bout de papier, Vol. 29, No. 3 (2016), p. 42
Many of us at Global Affairs Canada (GAC) have had the privilege of working with staff from the Department of National Defence (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), either at Headquarters or while on posting. While it is immediately clear to us that they are great people to have in our corner — capable professionals of the highest caliber — our respective lexicons and work cultures are sometimes less clear. As we at GAC know well, lost in translation moments are often best resolved with a bit of a laugh; in that vein, here is a humourous look at a few of the more common (or just amusing) sources of misunderstanding.
DND/CAF Speak Common reactions What they really meant Ack (in an email reply) I must scour my missive to determine the source of surprise Acknowledged.
or concern and attempt to resolve it immediately.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot BLUF (at the beginning of an email)
Closest Alligator to the Canoe (or Boat)
Let me just socialize this brief
Can you send me that on the High side / Low side?
FYSA PT (as in, I’m off for some PT time)
Ready Aye Ready (as a closing in an email, for example)
NSTR Left of bang / Right of bang
Battle Rhythm
PowerPoint Ranger
Flash to bang She’s over there chatting up the GO FOs
The meeting starts at 10:00
Ambra Dickie is Senior Policy + Brasilia, in the Afghanistan Task fortunate to work with great coll completely understand the DND, WTF?
That’s one combination I’ve not seen before.
Where exactly were you canoeing, Sir/Ma’am? And here I thought we were the social ones. I have a 50% chance of getting this right, I suppose.
Why can’t they just say FYI like everyone else? Gee, sorry to hear that (thinking: you spend a lot of time in parent-teacher meetings).
Popeye? Pirates?
New Kids on the Block—Step by Step, ooh Baby. Yeah, probably not, but it was fun to be nostalgic for a minute. Does one’s physical location really make a difference to the final outcome?
No idea what you mean, but it sounds like you’ve got some serious stuff to do today.
*An image of a group of pre-teens dressed in bad ninja costumes drafting a deck flashes through your mind*
I hope we’re only talking about a thunder storm here.
To the outside listener, you realize that doesn’t sound particularly flattering, right?
Ok, I’ll be there at 10:00.
Bottom Line up Front — approximate GAC equivalent to Summary, except DND/CAF will almost certainly be more to the point.
The most urgent priority. As in, “any l’m late, there was another alligator closer to the canoe.”
Run it up their side to gauge reactions (somewhat equivalent
to our heads up).
“High side = Classified
Low side = Unclassified For your situational awareness. See, it does sound more official than FYI, doesn’t it?
Physical training. CAF have PT built into their work-day (nice, huh?).
This person is almost certainly from the Royal Canadian Navy—this is a typical sign-off of theirs.
Nothing significant to report.
Pre-event / Post- event. As in, we need to better coordinate our efforts left of bang.
Day-to-day of maintaining the bureaucratic machine. As in “we’ve got an intense battle rhythm today; let’s get through these slides, folks.”
The term actually comes from the elite US Army Rangers, meant to imply that someone is off working magic with PowerPoint, which is not unusual since DND drafts decks for nearly ev everything.
The time between the event and the likely consequences/ effects.
General Officer / Flag Officer (DG and above would be an approximate equivalent)
The meeting actually starts at 9: 45. If you show up at 10:00, you are late. But that’s ok, you’re from GAC and none of what you say or do makes any sense to DND/CAF anyway.
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 29, No. 3 (2016), p. 42. Read the rest of this issue →
