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The Language of Today's Army

On Cyber Patrol: September 2008

There’s been some discussion that today’s soldiers need to be both a warrior and a computer geek to handle the challenges of modern conflicts. This transition could possibly be a difficult one for old school Army personnel and may require significant updating of their operational vocabulary. As part of this retraining effort, the partial list below serves as an unofficial primer in the new language of today’s Army.

Classic Term	Current Term
The radio is out	The network is down
The enemy is massing over the next ridge	There’s been heavy internet traffic out of the region
Dig a foxhole	Put up a firewall
Secure this bridge	Secure this network
Our lines have been infiltrated	Our network’s been hacked
I almost got my a** shot off	We almost lost our computer assets
Boot camp	Boot up
Loose lips	Loose keyboards
He lost his thumb at Quang Tri	He lost his thumb drive in Mosul
Enemy irregulars	Script kiddies, transnational cyber terrorists
Years of Experience	IA Workforce Certification
@*!%! My gun has jammed	@*!%! My screen has frozen
Retired on active duty	Legacy system
Fail Inspection	Not Networthy
Airborne	Air cards
Battle hardened	Cyber Warrior
Forward edge of the battle area	Over the horizon
Targets of opportunity	Unencrypted mobile devices

While some of these substitute phrases may be tongue in cheek, it is a fact that the battlefield terminology of our father’s Army in physical space is being supplemented and increasingly supplanted by the lexicon of operating in cyber space and winning the cyber war. Soldiers need to be as well versed in maintaining and securing their information systems as they are in using their weapons systems. Each individual’s information assurance and cyber security responsibilities–regardless of rank–are as important as maintaining a secure perimeter at a forward base. Safeguarding information helps to ensure the success of operations, the protection of resources and the security of our warfighters.

The On Cyber Patrol© cartoon and supporting articles are created and made available by the U.S. Army’s Office of Information Assurance and Compliance, NETCOM, CIO/G6. For more information on the OCP program or to submit ideas for upcoming cartoons/articles, contact oncyberpatrol@hqda.army.mil.