[Ads-l] pronunciation mess

[James A. Landau]

Some Pentagon folklore:

At one time (probably mid-1960's) the Army had a computer center in the Pentagon whose name was something like USADSC.  Then one day someone was giving a briefing to a general and said, "General, you sad sack..." and paused.  The next day the name was changed to AIDSCOM.

Some time later (before 1969) the financial portion of this command was spun off into the "Finance and Comptroller Information Systems Command", abbreviated "FACISCOM".  There arose complaints from people who did not like working in "Fascist COM", particularly those who were in the SS Division, so the abbreviation was changed to "FINCISCOM".  Unfortunately by this time warehouses full of computer forms had been printed with the FACISCOM name on them, and for years afterwards employees of the Military District of Washington received pay stubs that read FACISCOM.

- James A. Landau

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