Party. Of course, I don't quite remember what we called the soldiers who stayed behind in the combat zone to make sure that everything was packed up and secured properly while everyone else hopped on the "first thing smoking", "back to the world".

Random: If you have a strong desire to be on par with the Airforce's PJs (Pararescue Jumpers[?]) and/or the Navy's "Frogmen" (aka SEALs [Sea Air Land]), but you hate the idea of leaving the Army to become an "Operator"; then you have to somehow survive the Q-Course (aka Special Forces Qualification Course [SFQC]) and Selection (aka Special Forces Assessment and Selection [SFAS]). "NBD (No Big Deal)".

Also random: I don't understand how or why, but yellow ribbons are meant to indicate "Support [for] Our Troops". Go figure.

Also also random: We all for the most part know that Green Berets are on a higher echelon. However, I'm of the opinion that most civies don't know about the Rangers rocking tan berets and Airborne units, who aren't quite as high speed as the Rangers, being all about the "Raspberry Beret"; which the late, great musical artist Prince (Rest In Power) more or less popularized over the years since '85.

Now that berets are only worn with our formal uniforms (aka Dress Blues or Class A's), I'm pretty sure that the entirety of the extremely seasoned Vets are beyond grateful to have the days of "berets everywhere except for training and during deployments" behind us and over with. Btw, before the Army decided to mimic the Marines, yet again, our formals were known as Greens.

Last one for this particular edition, tho undoubtedly relevant: The motor pool's where we store and care for our military vehicles. Whatever your job in a unit that actually deploys, be prepared to spend some time there, at least on a monthly basis.

Thx for reading and stay tuned for the final(?) installment in this particular series. Peace.

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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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