Quote Originally Posted by Pete View Post
The statement above by a British officer is from one of the links posted by Fuchs to stories in the Daily Telegraph in November 2009. One of my pet peeves about the U.S. military is its overuse of acronyms and jargon when speaking or writing in the King's English would make things much more clear to everyone involved; there ought to be dialogue until everyone understands what is to be done. One of the things that impressed me about a Marine Corps ANGLICO Team during an exercise in 1982 was the way its officers and NCOs spoke to their people in plain English. Communicating clearly is probably even more important during coalition operations.
Pete-

One of my big frustrations at ILE is that the Army folks don't think about translating things for us sister service folks. I think this is partially because the Army is so big and partially because the Army doesn't have to work as often in the joint environment at the tactical level. Since USAF units (especially the Combat Air Forces or shooters) often train with Navy and Marine Corps air, as well as coalition partners, we are forced to learn to communicate with folks who don't speak our language. Institutionalizing this by making 50% of Red Flags coalition flags has helped too. Also helps that Top Gun and USAF Weapons School have a robust relationship, and all the doctrine is coordinated by the 561st Joint Tactics Squadron.

The other amusing thing as an outsider is how each branch has it's own language within the Army - and other branches don't know their lingo either. Sustainers seem to particularly love acronyms that no one else really understands.

Which raises an interesting question... do you think the impending drawdown of the Army will lead to more attempts to train with coalition partners? How often are the UK, Canada, Australia, etc land forces invited to NTC rotations or other exercises? It seems like us going it alone will be increasingly less likely in the future...

V/R,

Cliff