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How military operations get their code names (2011)

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Re: How military operations get their code names (2011)

#11

I find this very interesting... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_color-coded_war_...

Germans did that too. Invasion of Poland, (whose anniversary is today) was Case White. Case Yellow was the invasion of France, etc...

Re: How military operations get their code names (2011)

#12
post #10

It is far more casual than anyone like to admit. Lots of jokes get through, little rebellions by junior officers tasked with inventing names. A classic example was "Operation Iraqi Liberation", an early name for the invasion of Iraq. Another may be an early program whereby ai/software selected targets for future strikes over Afghanistan: Skynet.

Sorry - what is the joke in "Operation Iraqi Liberation"?

OIL being a comment on the real motivation for the operation.

Re: How military operations get their code names (2011)

#13

It is far more casual than anyone like to admit. Lots of jokes get through, little rebellions by junior officers tasked with inventing names. A classic example was "Operation Iraqi Liberation", an early name for the invasion of Iraq. Another may be an early program whereby ai/software selected targets for future strikes over Afghanistan: Skynet.

The FBI has fun with this, too. They named the investigation into rich parents buying their dumb kids into fancy universities "Operation Varsity Blues." https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139699/

Also "Operation Jackpot" which was a bust of more than 100 pot smugglers in the early 80's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Jackpot_(drug_invest...

The book on the "Gentlemen Smugglers" and how they got busted is a good read.

Asin: B00MJD6JY2

Re: How military operations get their code names (2011)

#16
This says nothing about HOW which, after all is the title of the article

As someone who has named operations I can tell you how it works

It's pretty random and whoever says the first thing that sounds good usually goes. That said, at least one shop I worked in had a consistent theme with naming ops but that was about it.

Re: How military operations get their code names (2011)

#17

This says nothing about HOW which, after all is the title of the article As someone who has named operations I can tell you how it works It's pretty random and whoever says the first thing that sounds good usually goes. That said, at least one shop I worked in had a consistent theme with naming ops but that was about it.

What, you didn't MDMP the name (along with all other minutiae) to death?

Re: How military operations get their code names (2011)

#20

This says nothing about HOW which, after all is the title of the article As someone who has named operations I can tell you how it works It's pretty random and whoever says the first thing that sounds good usually goes. That said, at least one shop I worked in had a consistent theme with naming ops but that was about it.

What, you didn't MDMP the name (along with all other minutiae) to death?

Oh, that's certainly been done before

Usually not though

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