One of the languages I am fairly fluent in

is military acronymms and terms.

A while back I was yakking away with an Army Sergeant First Class of Military Police regarding a few of his interesting experiences in Iraq.

One of the subjects that came up was the role of women and it was interesting to note that he told me his faavorite patrol partner was a farm girl from the midwest somewhere. Apparently this woman had paid attention during the martial arts classes the Army gives its military policemen.

Anyway, I asked the sergeant, "Big girl?"

"Yes," said the sergeant, "Actually she cleans up pretty good...Uh... the term 'cleans up means..."

"Sergeant," I interrupted, "I'm pretty fluent in Army creole. I know exactly what you mean by that term.It is not disrespectful. It simply means that she can be reasonably attractive when she gets into civvies.Please carry on."

His face lit up and he went on and explained that the reason he liked having her as a partner is because she was both capable and female.

He occasionally used her to do his 'light work' because he understood Arabic culture.

Every so often the two of them would come across either an Al Quida-type suspect or someone that was outright rude and needed a comuppence. Generally these were Arabic males between about 18 and, say, 35.

The good sergeant would speak to the suspect and if he lipped off, he would shake his head and walkoff and hook his thumb while telling his female partner to take care of the light work.

It would only take the woman a couple of seconds to make the guy kiss the dirt and cry out in shame and pain.

This was especially effective if the incident took place where a lot of people could see it because the guy who was now on his belly with his face in the dirt would be quite humiliated at being publicly taken down by a mere woman.

It was an interesting way of doing things and seems to make sense. When you take a guy like that down in such a way you generally knock the starch out of him and generally he is likely to think twice before he does something stupid again. It also give him a healthy respect for the Military Police, and that is a good thing.

I popped the idea on him about throwing together an all female rifle battalion and turning them loose in Afghanistan with all the supporting arms they could possibly need. He said he has thought about that idea off and on for some time and can't quite make up his mind about it, although he said he was probably against it, all things considered.

We agreed that it would be a humiliation to the Al Quida forces to be stomped by women, and thet they would lose a lot of respect, but there are other considerations to take into account. Still, in that context, we both agreed it was worth at least some consideration if only for the psycological aspect alone.

I asked him if there would be a shortage of volunteers among the female ranks of the Army to enter the ranks of the Infantry and he grinned and said he didn't think so.

All in all, it was an interesting conversation and I think I broke the ice simply because I'm fairly fluent in what Tom Wolfe once referred to as Army Creole.




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