Sky Masters

Sugar pills — doughnuts, rolls, and other such snacks

TACIT RAINBOW — AGM-136 antiradar cruise missile designed by Northrop Ventura Corporation; seeks out and destroys enemy radar sites from as far as fifty miles; if the enemy radar shuts off, it can orbit the area until the radar is reactivated, at which time it will home in and destroy it.

Tank — nickname for the main Joint Chiefs of Staff conference room; also called the “Gold Room”

TCS — Telescopic Camera System, the long-range optical sight used on F-14 Tomcat fighters to identify enemy aircraft from beyond unaided visual range

TDRS — Tracking and Data Relay System, a series of satellites used to relay information from spacecraft to ground-control facilities without using other Earth stations; provides continuous and rapid data exchange for spacecraft

TDY — temporary duty, usually referring to military assignments lasting less than 180 days

Tomahawk — long-range, very accurate attack cruise missile; can be launched by submarines or naval vessels, and can carry a variety of warheads including nuclear, antiship, land attack, antirunway, or antipersonnel mines

Type EF5 guided missile destroyer — new class of primary Chinese heavy warships

UHF — ultra-high-frequency; primary line-of-sight radio frequency band

UNIDO — United Nationalist Democratic Organization, the principal political party in the Philippines organized to oppose the Marcos regime; placed in power in 1986

VFR — Visual Flight Rules; good-weather flight rules

VLS — Vertical Launch System, the current standard Navy missile- launch system, which uses a large box of missile cells instead of rotary missile storage magazines and which fires its missiles straight up instead of on rails

VPVO, VIP VO — Voyska Protivovozdushnoy Oborony, the Troops of Air Defense of the Soviet Union; here referring to the complex of fixed and mobile simulated enemy radar threat sites in the Strategic Training Range Complex operated by the Strategic Air Command to train bomber crews

WSO — Weapon Systems Officer, the navigator-bombardier on most tactical bomber aircraft such as the F-4, A-6, F-111, etc.

ZSU-23-4 — mobile air-defense gun unit built in the Soviet Union and used all over the world, consisting of four rapid-firing radar- guided 23-millimeter cannons; deadly to all aircraft which come within range

Zuni — standard unguided attack rocket carried by tactical fighter attack aircraft

Actual News Excerpts

Date: 5/21/90

PENTAGON DECLARES PHILIPPINES

“IMMINENT DANGER” AREA

WASHINGTON (MAY 18) UPI — The Defense Department designated the Philippines Friday as an area of imminent danger for special pay purposes, which means US military and civilian employees will be getting slightly larger paychecks.

The Pentagon said it took the action because of the “current unstable conditions” in the Philippines, where three American servicemen have been killed in politically motivated attacks this month alone.

Imminent danger pay is an additional 15 percent of basic salary for American citizens who are department employees and $110 per month for all US military personnel.

Date: 5/22/90

“Well, first in my mind, the communist dream in the Philippines will always be there. The communist dream of taking over and dominating the country will always be there because you can’t kill an ideology.”

General Renato S. de Villa, Chief of Staff, Armed Forces of the Philippines, from Asia-Pacific Defense Forum, U.S. Pacific Command, Winter 1989-1990