More Pentagon Jargon

This page has a heap of Pentagon-speak, and it is mostly useful.*  In my time, I never heard "put steel on target" and I had a heap of artillery officers in my branch, including commanding officer.  So, I am not sure how prevalent that phrase is.  Task/tasker/tasking is absolutely on target.  Our taskers were called JSAPs (Joint Staff Action P-something),  See the edited Far Side -->

Warfighter?  I guess.  I was struck by folks using the word "warrior" until I realized that I was working with folks who were trained to kill people.

De-conflict: "To synthesize and eliminate inconsistencies."  I do not think I ever heard this in the Pentagon, but heard it a heap during my research for the current project, as in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force folks had to de-conflict with the Operational Enduring Freedom folks, especially since the latter often were Special Operations types wondering through somebody else's battlespace.

Stoplight charts were not a word that was used, but definitely a very common way to illustrate progress/desired endstates (never heard the word endstate until my time in the Pentagon), and my favorite argument within NATO--milestones vs. benchmarks.

Battle rhythm.  Agreed, a big hooah here, as we did frequently hear this phrase to describe our schedule, including regular PT (physical training), which, in our office, meant three or four of us on a racquetball court (and yes, I got spanked on a regular basis).

This list at wired comes from the Ink Spots blog that I have linked to before, with previous Pentagon-ese.













*  And yes, this is a quick and dirty blog post to make up for the fact that I spent the day skiing with my daughter, since she had no school today.  Clear skies, good snow, great skiing.