Cover me

[snopes]

Comment: I'm in the military and there's a story I have heard in multiple training
sessions, & I was wondering if you knew anything of it. The story goes
that after Hurricane Katrina, the Marine Corp teamed up with the police to
sweep homes. When walking up to one house, a police officer asked the
Marines to 'cover' him. The Marines proceeded to open fire and put over
200 bullets into the building. Luckily, nobody was inside. Apparently,
while in police terminology 'cover me' means 'watch my back', in the
Marine Corps it means to lay down cover fire. This story is used to
provide motivation for common terminology. Sounds a bit far fetched, but
I've heard it from some pretty legit instructors.

[Mickey Blue]

I've never heard this one but I have heard a number of stories that were pretty unbelievable that supposidly stemmed from two different groups that don't normally work together having different terminology for things (there is a big push in emergency services, the police, and possibly the military I guess to standardize 'terms', started after 9/11 when communication breakdown was an issue).

ETA: That said I highly doubt the validity of this story as, even if the terms are true, I cannot imagine that a squad of soldiers would think it appropriate to attack a civilian house for no good reason.

-MB

(Hijack)
So one of the terms they have is to describe that place where you want a helicopter to land.. So every person I've ever talked to about it has said they would call that an "LZ" (Landing Zone).. But the official government term for it (and I loved Hot Fuzz for making jokes about this sort of thing) is "Heli-Spot". Their logic was that LZ could be for a plane or a helicopter and I guess they didn't want people to get confused... Now don't get me wrong, I mean I "get it", but seriously?

I would never remember to do it, but I always wanted to request a 'heli-spot' when I needed a helicopter just to see everybody blink at me in response then scream "DON'T ANY OF YOU KEEP UP ON YOUR NIMS GUIDELINES! I'M REPORTING THIS WHOLE COMPANY!".. Somehow I think the joke may be consider inappropriate

Now I feel the need to dig out the book, there were sooooo many terms that I have never heard used ever that are supposed to be used everywhere now.. Of course those have been around since shortly after 9/11.. Here we are like eight years later and, while I can only go on anecdotes, most of those terms (aside from the ones that everybody already used anyways) haven't really caught on.

[RichardM]

Darn MB, you reminded me, I need to re-up all my NIMS courses.

Richard, CERT and RACES member

[Mickey Blue]

Originally Posted by RichardM

Darn MB, you reminded me, I need to re-up all my NIMS courses.

Richard, CERT and RACES member

Yea, mine is about to run up too, been putting it off. I also need to knock out PALS.. Man.. If only we could just not re-cert.. I mean some people would die, but think of the time we'd save.. Like literally several hours per year..

-MB

[RichardM]

Yeah, it cuts into my drinking time...... now where's the besotted smilie?

Never mind, I'll do it myself for the WCTU contingent.

[firefighter_raven]

Funny thing is from the wildland fire side a heli-spot sounds more "established", such as a spot used to load and unload crews and equipment and involves removing vegetation and other obstructions as opposed to an area to set down a helicopter once and pick up a patient.

[GenYus234]

Originally Posted by Mickey Blue

Their logic was that LZ could be for a plane or a helicopter and I guess they didn't want people to get confused... Now don't get me wrong, I mean I "get it", but seriously?

If I was calling for a plane, I would be talking about a "landing strip" or "runway", not an LZ.

[DemonWolf]

Back to the OP, it seems pretty unlikely that they would have opened fire without question. It wasn't a combat operation, so I'd thing that any orders to open fire, especially from a local police office, would be met with a few questions.

[Mickey Blue]

Originally Posted by firefighter_raven

Funny thing is from the wildland fire side a heli-spot sounds more "established", such as a spot used to load and unload crews and equipment and involves removing vegetation and other obstructions as opposed to an area to set down a helicopter once and pick up a patient.

That would be, if I remember correct (and its been a bit) a "heliport".

-MB

[llewtrah]

Working in defence, this one goes around regularly (often from our MoD customers):

If you ask the army to secure a building they'll storm it, kick down all the doors, shoot hundreds of rounds into the building and then declare there are no hostiles.

If you ask the airforce to secure a building they'll close and lock the windows and doors before going home.

If you ask the navy to secure a building they'll approach an estate agent and take out a mortgage on it.

[DesertRat]

This urban legend has been passed along LONG before Katrina. I heard it from my recruiters when I was still in high school back in the '90s; replace "Hurricane Katrina" with "the Los Angeles riots" and it was pretty much verbatim.