SWAT

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, till I read this post, I was under the impression that SWAT
still stood for "Special Weapons Attack Team." I was living in Los
Angeles in 1965 and I recall the suggestion being made, but I didn't
bother follow the story. It was too depressing.

-Wilson

On 11/29/06, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      SWAT
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  OED has 19 July 1968.
>
> Secret Program to Put Down Riots Drafted by L.A. Police
> JOHN DREYFUSS
> Los Angeles Times; Feb 15, 1968; pg. A1
>
> " "We have a SWAT team," he said.  "That's our Special Weapons and
> Tactics team which breaks into four-man groups -- a rifleman whose
> weapon has telescopic sights, a spotter and two officers with shotguns
> and handguns to provide cover fire." "
>
> The term may be a couple of years older.  Glenn Reynolds just wrote in
> Popular Mechanics
> http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4203345.html (28
> Nov 2006):
> "In 1965 Los Angeles inspector Daryl Gates, who later became police
> chief, signed off on the formation of a specially trained and equipped
> unit that he wanted to call the Special Weapons Attack Team. (The name
> was changed to the more palatable Special Weapons and Tactics). "
>
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>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam Clemens

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