red-one report

red-one report
 n.— «An Army regiment apparently does not move an inch before knowing that everyone is accounted for. The process, known as a red-one report, is not unlike what you did in elementary school at the morning bell. And these warriors line up alphabetically about as smoothly as does a sixth grade class.» —“Long road into Iraq is only the beginning” by Bill Johnson in Baghdad, Iraq Rock Mountain News (Denver, Colo.) Nov. 6, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

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2 comments
  • Dunno. It strikes me that the journalist may not have understood the term correctly, in part because to call a “report” a “process” doesn’t quite work. Also, I’m not sure of the relationship between the Army’s 1st Infantry Division and the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment.

Further reading

Blessing Box (episode #1613)

Is there such a thing as a “neutral” accent, and if so what does it sound like? And that quirk in the way southern Californians talk about freeways. They’ll say things like take the 405 and get on the 8. Why the definite article...