Native America
I don’t actually write books or this column on Native American issues for a living.
At my regular job, I cover defense and homeland security topics for an industry magazine.
These two diverse beats intersected recently when I participated on a blogger’s roundtable phone call with Army aviation officials. Among the recent developments the senior leaders of the branch wanted to pass on was the bestowing of the official nickname for the extended range/multi-purpose unmanned aerial vehicle.
For those who aren’t familiar with military hardware, the ERMP UAV is a new version of one of the Army’s workhorse unpiloted aircraft that fly over battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, and use high-tech sensors to peer down on the battlefield. It also comes equipped with missiles that can take out the bad guys, if needed.
In keeping with tradition, Army aviation officials wanted to scrap the unwieldy ERMP acronym and give the UAV a Native American name. And so they announced that it would be known as the “Gray Eagle.”
First, I put on my military reporter’s hat and asked a question about the new version of the Hellfire missile being deployed with the UAV. Then I couldn’t resist putting on the Native American issues hat and asking about where they had come up with Gray Eagle. Traditionally, the service has given their helicopters names based on tribes or famous chiefs. I was not familiar with Chief Gray Eagle, I said.
For the two officers responding, it was clearly a question out of left field. They didn’t have a clear answer. Here’s a slightly edited transcript.
Army officer: “I too was not real familiar with Gray Eagle — Gray Eagle specifically, but after a little bit of research, Gray Eagle, a great Indian chief, has a long history in fact with the Army, operating with the Army, and Special Operations. So it actually is very fitting to name our formerly known as Extended Range Multi-Purpose "Gray Eagle."
Me: “So he was a historic figure?”
Officer: “No, no, he was an actual
At my regular job, I cover defense and homeland security topics for an industry magazine.
These two diverse beats intersected recently when I participated on a blogger’s roundtable phone call with Army aviation officials. Among the recent developments the senior leaders of the branch wanted to pass on was the bestowing of the official nickname for the extended range/multi-purpose unmanned aerial vehicle.
For those who aren’t familiar with military hardware, the ERMP UAV is a new version of one of the Army’s workhorse unpiloted aircraft that fly over battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, and use high-tech sensors to peer down on the battlefield. It also comes equipped with missiles that can take out the bad guys, if needed.
In keeping with tradition, Army aviation officials wanted to scrap the unwieldy ERMP acronym and give the UAV a Native American name. And so they announced that it would be known as the “Gray Eagle.”
First, I put on my military reporter’s hat and asked a question about the new version of the Hellfire missile being deployed with the UAV. Then I couldn’t resist putting on the Native American issues hat and asking about where they had come up with Gray Eagle. Traditionally, the service has given their helicopters names based on tribes or famous chiefs. I was not familiar with Chief Gray Eagle, I said.
For the two officers responding, it was clearly a question out of left field. They didn’t have a clear answer. Here’s a slightly edited transcript.
Army officer: “I too was not real familiar with Gray Eagle — Gray Eagle specifically, but after a little bit of research, Gray Eagle, a great Indian chief, has a long history in fact with the Army, operating with the Army, and Special Operations. So it actually is very fitting to name our formerly known as Extended Range Multi-Purpose "Gray Eagle."
Me: “So he was a historic figure?”
Officer: “No, no, he was an actual