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- Winston Churchill believed that military operations should be named to instill resolution in troops and remembrance for the fallen.
- Here are some military names that fall well short of that mark, like those named after small, furry animals.
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While researching another story, I came across a recent exercise designed to steel NATO for battling Russian subs. The war game was named for a ferret-like creature that subsists on insects and worms.
Nothing like a small mammal to drive terror into an adversary’s heart.
How do military leaders come up with these? In the case of the US, military commands are assigned blocks of the alphabet, say from AA to AD, from which they can choose two word names. Such as Agile Diver. The rules forbid "commercial trademarks," "anything offensive to good taste," or that are similar in spelling to a code word.
They also set aside words for certain commands. "Cheese," for example, is only to be used by the chief of naval operation’s office. Ditto "rabbit."
(Great Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill specifically warned about "frivolous" words, saying no one would want to tell a grieving mother her son died in an operation named "Bunnyhug.")
Here’s a totally objective guide to the worst-named military operations and exercises of all time.
1. Exercise Bold Alligator
Pfc. Nicholas Guevara/US Marine Corps
Alligators are cold-blooded and pretty low energy most of the time.
2. Operation Black Ferret
Lenny Ignelzi/AP
Ferrets are small, furry mammals that have been domesticated. The wild ones are known to dance a gig to hypnotize their prey, according to Mental Floss.
Operation Black Ferret was a search and destroy mission in Vietnam.
3. Operation Mermaid Dawn
Weeki Wachee Springs State Park
In addition to not finding ferrets frightening — setting aside "The Big Lebowski" scene where a ferret scares the Dude in a bathtub — I don’t especially find the prospect of mermaids at dawn threatening.
Rebels named their 2011 assault on Tripoli, according to this excellent overview of military naming by Mental Floss.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- Here are 8 weapons of war China showed off during its massive naval parade
- Inside Kim Jong Un’s personal train — which is bulletproof, has all-white conference rooms, and its own red carpet ramp
- Russia and North Korea have a tiny shared border, which Kim Jong Un just crossed — and you can take a look around on Google Maps
Source: Business Insider – sfellman@businessinsider.com (Sam Fellman)