"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
...
On 10 Feb 2004 00:23:38 GMT, (ArtKramr) wrote:

Subject: Radio - foul language
From: "Paul J. Adam"

Depends on timescales. If you're calling in a fire mission from a
battery in direct support, or reporting a hot contact... the enemy will
gain nothing from intercepting and translating your radio messages. They
already know that Our Guys are fighting Their Guys at grid 123987, the
spooks get told to clear the net for useful messages
Paul J. Adam MainBoxatjrwlynch[dot]demon{dot}co(.)uk

Radio silence. Above all radio silence. Only guys on their first mission
and
scared to hell blurt over the command radio. And are so severely
disciplined
on landing that they will never do it again.


Arthur Kramer

Radio discipline is important. It's an absolute, even when it isn't
necessary--as in modern ops where you've got secure comm. It still
demonstrates professionalism if the radio chatter is eliminated.

That being said, however, Art overlooks the situation. It's a ground
commander calling for fire support. The ground commander's rep, calls
for fire and must communicate the situation. If he maintains radio
silence, no one knows the need for fire. If, under the duress of the
moment, the FAC or controller adds an adjective, that can readily be
forgiven.

But Art is correct in the narrow sense that such traffic would *very* rarely
be tolerated on the *command* net. Fire support would be handled on the fire
support net, just as operations reports are handles on the ops net and CSS
is handled on the admin/log net. Commanders, especially those with stars on
their collars, tend to get rather testy when the folks initiating comms on
their command nets are not either themselves or, somewhat grudgingly, their
immediate subordinate commanders. As an aside, the best single comm I ever
overheard on a command net was from an O-6 maneuver brigade commander
responding to the O-7 ADC-M after being queried as to whether his elements
were indeed moving out right *now* IAW the latest (rather confusing) last
minute FRAGO-- "Roger that, we are moving out now....don't know where we are
supposed to be going, but we are moving." Blurted out over the speaker in
our CP; everyone in the CP stopped what they were doing and looked at each
other, then burst out in guffaws. Surprisingly, he was not chastised for
that somewhat irreverent (even if it was true) comment.

Brooks



Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8