Military English

[BlackBlade]

OK so I was thinking about this this morning.  In the Vietnam war American GI's using their special military alphabet (Not in alphabetical order: Alpha, Whisky, Foxtrot, etc) referred to North Vietnamese combatants as Charlie.  Charlie is obviously the letter C in that alphabet.

Today, enemy combatants in Iraq, Afghanistan are (from what I have seen) referred to as Tangos.  I don't think I have heard of them referred to as Charlie.

Were VC forces called Charlie because they were communists and communism starts with a C?  And are enemy combatants called Tangos because they are terrorists and terrorism starts with a T?

[Jonathon]

I'm pretty sure "tango" is for "terrorist", but I'm not sure about "charlie" in the Vietnam War. I would guess that you're right that it's for "communist".

[fugu13]

I'm pretty sure the derivation worked as follows: Charlie was originally for the Viet Cong, or Victor Charlie, and that was extended to the North Vietnamese (because you don't want to call your enemies "Victors").

[rivka]

And the "military alphabet" isn't just. Police officers and ham radio operators and others use it as well -- internationally. Also, while some letters are the same as the alphabet that used to be used by the military (Charlie among them), many are different from the one commonly used now. (Tango among them.)

[BlackBlade]

And the "military alphabet" isn't just. Police officers and ham radio operators and others use it as well -- internationally. Also, while some letters are the same as the alphabet that used to be used by the military (Charlie among them), many are different from the one commonly used now. (Tango among them.)

Did it originate with the US military, or does it precede it?

[The Genuine]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet

[pooka]

I'd guess Tango refers to "target" rather than "terrorist."  But that is just a guess.  Seems like learning that alphabet was part of Ham radio certification, which I looked into but lost steam on.

[rivka]

Seems like learning that alphabet was part of Ham radio certification

Sure is.

[The Genuine]

Do you know which federal legal holiday is observed on Nov. 11?

Here are the choices:

1.) Veteran’s Day

2.) Veterans’ Day

3.) Veterans Day

 * * *

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (no apostrophe) continues to promote the attributive version, and offers the following explanation on its Web site: “Veterans Day does not include an apostrophe but does include an ‘s’ at the end of ‘veterans’ because it is not a day that ‘belongs’ to veterans, it is a day for honoring all veterans.”

[Jonathon]

I think this is the result of a very basic misunderstanding of just what exactly the genitive is. We often call it the possessive in English, which leads people to think that it only denotes ownership, which is a mistake. And this kind of reasoning about possessives leads to stupid thing like removing apostrophes in place names like Pikes Peak. There's no way to interpret that as a plural attributive noun.

[Tante Shvester]

Martha's Vineyard stubbornly retains their apostrophe.

[Jonathon]

Yup. They are one of five exceptions granted by the US Board on Geographic Names. See question 18.

[BlackBlade]

This is sorta military related.  Are side burns really so named after Gen. Ambrose Burnside of civil war renown who sported some pretty impressive specimens?

[Jonathon]

Yup.

[BlackBlade]

Yup.

Could you point me in a direction where I could read about it?

[Jonathon]

The OED and Etymonline.com don't give much explanation: they say that it was originally burnsides, and then within about ten or twelve years, it had turned into sideburns. Wikipedia says pretty much the same thing.

[BlackBlade]

Ah, thanks!