Adventures | For Derek

Testing Markdown

by Derek—2004.09.10 @ 2030

I've been keeping up-to-date with MovableType's current upgrade progression, including the announcement of their Plugin contest winners. One of the winners was John Gruber of Daring Fireball: Markdown.

Markdown is a Perl plugin for MovableType which transforms plain ASCII text into XHTML. I've installed Markdown and -- with this entry -- will test how cool it is, and if I will use it in the future.

The Basics

As I will be entering Military Basic Combat Training 28 SEP 2004, I thought that writing simple entry on some Military "basics" would be appropriate.

Army Time

Because soldering is often a 24-hour-a-day job, military time is expressed using 24 hours, in groups of four digits ranging from 0001 (one minute after midnight) to 2400 (midnight), based on the 24-hour clock system shown. The first two numbers represent the hours after midnight, and the last two numbers the minutes of each hour. For example, noon is 1200 hours, 10:15 p.m. becomes 2215 hours, Army time.

Military dates are expressed by day, month and year, in that order -- abbreviated to the first three letters of the month and last two digits of the year. For example: June 5th, 2004 is expressed 5 JUN 04

The Army ABC's

Good communication is important to any organization; to the Army, the need is vital. Any message that isn't understood correctly can have critical consequences. When you're monitoring a crackling radio transmission, you can't think twice about whether that was "C Company" or "G Company" you heard. Therefore, the Army relies on the phonetic alphabet to clarify communications.

There are several versions of the phonetic alphabet. This is the approved Army version.

A - Alpha
B - Bravo
C - Charlie
D - Delta
E - Echo
F - Foxtrot
G - Golf
H - Hotel
I - India
J - Juliet
K - Kilo
L - Lima
M - Mike
N - November
O - Oscar
P - Papa
Q - Quebec
R - Romeo
S - Sierra
T - Tango
U - Uniform
V - Victor
W - Whiskey
X - X-ray
Y - Yankee
Z - Zulu

Soldier's Creed

 I am an American Soldier.
 I am a Warrior and a member of a team.
 I serve the people of the United States
 and live the Army Values.

 I will always place the mission first.
 I will never accept defeat.
 I will never quit.
 I will never leave a fallen comrad.

 I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough,
 Trained and proficient in my warrior tasks 
         and drills.
 I will always maintain my arms, my equipment 
         and myself.
 I am an expert and I am a professional.

 I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy
 the enemies of the United States of America in 
         close combat.
 I am a guardian of freedom and the American 
         way of life.
 I am an American Soldier.

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