Word: battlefield
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...tell a lot about a singer-composer's intent on an album by her choice of cover songs. The ones here, like Curtis' I Fought the Law, tiptoe toward depression, then poke it in the ribs. The broody lyrics of Nick Lowe's Battlefield ("All around there is desolation/ And scenes of devastation/ Of a love being torn apart") get swallowed and spat out by the jouncy banjo, the skiffle beat and the Jordanaires-style backing vocals, till the whole thing sounds like a minstrel show staged by Grand Ole Opry; everyone has a high time playing at misery...
...should cut down on friendly-fire incidents. There are logistical benefits as well. EXFOR is using the just-in-time inventory controls now favored by industry, abandoning the military's traditional but inefficient just-in-case approach, which often resulted in too much of everything being shipped to the battlefield...
Back on the battlefield, Oaks calmed down somewhat as the smoke cleared. "The system's good," he conceded, "when it works." And apparently it was working well enough to make a difference. When, after nearly seven hours, Army referees declared the battle over last Tuesday--with EXFOR's attack stalled at OPFOR's main defensive line of tanks and minefields--they called it a draw. EXFOR, as the attacking force, went into the battle with more tanks. At the end, OPFOR had 18 and EXFOR 22. "It went better than we had a right to expect," said General William Hartzog...
...Staff Sergeant David Kuusela, who commanded an armored personnel carrier during the battle. "We took a lot of losses today that we normally don't." But Kuusela added that EXFOR's yearlong preoccupation with mastering the new gear had allowed some of its combat skills to rust. "If their battlefield technique was a little better," he said, "they might have rolled...
...EXFOR's high-tech gloss, some aspects of warfare will apparently not change. Soldiers still spent hours building sand tables, miniature re-creations of the battlefield built in the dirt. EXFOR leaders still carried plenty of thumbtacks and acetate overlay maps to use as back-ups during the inevitable computer snafus. And commanders still insisted that once the "knife fight" of close-in combat began, soldiers must revert to traditional hand signals and radio commands...