Military Messages

From Swarm Cycle Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search

Swarm Universe Military Messaging System

   (This was pulled out of my rear end in response to a question on the author's email list about how a message might look.  It is a mash of email, military messaging, telegraph format, and my imagination. -ZM)

   Military messaging is somewhat similar to email, but it is not quite the same thing.  Personal emails are usually between two people.  Fred Wackoff might send an email to Sally Fukme, asking if she is free tonight.  No one other than Fred and Sally should be reading that email or her answer.  The email's headers make that clear; the email is from one person to another person.

   In contrast, neither the originator nor the recipient of a military message is usually a specific person.  Rather, they are offices ("Survey Headquarters") or positions ("3rd Division Supply Officer").  Quite often, the official recipient is actually a list and the message is sent to every office or position on the list.  The commander of a surveying expedition ("SURVEX3") might send a message about tomorrow's tasks to ALLSUBCOM.  The chief of a medical facility ("SATURNMED") might send a message to ALLMED.  In case of a message giving instructions, a final field "AUTHORIZED:" will give the person who authorized the orders.

   In fact, the person in charge of a unit may not even be aware of all the military messages being sent out in his or her name.  Larger units will usually have a "Flag Lieutenant" (*) or maybe even a complete signals office dealing with all of the routine message traffic and only passing on to the CO those messages that he needs to see.  "Flags" will also send outgoing messages to whoever his instructions say needs to get that particular message.  A destroyer squadron may have a standing requirement that all squadron ships report their scores on any graded exercises.  The squadron's commodore doesn't need to see those messages or even the scores.  He just wants the scores to be available when he asks for them.   Smaller units may use the AIs for this task.

   A military message isn't from George Jones who just happens to be the General running a base today.  Instead, it's from the Commanding General of a base, a position that just happens to be filled by George Jones today.  Any replies should not go to George Jones the person; they should go to the base's commanding general.  If he is inquiring about the overdue shipment of safety orange hard hats and a week later he is transferred to another unit, the replies don't need to follow him to his new post.  They need to go back to the originating office where his replacement, General Fred Astaire, is still wondering about those hardhats.

   Military messages have a standard ATTENTION: header which tells the receiving signals office who the message is for.  This could be "all personnel", "all left-handed gunners", "Commanding Officers and Officers-In-Charge Only", or any other description that fits.

   Since the originator and all recipients will be identified by short ID labels, all facilities receiving messages must keep an up-to-date list of all IDs so that they know where a particular message came from or what the correct ID is for an outgoing message.  Traditionally, the signals clerk(s) maintained this list.  For the Confederacy, keeping this list current is a monumental task best left to the AIs.

   The body of a Military message will have a series of paragraphs, usually numbered to ensure that they can be referred to without confusion. Each paragraph will usually start with a code word or phrase which allows people to quickly scan the message for what is important to them at that time:

  • INFORMATION: This paragraph has information which may help the reader.
  • ORDERS: This paragraph contains orders which some recipients must follow.
  • REPLY: This paragraph has information about where questions should be directed.
  • REPORTS: This paragraph has information about where requested reports should be sent.

(* Back when flags were used to communicate between ships, between army units, and between ships and shore fortifications, every independent commander had a staff member who dealt with communications.  He dealt with storing the flags when not in use and arranged for outgoing messages to be sent and incoming messages to be received and forwarded to the commander or whoever they went to.  The person assigned to this task, usually a junior officer, was soon called the "Flag Lieutenant" regardless of his actual rank.
   With the advent of electronic messaging, the Flag Lieutenant no longer has to deal with a huge collection of flags but instead has to deal with immense inboxes to find the few messages that the commander actually needs to see.  "Flags" must be trustworthy; a good Flag Lieutenant can make anyone look good while a bad Flag Lieutenant can make anyone look bad.  If a Flag Lieutenant must be closely supervised, he does not save his commander any time.)


Example of Military Message Format

ORIGINATOR: NAVMEDCOM [Office of the Commander, Naval Medical Service]
RECIPIENTS: ALLCOM, ALLMED
ATTENTION: All Commanders, all Medical facilities
SUBJECT: Correction of latent chromosome damage

1. INFORMATION: Statistics have shown that 73% of all left-handed males with red hair and grey eyes are carriers for a recessive gene for mongoloidism.  This defect can be corrected by injection of a set of nanites programmed to correct this mutation.  Each person regardless of rank or status who meets any two of the three known markers of left-handedness, red hair, or grey eyes must be checked for this.  If they carry the mutated gene the nanites will correct it and report to the nearest implant, collar, or bracelet.  If the person tested does not carry the mutated gene the nanites will report and then self-destruct without taking any other action.  The implant, collar, or bracelet will pass the report on to the supervising AI which will collate all reports for that facility and forward the report back to the unit commander.
2. ORDERS: All unit commanders will ensure that all personnel are screened for the above markers.  All personnel found with the above-listed markers will be sent as soon as possible to the most convenient facility with an available med-tube.
3. ORDERS: All Medical facilities will program their med-tubes to be ready for personnel with the above-listed markers.  The procedure had been tested to require seven minutes when entering, engaging, injection, waking, and exit are all counted.
4. REPORTS: All Medical facilities will provide statistical and other data on this procedure to their District Naval Hospital as directed in followup messages.  Each District Naval Hospital will forward the collected data to the office of the Fleet Surgeon [NAVMEDCOM]

AUTHORIZED: Admiral Amanda Crush, Fleet Surgeon



Examples of Routing Lists

  • ALL - All commands, facilities, and units, for attention of all personnel
  • ALLCOM - All commands, facilities, and units, for attention of commanders and officers-in-charge
  • ALLSTAFF - All commands, facilities, and units, for attention all command staff members
  • ALLCMC - All Marine commands, facilities, and units
  • ALLCMCFCOM - All CMC Field Commands
  • ALLCMCSGTS - All CMC commands, facilities, and units, for attention of all NCOs
  • ALLAV - All small-craft units, from "AViation"
  • ALLCAR - All "Carrier" ships, formations, and embarked small-craft units
  • ALLCOLONIES - The current list of all Confederacy colonies
  • ALLCS - All commands, facilities, and units, for attention of all Civil Service Officers
  • ALLFAUX - All Fleet Auxiliary commands, facilities, and units
  • ALLFLAG - All Flag officers (Admirals, Generals, Vicarius, Colony Governors, and District Commanders)
  • ALLFS - All "Fire Support" vessels, CN ships supporting CMC operations
  • ALLLOCAL - everyone in the same location as the originator
  • ALLLS - All "Landing Ships", CN ships carrying CMC landing forces
  • ALLMED - a list of every medical facility in the whole Confederacy.  Since almost all larger ships, bases, and fixed facilities have med-tubes and at least a med-tech, this is really "everywhere with a med-tube".
  • ALLNAV - All Navy commands, facilities, and units
  • ALLNSHIPS - All Navy Ships
  • ALLSHIPS - All ships in commission (Navy, Fleet Aux, and local)
  • ALLSTAR - All starships, vessels capable of FTL
  • ALLSIG - All facilities, for attention of communications personnel
  • ALLSPON - All commands, facilities, and units, for attention of all sponsors
  • ALLSUBCOM - the list of all subordinate commands.  Every supervisory command will have its own different list of all commands which are subordinate to it
  • ALLTRANS - All transports, vessels transporting passengers



(Someday this will be a navigation template.  It will provide a bar across the bottom of each article with useful navigation links.  Until then, this is just a placeholder to get rid of all the red "broken link" indicators. -ZM User (talk) 10:00, 3 May 2024 (PDT))

Retrieved from "http://tampaad.net/index.php?title=Military_Messages&oldid=295"