Pentagon tells soldiers, "We have ways of making you talk"

[Wilson Gray]

"Numquam evocat" has been the motto of military personnel long before
today. It goes back at least as far back as WWII and that's only to
the best of my knowledge, whch is not saying much.

When I was in the Army, I volunteered to go to Berlin, in 1961. This
was an error of such gigantic proportions that thinking about even
today nearly brings tears to my eyes.

NEVER VOLUNTEER!!!

-Wilson
–––
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.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 12:39 PM, Dennis Baron <debaron at illinois.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dennis Baron <debaron at ILLINOIS.EDU>
> Subject:      Pentagon tells soldiers, "We have ways of making you talk"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> There's a new post on the Web of Language:
>
> Pentagon tells soldiers, "We have ways of making you talk"
>
> The Pentagon has ordered all its soldiers to reveal what foreign =20
> languages they speak.. . .
>
> The motto of today's army is "never volunteer" (numquam evocati), and =20=
>
> the order to divulge this mission-critical linguistic information came =20=
>
> after fewer than 10% of the troops in the all-volunteer army filled =20
> out a voluntary survey to determine how many of them speak a foreign =20
> language.
>
> Alarmed by the poor turn-out, the Secretary of Defense ordered all =20
> active and reserve troops to complete the language survey by March 15 =20=
>
> =96 even if they only speak English. . . .
>
> soldiers identified as being especially proficient in the key =20
> languages of Iraq and Afghanistan will be eligible for foreign-=20
> language pay bonuses and immediate deployment to the war zone of their =20=
>
> choice.
>
> Those refusing to take the survey will be offered . . . .
>
> read the rest of this post on the Web of Language: =
> http://illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage
> ____________________
> Dennis Baron
> Professor of English and Linguistics
> Department of English
> University of Illinois
> 608 S. Wright St.
> Urbana, IL 61801
>
> office: 217-244-0568
> fax: 217-333-4321
>
> http://illinois.edu/goto/debaron
>
> read the Web of Language:
> http://illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org