Hillbilly Armor and Speaker Monkey - Essay Example

Letter and Memo Order No: 198603 No. of pages: 5 Premium – 6530 Mr. Ramanathan Det: Unit: APO Military Words Hi Ram, I expect you must be enjoying the warm climes of India and I am eagerly waiting to hear all about it. I think you are due in tomorrow to our camp after your well earned short holiday. You had been such a good friend to me and I sincerely appreciate all that you have done for me. The other day when browsing the internet, I came across a couple of interesting words and their meaning which I think would be very useful considering the difficulty you have in understanding some of the words and phrases used by us Americans. One of the interesting phrases I came across was Hillbilly Armor. Now don’t run away with the idea that this has to do with either hills or goats; you’d be surprised when I explain what it is- “Hillbilly Armor” seems to be a slang term that was often used by American troops during war time. This term is widely used by military personnel to describe the vehicle armor which was improvised when they were attacked and the vehicles got damaged. They used improvised material to make their vehicles stronger against the attacks. You can take our vehicle for an example! Such armor was also used during World War II. I am sure you too would have come across this phrase sometime and I would be happy to hear if you had any more information on this interesting phrase. The second interesting phrase which I am sure would come handy to you when we go on operation projects is a funny phrase called “Speaker Monkey”, the meaning of which I assure you has no connection to monkeys. I can see you smiling from ear to ear and its no wonder because it sounds quite funny. Have you heard of such a phrase? Though it does sound funny, being a speaker monkey is no laughing matter. Let me explain to you what a “Speaker Monkey” is – A “Speaker Monkey” is a person who is put in charge of using certain techniques that are vital during Psychological Operations (PSYOP, PSYOPS) These techniques are used not only by military personnel but also in the police force. Have you ever come across such a funny phrase? These people use these techniques while targeting a specific audience in order to influence their behavior and reasoning by playing on their emotions and feelings. Don’t you find these phrases interesting? Please try to collect some more information on this you come across and I would be glad to hear what you have to say. If you have any comments or queries, please do get back to me with them. Till then its bye from me Junko JUNJO HWANG Memorandum To: Fellow Writing Classmates From: Junko Hwang Date: 10th January 2008 Subject: Interesting Phrases Hi Everyone! The letter written and sent along with this memo was written to my friend Ram, a local national. Ram worked alongside me and I can say he one of the best individuals I have come across as he was such a great help all through the time we were stationed together. The reason for my writing this letter to him was because he is at a complete loss when it comes to understanding the military lingo. He is at an utter loss for words when he hears us speaking something he has never come across. So to make him more comfortable I had written this letter explaining some of the phrases he may have difficulty with. This would definitely help to strengthen our friendship and make working together a real pleasure. I am sending you the phrases for you to go through but I have added much more information about them that I thought was not so necessary to send to Ram because he has difficulty remembering a lot of things at one time. Hillbilly Armor: Hillbilly Armor is a slang term used by American troops especially during the Iraq war. They used this term to describe the vehicle armor which was improvised in order to make their vehicles stronger against the attacks. Such armor was also used during World War II. Other names given for this sort of reinforcing were – farmer armor and Haaji armor. Tank crew reinforced their vehicles such as their Stuart tanks, Sherman and Grant by welding together extra strips of tank track to the bumpers, doors or hulls of the vehicle. The U.S. Military police were thoroughly equipped with vehicles that were completely armored during the time when Baghdad was taken by the Americans. In 2003 when Saddam Hussein’s regime came to an end followed by the occupation, the insurgent forces used snipers and roadside bombs which they used to attack Military vehicles that carried supplies. In order to protect themselves against these threats, the American troops started reinforcing their vehicles such as the Humvees and LMTV’s. The materials used for reinforcing were metal scraps, plywood, and ballistic glass. The floor of the vehicle was lined with sandbags to deaden the explosions created by the impact of land - mines. While reviewing the phrase ‘Hillbilly Armor’, I came across what was called “up armor kits”. Do you have any idea of what this is? Well, these are kits used by the Army to protect or safeguard their vehicles in a better manner. The Army administration implemented 3 levels of ‘up armor kits that included – Level 1: The ‘up armor kit’ of level one was a completely integrated kit of armor that was installed when the production of the vehicle took place and this also included ballistic windows. Level 2: This level also made use of ballistic windows and was reinforced by add- on armor whenever the vehicle was in bad shape. Level 3: For Level 3, the reinforcing did not use ballistic windows but instead they made use of locally fabricated armor for their vehicles. Actually the practice of using improvised armor to reinforce Army vehicles was much talked about when a U.S. soldier named Thomas Wilson, who was a specialist of the 278th Regimental Combat Team of the Tennessee Army National Guard questioned the U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about the use of scrap material for reinforcement at Camp Buehering, in Kuwait on December 8th 2004. Do you know what the U.S soldier asked him? Well, he asked him this – “Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up – armor our vehicles? We do not have proper vehicles to carry us North. (Burns Robert, Dec. 9th, 2004) Fellow troops about 2, 300 in number responded with enthusiastic cheers at this question. Rumsfeld not one to be perturbed answered – “As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. Theyre not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time…..” “I can assure you that Gen. Schoomaker and the leadership in the Army and certainly Gen. Whitcomb are sensitive to the fact that not every vehicle has the degree of armor that would be desirable for it to have, but that theyre working at it at a good clip”. (Sonnenfeldt, Helmut and Nessen, Rob, December 30th 2004) The final outcome of this issue was that Armor Holdings, Inc. who produced the Army’s armored Humvee’s was given the green flag to increase production from 450 to 550 vehicles every month – its maximum capacity. (NBC News, Dec. 10th, 2004) Speaker Monkey:This term is given to a person who is put in charge of using certain techniques that are vital during Psychological Operations (PSYOP, PSYOPS) These techniques are used not only by military personnel but also in the police force. These techniques are targeted towards a specific audience to influence their behavior and reasoning by playing on their emotions and feelings. Who are its target audience? The target audience could be anyone – it could be individuals, groups, institutions, organizations or even governments. When, where and why was it used? All through History, these concepts were utilized by military institutions, but it has gained a professional status only in the twentieth century. These techniques were used to induce people to confess their wrong-doings, or to reinforce their behavior and attitudes that support the objectives of the originator. Who usually use these techniques? Governments usually use these techniques in their military and police forces because they don’t relish using the term “propaganda” for it may tarnish their image and may trigger widespread negative connotations. Therefore by calling it “psychological operations” they would gain widespread support from all quarters instead. i.e. “using psychological techniques to persuade a large number of people, to support something that they wouldnt normally support”. (Dougherty, William, 1979) However the U.S law does not permit all classes of military to indulge in Psychological missions towards a domestic audience. Special training in psychological warfare and intelligence is given to State Police who receive special training at Military sites. But agencies like the FBI are exempted from this law. What are these techniques? These techniques include making ample use of loud speakers through which the sounds of animals being slaughtered are played. Besides this, short excerpts from talk shows about the much hated David Koresh and other noises such as drilling are played. Such psychological techniques were used on men, women and children during the Waco Siege by the FBI and BATF officers. This was accompanied by the use of very flashy and bright lights to induce people to speak out what they know. I sincerely hope you found all that I sent you interesting and I would be happy if you could let me know if you come across anything that’s as interesting as this. Catch you later, Junko Hwang. References: Burns Robert, “Soldiers criticize lack of armor”, Associated Press, December 9th, 2004. Dougherty, William: "A Psychological Warfare Casebook", John Hopkins Univ. Press, 1979. U.S to boost armored Humvee output: Pentagon ups order after soldier’s question causes stir”, NBC News, Dec. 10th, 2004. Rumsfeld Responds to U.S Soldier’s Grilling: Defense Secretary Tries to Quell the Firestorm Over the ‘Hillbilly Armor’ Issue”. ABC News, December 9th, 2004. Sonnenfeldt, Helmut and Nessen, Rob. “You Go to War with the Press You Have”, Washington Times, Dec. 30th , 2004. Read More