PU, DU, KU, and RHDDC

I've been sitting in a lot of classes recently, learning how to use several pieces of software. I'll probably use this week's software before I use any of the others, as this week we're learning how to use the Blue Force Tracker, or BFT.

The purpose of your BFT is to give everyone outside the wire an accurate picture of where the friendly and enemy units are located. It is mounted in your vehicles and updates regularly, tracking the movement of all the friendly units around you. Your screen displays a map with a bunch of blue circles on it, representing friendly units, and red triangles, representing enemy contact.

When you see a bump in a distant hill, you can check your BFT and see if there are any friendly units moving around on that hill. If not, you can be fairly certain it is a civilian or enemy unit. Of course, the enemy doesn't carry BFT with them; your BFT only displays enemy contact reported by friendly units.

It's got a text messaging feature, allowing you to talk to anyone else you can see. It also allows you to easily send reports back to the operations center instead of calling them in over the radio.

It's an incredibly useful piece of software, but unfortunately the class isn't all that thrilling. The acronyms above showed up on a powerpoint slide this morning, and at first I had no clue what they stood for. Eventually I found out. They are the hard drive, keyboard, processor, and screen. But can we call them the hard drive, keyboard, processor, and screen? Of course not! They are the Removable Hard Disk Drive Cartridge, Keyboard Unit, Processing Unit, and Display Unit. Just a short lesson in military acronyms. :-)

I am happy to report that the situation with my Marines and the adverse paperwork has been resolved. I've learned quite a few lessons for next time, although I have to admit I spend a certain amount of time each day wondering what kind of craziness is coming down the pipe next.