Chapter 15 How to Tell Your WACs from Your AWACS:
A Military Primer

Given that Reacher is ex-Army, and that Lee Child never served in the British Army, the question arises: Just how accurate is the author’s depiction of the US Army?

Child is more interested in the appearance of reality, rather than reality itself: He wants the story to sound convincing, and if there are inaccuracies, he’s not overly concerned. He’s interested in storytelling, not writing nonfiction, and he hopes the reader will get swept up in the narrative and overlook the real-world differences, which is why he takes flak from readers who cite errors relative to firearms in the series.

Lee Child Says . . .

“I’ve got a theory about research. I actually don’t think accuracy matters all that much, per se. I think what matters is whether people perceive accuracy.”

Lee Child understands that if you have to read a Reacher novel in one hand and hold the JP 1-02 in the other—it’s the US Department of Defense (DOD) dictionary of military terms—he’s failed as a storyteller. But with military fiction, it does help to know your WACs from your AWACS.1

For that reason, I’m pointing out some of the key military references in the Reacher novels to explain them to civilians. The entries are alphabetical; the number after the entry indicates the book in which it appears. (For instance, #1 refers to Killing Floor, #2 to Die Trying, etc.)

ALICE (#8) • All-purpose lightweight individual carrying equipment.

Olive drab in color and constructed of nylon, this is referred to as “web gear” by the troops. It’s an integrated system worn outside the uniform and consists of suspenders, belt, etc., with separate attachments for various components (canteen holder, ammo pouches, medical supplies, etc.).

The Army has since replaced it with MOLLE (modular lightweight load-carrying equipment).

Armor Branch (#8) • Armor branch (not “Armored” branch as Child terms it) is one of the combat arms in the US Army. Its firepower consists of battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, tank destroyers, and infantry/cavalry fighting vehicles. (Tankers are informally called “treadheads” by troopers.)

The Armor branch school is located at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Fort Irwin, California, is the home base of the National Training Center, where force-on-force battles are fought; the advantage, of course, goes to the home team who knows the terrain and utilizes tactics to take advantage of it. Brigade combat teams (straight-leg infantry, mechanized infantry, or armored brigade) are tested in extended field problems that run several days, usually around the clock, to simulate combat conditions.

In The Enemy, the plot revolves around a major general who never makes it to Fort Irwin to attend a conference put on by Armor branch.

Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico (#4) • Now called the Behavioral Research and Instruction Unit (BRIU), the Behavioral Science Unit was established in 1972. It is “concerned with gaining a better understanding of human behavior. The BRIU focuses specifically on criminal human behavior in an attempt to better understand criminals—who they are, how they think, why they do what they do—as a means to help solve crimes and prevent criminal activity.”2

Beirut Bombing (#2) • When on active duty, the only time Reacher was seriously wounded was when a fragment of a jawbone struck him during the 1983 Beirut bombing.

Examples of Abrams Main Battle Tanks. In The Enemy, Reacher finds himself at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin on the receiving end of 120 mm high-explosive shells fired from several Abrams tanks.

There was a simultaneous bombing on two separate buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing the First Battalion, Eighth Marines; 220 Marines, eighteen sailors, and three soldiers were killed by a terrorist who drove a truck filled with 21,000 pounds of TNT that crashed into the barracks, exploded, and collapsed the building into rubble.

Identifying the victims afterward was difficult, since in many cases identification had to be made from body fragments as small as a finger, which were separated, cleaned, and sent back stateside. (When I was in the National Guard, as a battery commander in a field artillery unit, one of my men had been there and saw the carnage. He specifically remembered recovering one finger, which was sent back for fingerprinting. The care and attention they rendered, trying to recover and identify parts for every service member, was outstanding.)

In the wake of that preventable disaster, military installations implemented enhanced physical security measures involving staggered concrete barriers and checkpoints sufficiently distanced to ensure that even if a bomb goes off, damage is minimized and self-contained.

Bell AH-1 (#11) • An attack helicopter made by Bell, replaced by the AH-64 Apache. Used extensively during the Vietnam War, the Cobra helicopter gunship was configurable with miniguns (7.62 mm rounds), grenade launchers (40 mm), rockets, and a cannon (20 mm). Totally badass. It’s capable of flying at 172 mph, with a range of 315 miles, and at a ceiling of 12,200 feet.

Casualty Notification (#3) • Human Resources Command’s Casualty Notification Center is responsible for initiating prompt contact with the family of a deceased service member.

During the Vietnam War, casualty notification was handled in a sterile fashion by sending a telegram by Western Union.

From one such generic telegram sent to the widow of a soldier killed during the Vietnam War:

May I express my deep concern and shock on the death of your husband. His work was in the best tradition of a democracy—helping his fellow citizens register and vote.

His family can be justly proud as his work was a fine example of good citizenship.

It is my hope that your faith and the support of your family and loved ones will assist you in this time of great need.

Mrs. Johnson joins me in expressing our deep sympathy.

[President] Lyndon B. Johnson.

The notification protocol has necessarily changed and become more humane. When the Human Resources Command’s Casualty Notification Center gets official word that a soldier has died, the military sends out representatives within four hours of notification, a two-person team: a casualty notification officer and a chaplain.

Understandably, it’s an emotionally devastating event. One Army chaplain recalled, “I’ve picked family members off the floor. I’ve sat and held them as they’ve rocked and cried.”3

CGUSAHRC (#13) • Commanding General, United States Army, Human Resources Command.

MG Thomas C. Seamands is the current CG of USAHRC. He commands the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), the Standby Reserve, and the Retired Reserve.

The HRC “provides the full spectrum of human resources services to Soldiers, Veterans, Retirees, and Army Families . . . We manage Soldier schooling, promotions, awards, records, transfers, appointments, benefits, retirement . . . one agency managing Soldiers’ entire careers from the day they enter Basic Training until retirement and beyond.”4

The HRC is located at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

C-141 Starlifter (#3) • No longer in service, this unarmed, jet-powered transport plane could fly up to 567 mph, with a 41,000-foot ceiling and a ferry range of 6,140 miles. Used extensively during the Vietnam War, under the auspices of the Military Airlift Command (MAC), the Starlifter was pressed into service for multiple roles, including carrying POWs back after the war ended in Operation Homecoming.

The Starlifter was superseded by the C-5 Galaxy, which has a massive cargo compartment: 121 feet long, thirteen and a half feet high, and nineteen feet wide.

Delta Force (#8) • A counterterrorism unit based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, this clandestine military unit operates under the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). It’s the Army’s version of the Navy Seals, modeled after the British Special Air Service (SAS). Troop strength is classified, but it’s estimated at approximately 1,000. It’s commanded by a full (“bird”) colonel (0-6).

DHS (#2) • The Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet department of the US federal government, which worries about illegally obtained SAMs being used against commercial aircraft during takeoffs and landings, the times when they are easily acquired as targets and at their most vulnerable. (For more information about DHS, see www.dhs.gov.)

DU (#12) • Depleted uranium. In Nothing to Lose, Child notes that DU is used for the production of “artillery shells and tank shells.” In point of fact, it is not used for the production of artillery rounds. It’s used principally for tank rounds, as well as air-deliverable 20 mm and 30 mm rounds, because of their outstanding ability to pierce armor. (The Air Force’s A-10 Thunderbolt, nicknamed “Warthog,” which is employed as close air support, fires a devastating 30 mm DU round.)

DU is not needed for artillery shells because field artillery is an “area” weapon. Field artillery is not a direct-fire weapon, unlike a tank that engages other tanks and armored vehicles with armor-piercing rounds enhanced by DU.

As the US Department of Veterans Affairs points out on its official website (http://www.va.gov), “The U.S. military uses tank armor and some bullets made with depleted uranium (DU) to penetrate enemy armored vehicles, and began using DU on a large scale during the 1990–1991 Gulf War.”

DU does pose health risks. “DU is a potential health hazard if it enters the body, such as through embedded fragments, contaminated wounds, and inhalation or ingestion. Simply riding in a vehicle with DU weapons or DU shielding will not expose a service member to significant amounts of DU or external radiation.”5

ETO Order of Battle (#8) • European Theater of Operations. ETO refers to US ground forces during World War II from 1942 to 1945.

According to the Dictionary of Military Terms, Order of Battle is “the identification, strength, command structure, and disposition of the personnel, units, and equipment of any military force.”

It’s used in operations (OPS) planning to determine, catalog, and review the enemy strength, disposition, composition, resources, and assets when writing an operations order.

ETO Order of Battle refers to “the identification, strength, command structure,” etc., of forces under US command during World War II.

Geographical Location (#2) • Frequent moves are part of the military lifestyle. In Reacher’s case, his father was a Marine Corps officer, who saw most of his service outside of the Continental United States (OCONUS), instead of stateside (CONUS, Continental United States).

We are told that Reacher has spent most of his time outside the United States, significantly in the Middle East, where he was present at the Beirut bombing in 1983.

A permanent change to his duty station is called PCS, as opposed to a temporary duty, or TDY.

As Reacher explains to Holly in Die Trying, “Thirty-six years I was always where somebody else told me to be . . . I suppose I’m reacting against it.” Reacher is including his time spent as a Marine Corps brat, at West Point, and on active duty.

HMMWV (#8) • Pronounced “Humvee” (high-mobility, multipurpose wheeled vehicle), it stands six feet high, seven feet wide, and fifteen feet long; it has a maximum speed of sixty-five miles per hour. Depending on the tactical mission, it’s highly configurable.

Highly transportable, it can be sling-loaded, dropped by parachute, or transported by air in the C-5A Galaxy, which can carry fifteen of them in a single load.

The Humvee replaced the legendary, albeit aged, Jeep, the workhorse of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

A HMMVW in Afghanistan. Reacher drives one in The Enemy while on active duty and investigating a suspicious death at Fort Bird. Later in the novel, he uses a Humvee to drive out to, and out of, a firing range in the Mojave Desert, at the National Training Center.

Involuntary Separation • When the military downsizes after a war’s end, the Officer Separation Board is empowered to screen each officer’s record and select a designated number for early separation to reduce surplus manpower.

In Reacher’s case, his time on active duty (thirteen years) entitled him to separation pay, based on his rank and time in service. (If he had retired in 2013, he would have received a lump sum totaling $106,905, based on current pay scales.)

At the time of involuntary separation, he was thirty-seven years old.

Separation pay incurs a three-year obligation in the IRR, during which time he was subject to recall to active duty—a remote possibility, since the Army was then downsizing.

Title 10 of the US Code specifies that former officers can be recalled to active duty, but only if they are in retired status from active duty or a reserve component—Reacher is neither. So he could not been recalled under Title 10, which is cited by LTC Morgan, who explains to Reacher in Never Go Back that, “You’ll retain your former rank, for the time being. Administratively you’re assigned to this unit, and your orders are to treat this building as your duty station and appear here every morning before 08:00 hours [0800]. You are not to leave the area. The area is defined as a five-mile radius of this desk. You’ll be quartered in a place of the army’s choosing.”

All of that said, Reacher is recalled to active duty in Never Go Back, under unusual, and suspicious, circumstances. (Keep in mind that in the normal course of affairs, Reacher would not have been recalled.)

JPAC-CIL (#3) • Joint POW/MIA6 Accounting Command (JPAC); Central Identification Laboratory (CIL).

According to The Forensic Anthropology Laboratory (edited by Michael W. Warren, Heather A. Walsh-Haney, and Laurel Freas), the facility is the world’s largest forensic skeletal identification laboratory. Its mission:

to achieve the fullest possible accounting of United States service personnel missing from past wars and conflicts. Almost 90,000 American service personnel remain missing: 5,000 from World War I; 78,000 from World War II; 8,100 from the Korean War; and almost 1,800 from the Vietnam War. None of these individuals are officially designated as Prisoners of War (POW) or Missing in Action (MIA).

It is located on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, within the confines of Hickam Air Force Base, adjacent to the Honolulu International Airport.

This facility figures largely in this novel. It’s the key to the mystery surrounding a deceased helicopter pilot named Victor Hobie.

Little Wing (#11) • Lee Child refers to this as being a new SAM manufactured by a company called New Age. In fact, no such weapon system exists.

Marine Corps Base Quantico (#4) • Reacher goes to this base while investigating the murder of several women. The murders are puzzling because of the absence of any evidence whatsoever: “He leaves no evidence. Absolutely nothing. No trace evidence, no fibers, no blood, no saliva, no hair, no prints, no DNA, no nothing.”

The Black Hawk helicopter, which replaced the Vietnam-era Huey helicopter. The Huey helicopter is central to Tripwire, in which Reacher investigates Victor Hobie, an innovative Huey pilot who served in Vietnam with distinction. Though the Black Hawk isn’t as prominent in the Reacher novels, in The Affair, set in 1997 when Reacher is on active duty, we see it used as troop transport.

Quantico, located south of Washington, D.C., serves multiple purposes: as the Marine Corps’ Combat Development Command, the school for officer candidates, a research center, and the headquarters for CID. (It has a brig, a military prison, on the premises as well.)

It’s also the principal training facility for the DEA and the research and training facility for the FBI.

Marine Corps Officer Rank (#12) • In Nothing to Lose, Child refers to a lieutenant in the Marine Corps as a “one-striper,” which is confusing. Marine Corps insignia, which mirrors Army rank/insignia, does not have shoulder rank with bars and stars, as the Navy does.

A Navy one-striper, though, is not a lieutenant; he’s an ensign, an 0-1 (see Military Rank entry below). A Navy lieutenant, an 0-3, would wear shoulder boards showing two stripes, the equivalent of an Army captain who commands at company (infantry), troop (cavalry), or battery (field artillery) level. In the Navy, though, a captain is an 0-6, the equivalent of an Army full, or “bird,” colonel.

Military Rank, US Army, Officer •

0-1: Second Lieutenant (2LT); insignia, one gold bar

0-2: First Lieutenant (1LT); insignia, one silver bar

0-3: Captain (CPT); insignia, double silver bars (“rail road tracks”)

0-4: Major (MAJ); insignia, gold oak leaf; field grade officer

0-5: Lieutenant Colonel (LTC); insignia, silver oak leaf

0-6: Colonel (COL); insignia, eagle (“full” colonel or “bird” colonel)

0-7: Brigadier General (BG); insignia, one silver star

0-8: Major General (MG); insignia, two silver stars

0-9: Lieutenant General (LTG); insignia, three silver stars

0-10: General (GEN); insignia, four silver stars

(Note: A five-star general is called General of the Army, but it’s a special rank, and only five people have attained it, including Douglas MacArthur and Dwight D. Eisenhower.)

Military Wristwatch (#4) • Reacher wears a standard issue military wristwatch, which differs from a civilian watch: It has military time (twenty-four hours) on its face.

Translating civilian to military time: 1 a.m. is 0100 hours, 2 a.m. is 0200 hours, etc. 1 p.m. is 1300 hours, and midnight is 2400 hours. (Note: In Never Go Back, military time is incorrectly listed with colons; e.g., 0800 hours is confusingly listed as 0:800 hours.)

Incidentally, the military phrase “zero dark thirty” is slang for any time when it’s very dark, usually well after midnight; it’s obviously nonstandard usage.

The Army wristwatch, previously olive drab in color, with a matching fabric watchband, was luminescent, requiring frequent “refreshing” to make its numbers stand out. (The quickest way to refresh it in the field was to use a standard military issue flashlight, sans any filters, and cup it over the watch.)

The current US government watch is black, with matching watchband, and is illuminated by a tritium tracer, which is brighter and longer lasting.

MOS (#7) • Military occupational specialty, i.e., job description.

In The Persuader, one of the characters that served in the Army has an MOS of 11B. It indicates he’s a basic infantryman. (An infantry officer’s designation is, simply, 11.)

For a detailed listing of enlisted MOS, visit:

http://www.usarec.army.mil/hq/warrant/WOgeninfo_enlmos.shtml.

MP Radio Codes (#11) • Often used in radio transmissions to describe specific scenarios, this is a form of shorthand to simplify communications, usually for urgent requests, that saves time: The caller doesn’t need to explain the subject at hand—he simply states it. See http://www.militaryspot.com/resources/military_police_radio_codes for a list of codes and their meanings.

In this novel, when Reacher checks his bank balance, the amount of the deposit stands out because he didn’t deposit it himself. It was clearly a coded message, sent in code for security purposes—MP code (10-30) meaning “request non-emergency assistance.” He correctly presumes that it’s from a colleague, whom he deduces to be former MSG Frances Neagley.

The Codes

10-2: Ambulance urgently needed

10-3: Motor vehicle accident

10-4: Wrecker requested

10-5: Ambulance requested

10-6: Send civilian police

10-7: Pick up prisoner

10-8: Subject in custody

10-9: Send police van

10-10: Escort/transport

10-11: In service

10-12: Out of service

10-13: Repeat last message

10-14: Your location?

10-15: Go to . . .

10-16: Report by landline

10-17: Return to headquarters

10-18: Assignment completed

10-19: Contact/call . . .

10-20: Relay to . . .

10-21: Time check

10-22: Fire

10-23: Disturbance

10-24: Suspicious person

10-25: Stolen/abandoned vehicle

10-26: Serious accident

10-27: Radio check

10-28: Loud and clear

10-29: Signal weak

10-30: Request assistance (non-emergency)

10-31: Request investigator

10-32: Request MP duty officer

10-33: Stand by

10-34: Cancel last message

10-35: Meal

10-36: Any messages?

10-38: Relief/change

10-39: Check vehicle/building

10-40: Acknowledge

10-50: Change frequency . . .

NPRC-MPR (#3) • The National Personnel Records Center, Military Personnel Records “is the repository of millions of military personnel, health, and medical records of discharged and deceased veterans of all services during the 20th century.” (Official website: http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel.)

It is located at 1 Archives Drive, St. Louis, MO 63138.

In this novel, Reacher goes to this facility to do research on Victor Hobie.

“One shot, one kill.” (#9) • The military sniper’s credo.

Another common expression used by marksmen is, “I’ve got one with your name on it.” It’s a reference to a chambered round, ready to fire, in a rifle with a target dead in the crosshairs.

Snipers are the most highly trained and skilled shooters in the military; they are high-value targets in combat because they typically target high-ranking or key enemy personnel.

Reacher’s skills as a sniper are well documented; he is the only non-Marine to have won the Wimbledon Cup, a US Marine Corps 1,000 Yard Invitational rifle competition. But as John Buol points out in his blog, “Managed Marksmanship,” on Firearm User Network, the Wimbledon Cup is not a military shooting match; it’s a civilian shooting match sponsored by the NRA and one of several competitions in the NRA National High Power Rifle Long Range Championships.

For insights into a military sniper’s life, go to

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1411174/A-snipers-life.html.

For an explication of “Jack Reacher on Marksmanship,” see http://firearmusernetwork.com/2014/01/15/jack-reacher-marksmanship.

“A place called Military.” (#1) • When the Margrave Police Department asks him where he’s from, Reacher laconically replies, “I don’t come from anywhere. I come from a place called Military.”

Typically, every person in the military lists a home of record (HOR, his or her permanent address). For young people who have recently entered military service, the HOR is usually their parents’ home address. In Reacher’s case, because he literally has no fixed home or even a mail drop, he uses a Pentagon mail drop, which forwards his mail, though he doesn’t get much.

His reference, then, to “a place called Military” is generic: He’s saying he comes from the US Army military community, with no fixed address.

Roger or Wilco (#8) • Radio communications uses specific words that have explicit meanings to avoid confusion; these are two such examples. Uniformity is paramount. As established by the US Army Signal Corps:

Roger: “I understand.”

Wilco: “I will comply.”

Over: “I’m awaiting your reply.”

Out: “I’ve finished and am terminating this call.”

In The Enemy, a treadhead uses the phrase, “Acknowledged, out.” He instead should have said, depending on the situation, “Roger, out” or “Wilco, out.”

In military movies, the actors don’t always say “Roger.” They say, “I copy” or “copy that” as a substitute, which is also nonstandard.

A straightforward explanation of some other communication expressions can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_procedure.

SA-7 (#7) • A Soviet-made surface-to-air missile.

This is the first generation of a heat-seeking missile that cost approximately $5,000 each. It is a one-man, shoulder-fired weapon that can be concealed in a large duffel bag and can reach up to 12,000 feet. According to an ABC News story, “The relatively simple design and low cost of the missile has since led to its wide distribution among guerilla groups . . . At least 17 terrorist organizations and 56 countries are believed to possess shoulder-fired SA-7 missiles.”

Service Accommodations (#1) • Reacher says that he’s never owned a house7 and relied on “service accommodations” when on active duty. In other words, a BOQ.

Staff College (#1) • The military places emphasis on continuing education, both military and civilian. In Reacher’s case, once he reached captain (a rank of O-3), he’d be slated to attend US Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC), garrisoned at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

The course can also be taken by correspondence, which is often the case for reservists; active-duty personnel, as a matter of course, attend the residence course, as do guardsmen and reservists who can take time off their civilian jobs.

Stingers (#2) • In Die Trying, the Montana militiamen are armed with 100 Stinger missiles, which they obtained by ambushing an air defense artillery (ADA) reserve unit in road convoy.

Stingers are portable, hand-held surface-to-air missiles manufactured by Raytheon Company that have a range of up to 15,700 feet and at altitudes between 600 and 12,500 feet.

The major fear among Homeland Security is that SAM missiles might be used to take out commercial airliners, which are defenseless against such attacks.

Stinger missile being launched at a drone plane.

Suicide Bombers (#13) • Warning signs of a potential suicide bomber, according to the International Association of Chiefs of Police:

Wears heavy clothing, even out of season.
An unusual, robotic gait.
Tunnel vision.
Obvious signs of nervousness.
Shows signs of possibly being drugged in preparation for deployment.
Carries a bag or backpack held tightly; adamantly refuses to let it go.
Men: a fresh shave, i.e., if out of character depending on ethnicity.
Hand in pocket, usually holding detonator.
Evasive physical movements.

UCMJ (#8) • Uniform Code of Military Justice.

This code of law is applicable to all military personnel, active and reserve, regardless of rank or branch of service.8

For more information, consult Joint Publication 1-02, Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, at http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/dod_dictionary, or its civilian reprint edition, The Dictionary of Military Terms, published by Skyhorse Publishing, trade paperback, $19.95.

Chapter 15

How to Tell Your WACs from Your AWACS: A Military Primer

Lee Child Says . . .

How to Tell Your WACs from Your AWACS:
A Military Primer