The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: MikeBjerum on March 30, 2017, 12:19:47 PM
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Rant time:
Jargon is defined in part as "peculiar vocabulary within a specific industry or group."
Many use jargon to communicate with peers, and that is the purpose of jargon. However, many use jargon outside this circle without thought to how their message is received or spread, and, sadly, many use it to appear advanced or an expert within a field.
While studying Technical Writing, I was taught and warned to avoid the use of jargon whenever possible, even within the target audience or with peers. I was also taught that even within the target groups jargon MUST always be defined early in the discussion to clarify what is meant, because jargon is fluid and changes from organization to organization, and even person to person within these groups.
Why the rant? The self defense education crowd has been on a roll again, and the open communications accessed by the general public is polluted with jargon, and much of this jargon is being used without definition, and in some cases in direct conflict with the writings of many experts.
Even as an instructor who participates on a regular basis and tries to stay up to date on conversations, I have no idea what you mean when you say "Condition 1, 2 ... 999" or "Condition Red, Orange, Purple or Sparkles" if you do not reference the organization or originator of the status.
You want me to glaze over and ignore you quickly? Just start spewing jargon carelessly, and I am out of here.
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Amen...
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Can we add acronyms to the rant? The AR-15 tacticool crowd loves to turn everything into an acronym. I think mostly because they're too lazy to type whole words, so they use initials, and we're supposed to just know what the heck they're talking about. Sometimes I just want to say "use your words."
Wow, I feel better.
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Yep ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ What they said. ;D ;D ;D
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Can we add acronyms to the rant? The AR-15 tacticool crowd loves to turn everything into an acronym. I think mostly because they're too lazy to type whole words, so they use initials, and we're supposed to just know what the heck they're talking about. Sometimes I just want to say "use your words."
Wow, I feel better.
Absolutely! Standards for writing demand that the first time you use an acronym that the full wording be stated, and then the acronym follows: As soon as possible (asap). Following this first use, it must be done again at regular intervals. Some do it after a set number of paragraphs, but the minimum is the beginning of each new chapter.
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My first year in the military was at COMOCEANSYSLANT!
Commander, Oceanographic Systems, Atlantic..
We had a tech manual that was a dictionary of military acronyms! Light reading on a mid-watch in Iceland in December!
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Military has some nice ones....
VC - Victor Charlie - Viet Cong
LRRP - Long Range Recon Patrol
REMF - Rear Echelon Personnel
:D
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BOHICA
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Bend over here it comes again!
DILLIGAF!
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And let's not forget the always popular FUBAR.
My AIT was at USAOC&S.
PS: I was a REMF and liked it. :D
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After I posted that I realized it was incomplete.
This REMF learned MOS 45B in AIT at USAOC&S APG.
But I thought it used to be USAO&CC&S or something a little bit longer like that. The first "&" probably didn't belong there. USAOCC&S maybe.
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And let's not forget the always popular FUBAR.
My AIT was at USAOC&S.
PS: I was a REMF and liked it. :D
It's OK as lon as it's not your own mother.
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as Timothy commented, we used to get messages to and from SIGINT (signals intelligence) capable ships (I was USAFSS) from the Navy... with address groups like
Fm COMPACNAVSECGRU
To NAVSECGRUDETSTAPHIL
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I remember seeing a DICNAVAB (dictionary of Naval abbreviations) in the commissary in a previous lifetime. It even had the term "WestPac widow" in it.
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While we're ranting about jargon, one overused term that peeves me to no end is "platform" to refer to a weapon, as in, "This is the new Ruger Scout Rifle platform."
It's just a rifle.....call it a rifle.
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While we're ranting about jargon, one overused term that peeves me to no end is "platform" to refer to a weapon, as in, "This is the new Ruger Scout Rifle platform."
It's just a rifle.....call it a rifle.
Considering all the crap they hang on guns nowadays they are less "platforms" Nd more like "pallet's" or "loading docks".
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I've been thinking about it a lot since last night and when I was at APG I remember people calling it the US army ordnance and chemical center and school. I could swear it was USAOCC&S but when I searched online I could only find USAOC&S with one "C", not two. Tomorrow is 37 years to the day I got my diploma for small arms repair and it says on it US Army Ordnance Center & School. I just can't believe I was wrong about the name of the place for so many years. Somewhere in my "office" I have a picture of me sitting on the hood of my SUV wearing a school T-shirt but don't think it would have enough resolution to see what it says.
I also looked up some of the MOS's we had in the armament section. If I can remember right from last night 45K which was tank turret repair is something else now and 45L which was artillery repair no longer exists and part of it is now included with 45B. I can't remember what the MOS code for fire control instrument repair or laser/TTS repair were.
MOS 45B AIT USAOC&S APG, MD USA. ;D
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One that stuck with me was NRTS (Not Repairable This Station).
We of course used a "U" instead of an "R" most of the time.
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I've been thinking about it a lot since last night and when I was at APG I remember people calling it the US army ordnance and chemical center and school. I could swear it was USAOCC&S but when I searched online I could only find USAOC&S with one "C", not two. Tomorrow is 37 years to the day I got my diploma for small arms repair and it says on it US Army Ordnance Center & School. I just can't believe I was wrong about the name of the place for so many years. Somewhere in my "office" I have a picture of me sitting on the hood of my SUV wearing a school T-shirt but don't think it would have enough resolution to see what it says.
I also looked up some of the MOS's we had in the armament section. If I can remember right from last night 45K which was tank turret repair is something else now and 45L which was artillery repair no longer exists and part of it is now included with 45B. I can't remember what the MOS code for fire control instrument repair or laser/TTS repair were.
MOS 45B AIT USAOC&S APG, MD USA. ;D
No body talks about chemical any more.
Because chemical weapons, unlike 1000 pound bombs, do terrible things to anybody in the area
A Hellfire missile from several thousand feet is much more humane.