Use of "Bird" to Denote a Flying War Machine

Tomahawk cruise missile image credit here.

I'm hating on this expression, and as a civilian employee of the Defense Department, believe me, I hear this term used a LOT. 

Examples: We launched a lot of birds (Tomahawk cruise missiles) at Libya.  Or, The birds landed at bin Laden's compound to insert the Navy Seals.

Mostly "bird" is used by present and former flyboys, flyboy-wannabees, missile shooters, and missile providers via the supply chain.  Additional subsets include aficionados of both fixed wing and rotary wing craft (which I mention only because I wonder why they don't just say airplanes and helicopters, respectively), and NASA types.  There are undoubtedly more user categories, I'm certain.

Wait, I know why people say this--it's the sexy lure of MIL-Speak.  Tossing around insider military terms identifies you as, well, an insider.  Well, my entire career has been spent in the Department of Defense--30+ years--and not once did I ever utter the word "bird."  Nor will I.  I just have standards, I guess, about the English language (see here for a recent example).

But back to "birds."  That term is particularly annoying to me, because I love real birds and it seems a slight to them to prostitute the term.  A flying war machine can never be as wondrous and magical as a living, breathing bird.

House wren image credit here.

 

MIL-Speak, Version 2

Several weeks ago I posted here about the military's propensity for making verbs out of nouns or otherwise corrupting the conventional usage of language, a process I called MIL-Speak.  In that post I discussed the use of the words consensed (verb), footstamp (verb), offramp (verb), propensed (adjective), and churn (noun).

Well, I'm at another conference and the words are being abused again here.  Must happen automatically when you get a critical mass of military folks together in one place.  The egregious example today is the word "architect."  No, not the person who designs buildings.  I'm talking here about the act or process of designing something.  You know, the verb form, as in: "We are here to architect a new logistics system."

If I applied that same logic to Ultrarunning, I could come up with a whole raft of new words.  Rather than say that I'm stopping at this next aid station, I could just say, "I'm going to aid station here."  Or instead of drinking, I could say that "I'll water bottle now."  And if I'm going to change my footwear at a drop bag, I'd say "It's time to drop bag and shoe."

Or when it comes time to fill out an entry form for my next race, I'll simply have to corrupt the noun "entry" into a verb.  Never mind that we already have a perfectly functional verb, "enter."  Nope, I must instead say "I'm going to entry the JFK this year."

 

Standards, MIL-Speak...and Ultrarunning

I am in a hotel as I write this Mon evening for a Tues morning post.  My business in Atlanta is to participate in a standards conference.

It is boring. Boring beyond belief, yet I realize that standards are essential to commerce, government, the military, etc.  Think about something as simple as the size and shape of electrical outlets and the plugs that fit them.  Here in the U.S. we pretty much take it for granted that when we buy appliances we don't have to worry about whether the plug will fit or if the normal AC power will work.  They just do.  These are national standards that we adhere to in the U.S.

Note: Overseas power and outlets are another story, in that international standards never were quite consensed upon.

I deliberately used the word consensed above, as an example of what I call MIL-Speak.  It's the annoying habit that we who are associated with the military have of corrupting words.  "Consensed" is the verb form of the noun consensus, and is used to mean agree or concur.  You will NOT find "consensed" in a dictionary. 

Here are 4 other MIL-Speak words you will not find in a dictionary.  I love language, I love reading, I love writing--that's one of the reasons I blog--and these are particularly egregious and annoying examples of "words" from my personal experience:

1.  Footstamp: verb, meaning to add emphasis.  Example: Let me footstamp this point (corruption of adjective/noun combo foot stamp).

2.  Offramp: verb, meaning to exit. Example: Our plans to offramp Afghanistan are nebulous at best (corruption of noun off ramp).

3.  Propensed: adjective, meaning disposed. Example: He was not propensed to vote for that candidate (corruption of noun propensity).

4.  Churn: noun, meaning confusion and delay (if you have a little one and watch Thomas the Tank Engine, you will know exactly what I mean!).  Example: Failure to communicate our plans caused a lot of churn (corruption of a verb into a noun). 

Back to today's standards conference and reality.  The chair of this committee used as a verb the MIL-Speak word "footstamp" as a verb some 3 times just in Monday's afternoon session. I seethed inside and wanted to throw something at him.

The connection to Ultrarunning:  I really need to go on the Stone Mountain run I promised myself yesterday.  Tues PM may just work out....