There’s a military slang referring to someone’s location. And it’s a number. The phrase would be like “We need a twenty on the General,” or something like that.
Anyone know off hand for sure what the number is and whether that would be a correct example of its usage?
PAD
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I don’t know about military slang, but it is CB slang for a location.
CB slang? Okay, close enough. Is twenty right?
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PAD
Never mind, I looked it up under CB slang. Thanks for the direction, Chris.
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PAD
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It’s also a fairly common police 10-Code.
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“10-20 is 1st and Main Street.”
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“What’s your 20?”
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“His last reported 10-20 was behind the mini-mart.”
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Etc.
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10-Codes change from place to place a bit, but 10-20 is a bit like 10-4 in that 10-20 is almost as universl in its meaning as 10-4 is.
Yeah it’s part of the ten-code, so for location it’s 10-20, but typically just “20” is used. For example, ” I need a 20 on the general, ASAP.” or “What’s your 20?”
no problem
One of the terms we used in the Army was a “fix” on the location. Hope that makes some sense.
Yeah, when I was in the military (Navy) and you got caught using Citizen Band ten-codes on a sound-powered phone or radio, they’d yell at you for not using proper military verbiage. So it may not be very authentic to use a Citizen Band ten-code if you are trying to portray military communication.
You never say over an open mike who it is you are trying to find, you would use their call sign. A General would be a call sign like King, Bingo Papa 1, Viper 1, George etc…
“Attention all radios on this net! Attention all radios on this net! This is the MoC! Need a fix on George! Say again, Need a fix on George! Over!
“Moc this is Alpha 7!”
“Go Alpha 7”
“Be advised, George is en route to Foxtrot Lima 4! Have in sight and will advise to contact you A.S.A.P! Over!”
“Roger that, Alpha 7. Over and out!”
That would pretty much be the conversation over the radio.
From an opsec/comsec point of view, the names change weekly to daily depending upon location. 20 is seldom used, but it is used sometimes.
Hope that helped!
Just don’t “over *and* out” – everyone will laugh at you. Over *or* out…
I think even beyond that, “Over” for when you’re done talking and telling the other guy it’s his turn to speak, and “Out” for when you’re actually signing off and stopping the conversation.
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“Break” is another one. Wouldn’t read well in comic or novel form though. When giving a long stream of information, you would break the transmission and say, “Break,” before before releasing the mic. It lets people know that you’re going to resume talking in a minute and to only jump in on the air if it’s an emergency or extremely pertinent info. Police still use that one, but I don’t know if the military is still using it.
you’re both so right. also, nobody ever gets the names of things right. i mean, the real names and codenames of real people and things in the military are always wrong in fiction…for example: someone will ask someone else for a ‘walkie talkie’ (which, in the USAF, we have called bricks for at least 25 years) then ask for ‘a fuel truck to come to the airfield right away’ when in reality, it would be something like ‘mike 4 here (all maintenance on the flight line, where all the aircraft are parked, is code name: ‘mike’, then the number of your truck/van/etc.)send kilo 10 (kilo is fuels, for some obscure reason) to balls 4321 (tail number is 004321), the red ball bird’ (a plane that must be ‘turned around’ very quickly). i realize this is not practical and is too inside baseball, but, um, just sayin’. and yes, ‘over and out’ is the equivalent of saying out loud, ‘now i will stop talking to you.’
“What’s our vector, Victor?”
“Kenneth, what is the frequency?”
I know, Major Graham Chapman is telling me to stop it, I’m being silly.
“We have clearance, Clarence”
“Alpha 7, you have a Minbari on your tail.”
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Well, it’s the first thing *I* think of for that particular designation!
Brian: You know, you’re a jáçkášš. For the record, I don’t wanna hang out with you anymore when this is over.
Stewie: When this is what Brian? Over.
Brian: I said, I don’t wanna hang out with you anymore when this is over.
Stewie: When this is what? You’ve got to finish your sentence. Over.
Brian: That’s it, my sentence is over.
Stewie: Your sentence is what, Brian? Over.
Brian: My sentence is- wait a minute. I have to say over, even if the sentence ends with the word over?
Stewie: Ends with the word what, Brian? Over.
[the wire descends through the wall]
Brian: Oh, I see the wire.
Stewie: You see the wire what? Over.
Brian: Over! [yanks on the wire, pulling Stewie down with it]
Sounds right to me, and I worked on the flightline (USAF) for more than 12 years.
Regarding tc’s comment below about hand-held radios, I can attest they were called “bricks” as far back as 1979. The other stuff tc mentions jibes with my experiences as well.
The CB lingo was mostly derived from police “10-codes,” which is where “10-4” (and, later, “10-5”) for “OK” came from. So it’s more of a paramilitary than a military thing.
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OK, I’m going to speculate. This is for X-Factor, and PAD will use this now to toss in a “U.S. One” reference, and maybe even a “Good buddy” line.
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J.
They keep using that in comic books, so I looked it up recently, and found a Wikipedia article explaining where it came from and why it was used. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-code
So if it’s Twenty, what does it mean when you say “what’s your six”? Is that when a fighter pilot has someone behind them?
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It’s “watch” and not “what’s” in that phrase. If someone is telling you to watch your six, they’re basically telling you that you need to look behind you.
Derived from early pilots relating positions relative to them to a clock – straight ahead was “twelve o’clock”, due aft was “six o’clock”, and so forth. Of course, this again displays the human tendency to think in two dimensions, and once again illustrates why flying cars would be a bad idea (if they can’t drive in two dimensions, which they can grasp, what chance do they have in three?).
Did lead to one of the few bits of dialog I can actually recall from the old “X-Force” comic:
SHATTERSTAR: Enemies at mark 32!
CABLE: For the last time, use clock positions! No more of that “mark” garbage!
SHATTERSTAR: Understood, sir. May I kill them now?
“six o’clock” – imagine you’re standing on the dial of an analog clock.
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Twelve o’clock is directly in front, six is directly behind, three is to your right, nine is to your left.
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Also, “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00096S4C6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=mikewebersweberw&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00096S4C6"Twelve O'Clock High“, for instance, is directly in front and above you.
I re-read the newest X-Factor tonight, and I noticed that you already used this expression in that story. Shouldn’t you have asked for clarification on this BEFORE that issue was printed?
Not that it matters now. You apparently got it right.