Odyssey Dawn sure sounds neat-o, doesn’t it? You might think some thought went into crafting a name that makes you want to drop bombs on Gadaffi with such panache, but, no—it’s just a kinda-random Defense Department formula.
It’s pretty simple—US Africa Command got a set of words to use for the first word in their operation title—those starting with JF-JZ, NS-NZ and OA-OF. Each set has about 60 words. So, Odyssey it was! And Dawn? Dawn was picked “as random as possible because that’s the goal of these operational names,” says Africom spokesman Eric Elliott. That doesn’t really sound random to me, but alright! Odyssey Dawn! And now you know. [Danger Room]
