25 March 2010

A CAU by any other name ...


The Crew Access Units (CAU, pronounced "cow") that network into the Command Post Platform (C.P.P.) vehicles I mentioned yesterday are touch-screen machines that sit on our desks in the Tactical Operations Center (TOC, pronounced "talk"). They feature noise-cancelling headphones, through which one can listen to various radio networks, phone conversations, and intercom chatter. Using a CAU, you can call people on a radio that's physically located many tents away from you. You can call people on the phone. You can even text-message them, albeit using an ungainly and agonizingly slow user-interface.

Hey, kids--could you show Sherpa how 2 abbreviate "incoming artillery" on this here ding-dang iPhone contraption?

Since we live here in hog heaven and cow county, Iowa, and since our unit patch is a red bull, I found myself incapable of fighting the urge to udder every bovine pun I could come up with during CAU training:
Of course, my absolute favorite in this bull run of punnery was the visual one captured above, with a CAU laying on its side ...

"CAU-tipping."

7 comments:

  1. How to key in 'Incomming' - 'OOOFFFFFFFFFFFFk'

    How about, 'The CU had better keep her head down when the Red Bull is around.'

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  2. The tech shit has come so far since my days as a grunt in the late 1970's.
    I had to hump a PRC 77...the "encryption" device was about 30 pounds and had to be set by hand.

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  3. I sensed the "CAU-tipping" from the first acronym. Weird. And funny.

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  4. Somebody in SherpaLand STOP ME!!!!

    But by the grace of Dr. Seuss, I cannot resist asking...

    Have you ever seen a PURPLE CAU???

    AUCH!

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  5. Oooh those puns are Offal!!

    Pax
    [now having a strange desire to watch the movie "Twister"
    Jo: [cow flies by in the storm] Cow.
    [cow flies by in the storm]
    Jo: 'Nother cow.
    Bill: Actually I think that was the same one.]

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  6. Wow! So much lovin' for the punnin'. I have to wonder, though, whether all this punnery is CAUs ... or effect?

    @ Coffeypot: Another potential Red Bull T-shirt slogan!

    @ CI-Roller Dude: Right with you on the PRC-77, brother. But only the guy humping the M-60 got credit for taking on more than his fair share, am I right?

    @ Everaltered: You know me too well.

    @ KKruse: Hau abaut: "Hau Nau Braun CAU?"

    @ Paxford: After some rumination (subtle, no?), I am totally adding "offal" to my ammo box of bovine puns!

    'Nother CAU ...

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  7. Gotta go. Someone just found an old LP of the CAUsills. The music is bovine.

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