Doc Jargon: Secret Squirrels

Photo By Collen McGee | Doc Jargon, cutting through the jargon that is the U.S. Army.  

FORT RILEY, KS, UNITED STATES

08.31.2023

Story by Collen McGee 

Fort Riley Public Affairs Office

Dear Doc Jargon,

My unit just got back from deployment and one of the terms I heard a lot was, “secret squirrel stuff.” For example, before we did any movement the guys would say the commander was waiting on some secret squirrel stuff to assist with planning.

I’m pretty sure I got the meaning down as intelligence, I am just trying to figure out how intel and squirrels came to be linked together.

Can you figure out how the squirrel got attached?

Sincerely,
Squirreled Away



Dear Squirreled Away,

The idea of secret squirrels comes from a cartoon character created by Hanna-Barbera in 1965 on The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show. The show debuted in 1965 and by 1966, Secret Squirrel has his own show. The segments were sort of a parody of the James Bond phenomena and Secret Squirrel was also called Agent 000. The character made another appearance in the 1990s as “Super Secret Squirrel.”

From there, the name was applied to any spy related or secretive stuff – and ultimately, was applied to the military intelligence community and the products they produce as a whole.

So, this is a case of culture influencing a military term. We have a 1960s cartoon character to credit with this bit of military jargon.

Sincerely,
Doc Jargon

• Date Taken: 08.31.2023
• Date Posted: 08.31.2023 12:49
• Story ID: 452563
• Location: FORT RILEY, KS, US