Marking Military Time in a New Era of Warfare: Elizabeth Samet

How does a soldier measure time? One idiosyncratic retired officer I know used to assess his active-duty days by something he called “time out of the greens,” the hours he spent wearing civilian clothes. In the past several years, the Army has marked time according to something called a BOG:Dwell ratio.

BOG, an abbreviation for boots on the ground, refers to deployments, while Dwell signifies dwell time, or the period spent at home station. That’s not just how the Army measures time; it’s how I’ve begun to measure it, too. The military chart used to project deployment cycles is called a horse blanket, a nickname that likely originates in the chart’s large size. I have woven my own horse blanket of the mind, onto which I map the comings and goings of the young officers I know. Whenever pre- or post-deployment leave brings them to New York City, I find myself in a midtown bar or downtown cafe listening to stories of combat tours just ended or to thoughts about the unit “train ups” to which they will shortly return.