Military operation names have evolved since WWII, with the US Army using two-word combinations for patriotic titles. Vietnam War era names were randomly generated, but now names are chosen based on public perception and sense of purpose. The NICKA system is still used, but more inspiring names are preferred.
There is a method behind generating names for military operations, although the actual methodology has changed since WWII. During that war, top military and civilian commanders often chose random one- or two-word names that bore little connection to the real nature of the operation’s objectives. The major military operation to invade German-held France, for example, was known as Operation Overlord for reasons known only to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Other WWII operations had names like Apache, Manhattan, and Crossbow.
The British Army still gives its military operations simple one-word names, such as TELIC, as a form of shorthand, but the US Army often uses two-word adjective/noun combinations to give the military operation a title more inspiring or patriotic. Operation names like Desert Shield, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom are often created by mid-level military or civilian personnel with experience in public relations and advertising.
Apparently, the names of military operations during the Vietnam War era were randomly generated based on the initials assigned to each military branch.
If the subsequent initials of the Army’s military code name were ND, for example, the name of the actual military operation could have been Operation Neutral Duck, for example. The names used in the 1970s and 1980s were generally chosen at random by a computer program known as the “Code Word, Nickname and Exercise Term System”, somewhat oddly abbreviated to the acronym NICKA.
The NICKA system randomly assigned an adjective and noun to the initials of the next approved military operation, which often resulted in uninspired codenames for military operations. The plan to invade Panama in 1989, for example, was assigned by the computer NICKA to the trivial codename Operation Blue Spoon. Human military officials decided to give the military operation a more inspiring name, Operation Just Cause. This is generally considered the first example of generating an operation name with an eye to public relations and a stronger sense of purpose for the mission.
This new concept of naming based on public perception or sense of purpose has resulted in codenames of operations such as Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom, and Iraqi Freedom. The original choice for the military invasion of Iraq in 2003 was “Operation Desert Freedom”, but this was eventually replaced with the more focused “Operation Iraqi Freedom” to avoid comparisons with the earlier military Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
While the NICKA system for generating names for military operations has not been completely abandoned, many military and civilian commanders now prefer to assign more focused and inspirational names that help define, and some may justify, the mission for the American public.
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