Black Ops

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 10/08/2001 3:42:45 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
Bapopik at AOL.COM writes:

> BLACK OPS
>
>     I've been hearing a lot about "black ops" and "sleeper cells."  We
talked
> about the latter.  The former means "black operations."
>     It seems a bit clumsy, like military trying to be hip-hop.  But it
should
> be recorded.

"Ops" as a verbal abbreviation for "Operations" goes back a ways.  In World
War II the SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) had an
office known as "Ops B SHAEF" which was in charge of deception operations.
Citation: J. C. Masterman "The Double-Cross System in the War of 1939 to
1945" (Published by Yale University Press (New Haven) in 1972, but written in
July-September 1945.  Chapter 10 (page 131 of the hardback) refers to "Ops.
B. SHAEF".  Anthony Cave-Brown in _Bodyguard of Lies_ deletes the periods and
refers to it as "Ops B".

       - Jim Landau

P.S. Aside to David Barnhart: notice the name Masterman uses for "World War
II".