The code name "Geronimo" referred to the mission's success.

[Robb]

It was not OBL's code name, and it was not the operation's code name -- if you believe NBC's chief Pentagon correspondent.

"For a successful kill or capture, the code word was simply 'Geronimo'...." (at video time 0:35)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42853221/ns/world_news-death_of_bin_laden/

[EFerrari]

1. Geronimo EKIA, to be exact. n/t

[SidDithers]

2. K&R. Facts are good...nt

Sid

[WinkyDink]

3. But why?

[NYC_SKP]

4. I think we need to send all of our military leaders and assasins to some sensitivity training!!!

Like right now!!!

:hide:

ETA: K/R

[Robb]

5. NATO, too.

IIRC the Dutch had a forward airbase called Geronimo?

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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[asjr]

7. I seem to remember (I think) the paratroopers

yelled Geronimo when they bailed out of the airplane during WW2. Or am I just imagining things?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

8. The use of the name Geronimo in the military goes back to the first Parachute Test Platoon in WWII

They shouted Geronimo to show they were not afraid. They even had a pocket patch of Geronimo holding a bolt of lightening over the word Geronimo.

[asjr]

11. Well, I was in the ballpark. I went

to a lot of war movies during that era.

[pinboy3niner]

17. The paratrooper's yell reportedly was inspired by the 1939 movie, 'Geronimo'

The yell started after some paratroopers saw the movie, and 'Geronimo' became the official motto of the Army's 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, whose patch featured a profile of the Chiricahua warrior with a lightning bolt, as Lone_Star_Dem posted, and whose crest is a stylized thunderbird:







The story of the origin of the paratrooper's cry is detailed at the link below, along with this explanation of how it became incorporated officially in the unit's motto and insignia:

Over the next few years of wartime expansion, that platoon grew into battalions, then regiments, then finally five Airborne Divisions with numerous separate battalions. The practice of yelling, "Geronimo" grew in proportion to the surging US Army Airborne effort. More units formed and they quickly picked up the yell but the great chief's name would not only be shouted, it would be worn on the caps, lapels and shirt pockets of many of those brave men. As new units, they were free to design their own insignias and pocket patches. The Army's first parachute battalion, the 501st Parachute Infantry Battalion (PIB), would incorporate the great chief's name into their unit insignia in 1941. Major William Miley, the 501st commander, gave the Geronimo tradition an important endorsement by choosing "Geronimo" as the motto on the 501st PIB unit insignia, a device worn on the dress uniform of every soldier in the unit. Maj. Miley even had sergeant major locate relatives of the real chief Geronimo to ask their permission for use of the chief's name in the unit insignia. He located them with the help of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and they granted permission with pride.



Of the dozens of Airborne regiments and battalions that formed during WWII, two incorporated Geronimo into their pocket patches. Pocket patches were worn on the right chest pocket. When the 501st PIB was redesignated as the 501st PIR in 1942, it adopted a pocket patch with an Apache chief holding a bolt of lightning over the word, "Geronimo". Also, the 509th PIR used the word, "Geronimo" on its pocket patch. A few years into the war, the Paramount B western origin of the Geronimo yell was probably all but forgotten, but the "Geronimo" yells and the Indian theme still loomed large over the US Army Airborne. This was seen in the 101st Airborne Division soldiers with war paint and Mohawk haircuts on the eve of the D-Day invasion, and still heard as paratroopers exited C-47 planes over Fort Benning, Fort Bragg and staging areas in England. Geronimo would also be sung, when Lieutenant Colonel Byron Paige of the 11th Airborne Division wrote one of the classic WWII paratrooper songs, Down From Heaven to celebrate the relationship of paratroopers to the Geronimo cry. (The number eleven comes from the number of paratroopers in a plane.)

http://www.b-westerns.com/geronimo.htm

[pinto]

12. Great bit of its historical use. And this operation depended on a quick, successful "drop"

from the hovering copters. Geronimo in that context seems to fit. :hi:

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

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[muriel_volestrangler]

13. The version of 'The Dambusters' shown on TV these days has the dog's name changed

so as not to offend. But I believe the true name of Gibson's dog was the offensive one.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

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[progressoid]

20. Ha - a guy I used to work with said he learned all of his ethnic slurs

in a military sensitivity class. Prior to that he had no idea there were so many names to call people. :)

[demosincebirth]

10. Geronimo was a brave and fearless leader. Why smear his name with

association to fucking coward who sent others to do his murderous work

[seabeyond]

14. obama the fucking coward sending the seals? because the mission codename

was Geronimo. obl codename was jackpot.

i see it that the seals were brave going into that situation and obama a good leader.... ergo honoring the name.

[dionysus]

15. i think, and hope, they meant OBL was the cowards who sent others to kill ppl. but on DU, you never

can tell...

[seabeyond]

18. a purposeful lie is being perpetuated. people who know better are doing threads

stating obl code name was Geronimo. even though they have been corrected

i am not surprised about anything said about obama after last couple days.

[Scurrilous]

19. K & R

:thumbsup:

[Uzybone]

21. I thought Obama named OBL "Geronimo" just so he could piss off Native Americans

are you telling me I was lied to?

[fishwax]

22. interesting -- that's the third different explanation I've heard

Geronimo = OBL
Geronimo = Mission to capture OBL
Geronimo = Successful capture of OBL

I can certainly understand why people would object to the first ...

[Robb]

23. Third today, I agree. Although this is from yesterday's Today Show.

Clear enough story, yet today there's somehow "confusion."

Interesting times.

[fishwax]

24. wasn't there confusion before? I heard both of the first two explanations on Monday

:kick:

[Robb]

25. Could be. I've been in and out.

Seems pronounced today. :hi: