“Operation New Dawn:” Thoughts?
February 19th, 2010 | Life at Sea Shore duty The deckplates The Middle East | Posted by Phil Ewing
The U.S. mission in Iraq is no longer about that country's eponymous freedom, but the start of a new day. What do you make of the change? // MC3 Daniel Barker / Navy
If you’re heading out to the sandbox as an individual augmentee, or your ship is going to be up in the Persian Gulf supporting operations in Iraq, you’ve got to get in as many references as you can to “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” because that’s going away. Oh-Eye-Eff, as we colloquially say, will become Oh-Enn-Dee — “Operation New Dawn,” effective Sept. 1.
This change, announced Thursday, has prompted many discussions here at the Center of Excellence about good and bad names for operations throughout history. Sometimes an operation can be good — as in the Navy’s response to the disaster in Haiti — but the name (“Operation United Response“) … meh. Sometimes a mission can be awesome, as in the Allied invasion of Europe, and its name — Operation Overlord — can be the last perfect touch that really makes it sing.
Wikipedia has a pretty comprehensive list of operation names over the years. What are your favorites? And what do you think of “New Dawn?”
Comments
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The Scoop Deck – Iran’s new destroyer that isn’t Says:
February 19th, 2010 at 12:25 pm[...] (You can read a lot about them and their role in Operation Praying Mantis — speaking of “operations” — at this site by Scoop Deck’s senior colleague Brad [...]
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Ryan Erickson Says:
February 19th, 2010 at 10:42 pmI found out about the name change yesterday along with many and I gotta’ say it’s not so bad if you consider some of the names they could have used. Not that I have any appropriate examples per se; none the less, not too bad of a name.
And though I don’t recall the grumblings when we moved on into OIF I’m sure they were their too.
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The Scoop Deck – Navy withdraws, posters advance Says:
March 8th, 2010 at 5:03 pm[...] a 2003 photo illustration about the Navy’s contribution in Operation Iraqi Freedom — or Operation New Dawn, as these young whipper-snappers are calling it — that apparently demonstrates an experiment [...]