The naming of U.S. military operations can seem arbitrary and obtuse, but there's logic to them.
In the days following World War I it was all about colors. Think Operation Indigo or Operation Gray.
In WWII it was about shaping perceptions, sometimes to the point of wishful thinking, as when the Japanese dubbed their failure at Leyte Gulf — Operation Victory.
During Vietnam names took on a creative appeal designed to boost flagging morale of U.S. troops with names like Operation Killer and Masher.
That type of PR seemed questionable in the less heady days of the mid 1970s and a computer program called the Code Word, Nickname, and Exercise Term System (NICKA) was given the job of job of assigning mission names.
NICKA erred on the opposite end, however, such as when it lamely labeled the Panama invasion Operation Blue Spoon (subsequently changed to a better name, as you'll see in the quiz). So a new system was developed.
To allow for some controlled flair a system was implemented by the Joint Chiefs of Staff where each of the 24 Department of Defense components involved in military operations held unique sets of alphabetic sequences.
Sounds complicated, but it worked like this: The U.S. Atlantic Command (USACOM) was assigned six two-letter sequences: AG-AL, ES-EZ, JG-JL, QA-QF, SM-SR, and UM-UR. The first word of the two-word military operation name had to begin with one of these pairs. Like Grenada: Urgent Fury (UR).
Today staff officers have a bit more freedom naming operations and following the PR success of Operation Just Cause, have taken to following these four guidelines.
Make it meaningful. Target the audience. Be wary of fashions, and Make it memorable.
The following quiz will help determine how successful military planners have been in that final naming guideline.
What was the name of the invasion of Iraq?
A: Operation Iraqi Liberation
B: Operation Sandy Ouster
C: Operation Iraqi Freedom
NOTE: Answers are on the next page. Keep track of how many you get right to find out your rank on the last slide.
And the answer is ...
C. Operation Iraqi Freedom
Believe it or not, their first name for the invasion was "Operation Iraqi Liberation."
Later, realizing those three words made the acronym, spelled "OIL," military planners changed the last word to "Freedom."
What did planners call the invasion of Afghanistan?
A: Operation Enduring Freedom
B: Operation Afghan Liberation
C: Operation Taliban Fire
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