# Does JADE HELM have a meaning?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jade-helm-have-a-meaning/725707
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 20, 2015, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jade-helm-have-a-meaning/725707 "2015-07-20T17:44:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2015, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jade-helm-have-a-meaning/725707/21 "2015-07-20T21:55:49Z")
Perhaps you’re right.
I know that when I was in USAF there were routine peacetime deployments of ANG or AFRES assets to various locations on a rotating schedule. e.g. three airplanes and associated crews and ground support would deploy from the US to, e.g., Guam for a month and then be replaced by the next group from somewhere else in the States.
And these ops were always named “CategoryWord RandomWord”. DoD combined service deployments seemed to follow a similar pattern. Not sure these fall into the same “bucket” as true exercises though.
Regardless of these details, we all agree the OP’s backronym is pure nuttery.
---
### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jade-helm-have-a-meaning/725707/22 "2015-07-20T22:16:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Does JADE HELM have a meaning?
Decoded it means: CASTRATE ALL TEXANS PRONTO! ALL HAIL OBAMA. EAT MORE LARD.
:D:cool:
---
### Author:  [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2015, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jade-helm-have-a-meaning/725707/23 "2015-07-20T22:38:01Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> JOINT ASSISTANT for DEPLOYMENT and EXECUTION
I did just find that in a .mil published document with no reference in the document to said joint assistant being involved in this exercise. Theyvpulled that piece from a real acronym even if it’s just a coincidence that it was used in this case. I started to dig a touch further and then stopped. I need a crazy shower now.
---
### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2015, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jade-helm-have-a-meaning/725707/24 "2015-07-20T22:51:21Z")
> [@MikeS](#):
>
> The U.S. invasion of Panama was called [“Operation Blue Spoon”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Panama#Origin_of_the_name_.22Operation_Just_Cause.22) before being renamed “Operation Just Cause” for political reasons.
And called by some Panamanians “Just Because.”
---
### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2015, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jade-helm-have-a-meaning/725707/25 "2015-07-21T00:10:58Z")
> [@Smapti](#):
>
> Seems to me that if the government were planning a secret operation to crack down on domestic dissidents, they wouldn’t hide clues in the name of the operation.
You do realize that one of reasons that Denver International Airport is thought to be headquarters of the New World Order is because the cornerstone has on it “[New World Airport Commission](http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/imagenes_sociopol/dulcebook_denver01.jpg)”
---
### Author:  [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2015, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jade-helm-have-a-meaning/725707/26 "2015-07-21T01:58:29Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> JOINT ASSISTANT for DEPLOYMENT and EXECUTION
This is an accurate acronym, but it’s for software dated around 2001. Here is a [PDF file](http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA398021) about Joint Assistant for Deployment and Execution, the software.
Everything I’ve seen regarding Jade Helm, the exercise, has typed “Like This” instead of “LIKE THIS” so I doubt it’s an acronym.
---
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2015, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jade-helm-have-a-meaning/725707/27 "2015-07-21T02:14:08Z")
> [@Fubaya](#):
>
> Everything I’ve seen regarding Jade Helm, the exercise, has typed “Like This” instead of “LIKE THIS” so I doubt it’s an acronym.
I haven’t really been following it, since I have a low tolerance threshold for conspiracy theories. When I typed it I was falling back on my previous life.
---
### Author:  [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2015, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jade-helm-have-a-meaning/725707/28 "2015-07-21T03:33:01Z")
> [@Smapti](#):
>
> Seems to me that if the government were planning a secret operation to crack down on domestic dissidents, they wouldn’t hide clues in the name of the operation.
That’s a pretty common element in conspiracy theories, though, that they hide what they’re doing in plain sight. On one level it makes the conspiracy look arrogant, on another I suspect it’s an implied (or sometimes overt) answer to the obvious question “if this is so secret, how come you know it?”
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> That way bad guys can’t infer anything from the names JADE HELM vs. JADE BLUEBIRD vs. JADE PIZZA.
JADE PIZZA is obviously settling the New York vs. Chicago vs. New Haven question once and for all.
---
### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2015, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jade-helm-have-a-meaning/725707/29 "2015-07-21T04:20:36Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> And when was the last time anyone checked, really \*checked \*on, Arizona, Oregon, North Dakota and Tennessee? Hmm?
I did. They’re not there any more. They’re there, but they’re not _there_.
---
### Author:  [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jade-helm-have-a-meaning/725707/30 "2015-07-21T15:13:34Z")
After extensive consideration, and lots of work going over the possible meanings of JADE HELM, I was able to crack the code.
Says here “Be sure to drink your Ovaltine”.
---
### Author:  [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2015, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jade-helm-have-a-meaning/725707/31 "2015-08-19T00:39:29Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#):
>
> JADE HELM 1-4 were…not entirely successful. JADE HELM 5 is a totally new approach.
We can rebuild it, we have the technology, more jaded than it was before…
Wait a second.
---
### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2015, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jade-helm-have-a-meaning/725707/32 "2015-08-19T06:33:20Z")
Well, the “15” part of the name Jade Helm 15, I understand, is to distinguish it from a very similar exercise that was staged in, well, let’s say 2004, that was named “Jade Helm 4”.
The military and names can be really amusing. Someone up at regiment got the idea that it’d be good for our morale if we chose a new name for our firebase. Well, in keeping with the proud history of our regiment, Garry Owen and all that, we submitted “Fire Base Little Big Horn”. That got shot down. So we submitted “Fire Base Dien Bien Phu II”. Nope. After they turned down “Fire Base Balaclava”, we got invaded by a bunch of chaplains for morale building. After they went away, they accepted “Fire Base Masada”. Obviously, there were no mispocha on the regimental staff. 🙂
---
### Author:  [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2015, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jade-helm-have-a-meaning/725707/33 "2015-08-19T10:27:29Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> And called by some Panamanians “Just Because.”
Did you just make this up? It’s pretty funny. 😃
---
### Author:  [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2015, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jade-helm-have-a-meaning/725707/34 "2015-08-19T12:40:05Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#):
>
> Well, the “15” part of the name Jade Helm 15, I understand, is to distinguish it from a very similar exercise that was staged in, well, let’s say 2004, that was named “Jade Helm 4”.
>
> The military and names can be really amusing. Someone up at regiment got the idea that it’d be good for our morale if we chose a new name for our firebase. Well, in keeping with the proud history of our regiment, Garry Owen and all that, we submitted “Fire Base Little Big Horn”. That got shot down. So we submitted “Fire Base Dien Bien Phu II”. Nope. After they turned down “Fire Base Balaclava”, we got invaded by a bunch of chaplains for morale building. After they went away, they accepted “Fire Base Masada”. Obviously, there were no mispocha on the regimental staff. 🙂
_SNICKER_
We named the cafeteria in my high school the Alfred Packer Memorial Cafeteria. Then the next year someone actually looked him up in the encyclopedia. _sigh_ :smack:😃
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-jade-helm-have-a-meaning/725707.md?page=1)