Operation Whatever
Who comes up with all of the names assigned to military undertakings?
Another subtitle: “The etymology of non sequiturs”
Last year, the twelve day air war on Iran was code named Operation Midnight Hammer. (1)
At the moment, we’re engaged in Operation Epic Fury – the US/Israeli assault on Iran. (2)
Have you ever wondered who comes up with operation names – names that are, by turns, menacing, disjointed, absurd, peculiar, and even downright silly?
I decided to look into it.
Ah. I should have known.
The Pentagon has a meticulous system for assigning and cataloging operation names. It’s called NICKA. (3)
A NICKA sampler:
Operation Acid Gambit
Operation Autumn Forge
Operation Beggar Shadow
Operation Bold Alligator
Operation Burnt Frost
Operation Infinite Anvil
Operation Mango Ramp
Operation Nomad Lightning
Operation Oblique Pillar
Operation Tacit Rainbow
These monikers (and others) now have me churning up fantasy operations names.
But I’ll spare you those.
References:
(1) https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4227082/historically-successful-strike-on-iranian-nuclear-site-was-15-years-in-the-maki/
(2) https://www.war.gov/Spotlights/Operation-Epic-Fury/
(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._Department_of_Defense_and_partner_code_names
Background:
https://www.govtech.com/em/disaster/How-Pentagon-Names-Military-Operations.html
https://www.warcosts.org/operations
https://www.twz.com/29353/how-the-pentagon-comes-up-with-all-those-secret-project-nicknames-and-crazy-code-words