US service member killed in blast near Mosul, coalition says
Source: Reuters
A US service member died of wounds sustained from an explosion outside the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Saturday, the US-led military coalition said.
A statement from Operation Inherent Resolve gave no other details.
US-backed forces have been fighting to retake the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/29/us-service-member-dies-mosul-iraq-isis
Reuters
Saturday 29 April 2017 20.29 BST
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)CanonRay
(14,038 posts)I have this image of some schmuck in the Pentagon coming up with it and some three star general signing off for the Deputy Under Secretary for Mission Names to approve.
tenorly
(2,037 posts)O.I.L.
Quackers
(2,256 posts)(TNS) During World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill urged military leaders to come up with valiant names for battles so no mother of a fallen soldier need say her son was killed in an operation called Bunnyhug or Ballyhoo.
More than 70 years later, Pentagon officials faced a similar problem when they struggled to choose an operational name for the widening campaign of airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.
The branding effort took weeks, involved a classified Pentagon computer system called NICKA, consultations with military officers in Baghdad and Washington, approval by two dozen partner nations, and the endorsement of top Pentagon brass.
Thus was born Operation Inherent Resolve, a moniker so inherently bland it sparked jokes on late night TV.
Until 25 years ago, the U.S. military issued random code names for exercises, landing beaches, headquarters, attack plans and other operations, from Aberdeen (an Allied objective in Burma in World War II) to Zipper (another World War II attack plan). The point was to protect secrecy, confuse the enemy and simplify communications.
More at link above:
CanonRay
(14,038 posts)a whole classified computer system. Last government agency I worked for, the computers were so old I swear they had duct tape on them.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)democrank
(11,052 posts)KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)~John Kerry, 1971