When military authors write about military events, they often use terms and abbreviations specific to their occupation. The texts they publish will then appeal to experienced military readers as familiar and therefore legitimate. Using such terminology carries two risks, however. First, the military terms of one nation are not always those of another, even among those operating in English. Working with our coalition counterparts in Afghanistan, Canadian soldiers were often compelled to convert Canadian terms to those better understood by our American, British, Danish, Dutch and Romanian partners, and we had to work hard to make sure we understood their own terms correctly. Second, when civilian readers encounter military jargon, they may understand generally what’s going on yet not appreciate the specifics hidden within the terminology. To manage both risks, we either explain each esoteric term when first encountered or avoid that term altogether. We hope our simple language will not lead any sharp-end readers to doubt the authenticity of our account. We do favour acronyms here and there to keep the overall heft of the book reasonable, but always show the full term nearby.
Spelling is another issue. Afghan words for places, people and things spring from local languages such as Pashto, Dari, Hazaragi, Uzbek, Turkmen, Balochi and Pashayi. Attempts through history to transliterate these terms into English have resulted in a wide variety of spellings with few conventions. For clarity we wish to be consistent. Panjwayi, where much of the action takes place, is written elsewhere as Panjwaii, Panjwaye, Panjwai and Panjway. The district on the north bank of the Arghandab River that runs east to west through Kandahar Province is variously called Zheley, Zharey, Zharay, Zheri and Zheray. We write it as Zhari. The village of Pashmul may appear in other sources as Pashmol, Pāshmāl and Pazmul. Where possible confusion remains, we have made a note in the text. Lastly, the names of companies in Task Force 3-06 are written as A Company, Bravo Company and Charles Company, as those were the conventions used in theatre.