Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Safe at Tallil


If the current crop of email memos is any indicator, we are stationed at a very safe part of Iraq. The new garrison command is making changes, that's what new garrison commands do. In one recent memo we got uniform standards including sock length with the PT uniform, when we are allowed to wear a specific uniform shirt in the chow hall and when we can't and whether or not we can wear MIA, Cancer Survivor, Livestrong and other rubber bracelets. There are new security standards for weapons taken into the gym and so forth. Minutiae written out at great length in the military is usually referred to as Chicken Shit (yet another use of that word).
Answers.com says:
1. Contemptibly petty or insignificant. For example, He has spent his life making up chicken shit rules that nobody follows anyway. This expression gained currency during World War II, when it was often applied to the enforcement of petty and disagreeable military regulations. [Vulgar slang; c. 1930]
2. Cowardly, as in You're not too chicken shit to come along, are you? [Vulgar slang; mid-1940s]
In this case we are only using Definition One.
The good side of this for your father, mother, brother, sister, spouse or other loved one stationed here is that their is an inverse relationship between CS and danger. After all, if there were immanent threats, the garrison is there to protect us. For most soldiers the increase in CS is a strong indicator that the enemy is remote.

3 comments:

  1. Neil,
    In my Navy days, the chicken shit decreased with the distance from shore. Stated another way, hair length was allowed to increase with the distance from shore.
    Jan

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am sure a haircut memo will follow.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Neil, Just wanted to say thank you for serving our country. My husband has been in the reserves for 15yrs and served 1yr in Iraq. He is in Baghdad now and headed to Tallil as a contractor this time. Thanks for the reassurance that it's a safe area. Thanks again for your service! You are a hero!
    Elizabeth

    ReplyDelete

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