Military commands drop Indian terms from exercise titles


By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 10, 2005

The U.S.-Canadian military commands responsible for protecting North America from terrorists have changed the names of key readiness exercises to more politically correct words that do not offend American Indians.
   U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs have struck the word "warrior" from one major exercise and replaced it with "phantom," according to a July internal message from command headquarters. The message went to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the Joint Chiefs and other senior leaders. A copy was obtained by The Washington Times.
   A NORAD spokesman, Air Force Master Sgt. John Tomassi, said "warrior" and other words were changed with Indians in mind. He said, "They have been using these names for quite some time, and I don't know of any complaints."
   An exercise called "Amalgam Chief" has been changed to "Amalgam Arrow," the message states. And an exercise dubbed "Amalgam Fabric Brave" is now "Amalgam Fabric Dart." "Fabric Indian" was deleted in favor of "Fabric Sabre."
   Northern Command and NORAD are keeping exercise labels of "Northern Edge," "Vigilant Shield," "Ardent Sentry," "Amalgam Mute" and "Vital Archer."
   The bottom line: warrior, chief, brave and Indian are out; phantom, arrow and dart are in.
   NORAD is a U.S.-Canadian organization commanded by U.S. Adm. Timothy J. Keating, who also heads Northern Command. The twin structures have taken on added importance since the September 11 attacks. NORAD has new procedures in place to protect American airspace against al Qaeda-style air attacks. Its largest exercise to practice those tactics is the twice-yearly Amalgam Warrior, which is scheduled for next April and is now Amalgam Phantom.
   "We did change them because of the references to Native Americans," Sgt. Tomassi said. "And the initiative wasn't U.S. or Canadian. It was just NORAD. We are sensitive to such issues. We don't have a professional sports team like the Washington Redskins. But we still are sensitive to the same sorts of issues that those organizations are. When Admiral Keating arrived, the staff was already in progress, saying this was an initiative we wanted to take on, and Admiral Keating embraced it."
   Sgt. Tomassi said the word "warrior" often connotes an American Indian, so it was struck.
   Amalgam Fabric Brave, which is now Amalgam Fabric Dart, involves deploying fighter jets to various NORAD regions to check their response times.
   With the name changes, the military is following a similar trend in other segments of society. Some schools have banned politically incorrect mascots in favor of wildlife or inoffensive symbols. The National Collegiate Athletic Association last week prohibited schools who have Indian mascots, such as the Florida State Seminoles, from hosting postseason tournaments or bringing their mascots to these events.
   Under the leadership of Adm. Keating, U.S. Northern Command has projected the image of an organization aggressively defending the United States.
   Adm. Keating on July 19 released a vision statement that said that "United States Northern Command defends America's homeland --protecting our people, national power and freedom of action."
   

Does that mean they're not "brave" either.  Horse piss.

holy f-ing boiling hot shit, are these people that stupid?


What were the goddamn Vikings?  


Better start renaming our helicopters too.     Apache is disrespectful, better name it the Albatross or some stupid politically correct bullshit.

Quoted: Um, the term warrior pre-dates European contact with the Indians

uhhh.....my thoughts exactly....since when does the word "warrior" relate specifically to indians??

Redskins, Braves, names like this show respect for American Indians, not disrespect.

It is disrespectful to call the word Redskin disrespectful.

What idiot thinks a NFL team would name themselves a derrogatory name?

The pussies have invaded.

Quoted: The pussies have invaded.

Hell, it kind of looks like they're winning...

OK, well, we'll just have to change "Ivan the Terrible" to "Bruce the nice."

Quoted: OK, well, we'll just have to change "Ivan the Terrible" to "Bruce the nice."

NO!!!    That would offend the GAYS.  

Go ILLINI.


Fuck daley , blago, and ossama , and the french.   daley jr too.

I was listening to the radio this morning and Native American's don't even care about all the names.  Its old white people who feel bad for what our ansestors did .....who gives a fuck.  Leave the name alone.   What are they going to change the names of states and counties now too?

Quoted: Go ILLINI.

BZZZT  = Racist.

I live in La Salle Co. Il.   Named after a  ,well you guessed it .

Wasted   7.62  on the French.

The big seminole chief or whatever said that it was a great honor that FSU was named after them...as the PC crowd tried to abolish their tribe from its position of notoriety.  I would argue that the tribes would be more offended that the PC crowd doesn't consider their people (the indians) WORTHY of being a team name...

Quoted: The big seminole chief or whatever said that it was a great honor that FSU was named after them...as the PC crowd tried to abolish their tribe from its position of notoriety.  I would argue that the tribes would be more offended that the PC crowd doesn't consider their people (the indians) WORTHY of being a team name...

Exactly.

It's like these idiots are looking for something to demonize and bitch about.

Notre Dame should change their mascot.  As an American of Irish descent, I feel it demeans my people as pugnacious and violence-prone.  

WTF, OVER?!!

Since when is the word "warrior" synonymous with "Native American racial sterotype."  


We are doomed.  

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot ! ! !

So, if we go by their political correctness (PC), not wanting offend anyone; why don't we just shut down the military ?   F---tards !

Based on PC, Air Force ranks are as follows:

Airperson Basic
Airperson
Airperson First Class
Sr. Airperson

Of Course Chief Master Sgt. is now replaced with Head Master Sgt. because we don't want to oppress or descriminate, or whatever you call it, the indians.  

Navy ranks for CPO are as follows:

Head Petty Officer

"Chief of the Boat" is now "Head of the Boat".

The Army is untouched in all this because they kicked the indians a$$ a long time ago while they were still soldiers, thus they get to remain soldiers.

And nobody tells the Marine Corps what to do, so they are untouched also.

I hate PC

Quoted: Head of the Boat? Isn't that where you take a shit?

Yep yep yep, that will make the Captains real happy, won't it ?

i think they need to "flip" the air farce. put the pvts in charge and make the genitals do all the scut work. that's the only frigging way you're ever gonna get any sense out there...

unbelievable! you KNOW the jr air force personnel are just shaking their heads in disbelief!

If this shit continues to spread, China is going to fuck us up. Hard.

Quoted: Um, the term warrior pre-dates European contact with the Indians

Warrior
[Middle English werreour, from Old North French werreieur, from werreier, to make war, from werre, war. See war.]

ETA
Chief
[Middle English chef, from Old French, from Latin caput, head. See kaput- in Indo-European Roots.]
Brave is obviously English but basically comes from "barbarian" at some point, although the reason it was applied to Indian braves has to do with them being fearless...kind of sounds like respect to me.

Quoted: holy f-ing boiling hot shit, are these people that stupid? What were the goddamn Vikings?   Better start renaming our helicopters too.     Apache is disrespectful, better name it the Albatross or some stupid politically correct bullshit.

Nail, head, whack!  

Quoted: If this shit continues to spread, China is going to fuck us up. Hard.

Your right...

and as far as china go's...


Bring it!..

Good thing we didn't have this P.C. B.S. back when it was fashionable to take their land.

History re-written:

"Dear Mr. Native American.  Sir, we were wondering if you might be willing to donate your land to allow the spread of Western Civilization?   We will of course allow you to live on the driest 1%, and give you all a small stipend"

"uhhh......NO!"


"Well, good day then, and thank you for your time.  C'mon then old chaps, lets get back in the boats"

I've always considered the use of terms referring to native Americans to be out of respect for their prowess and ability as "warriors."