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Hello Doc Jargon:
My young son — he’s a fourth grader — asked me why his father’s military documents have the dates written as DD MON YYYY, or 6 FEB 2018, for example. He also wonders why it’s different than the way other people write it: Feb. 6, 2018. Can you help?
Signed
Military Parent
Hello Military Parent,
The truth is, the way it’s usually written in the United States and other parts of the world — Month Day, Year — is not conducive to military planning and operations. And since the Army, as well as the other services, operate as part of a complex global network of alliances and military partnerships, it has adopted the DD MON YYYY style.
However, even in Britain there is some inconsistency. For example, where 6 FEB 2018 can also be seen written as Feb. 6th, 2018, or 2/6/2018. The point is that there has never been a hard and fast rule about how a date should be written. That’s a big problem for the military. If a date is written as 2/6/2018, for instance, is it February 6th or June 2nd, 2018?
Journalistic practices have also helped continue the confusion, since the official Associated Press conventions in America have prescribed dates to be written as Feb. 6, 2018.
Military operations — especially when they involve multinational efforts — cannot afford such uncertainty, and the method of writing it in the DD MON YYYY, eliminates that problem by standardizing the way a date is recorded when planning. And if we don’t have standard dates on plans, someone might show up to the February mission in June.
Sincerely,
Doc
| Date Taken: | 08.10.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 08.10.2022 16:40 |
| Story ID: | 426968 |
| Location: | KANSAS, US |
| Web Views: | 614 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Doc Jargon: What is the deal with dates in the Army?, by Collen McGee, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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