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Those of you unfamiliar with military acronyms may not realize that we don’t say them in some kind of letter-sequence, but rather we sound out the entire acronym as if it were a word. When someone says, “SMAW” or “BAMCIS”, they don’t say “S-M-A-W” and “B-A-M-C-I-S”, but rather say “smaw” or “bam-siss”. This is particularly apparent and annoying in the film Battle Los Angeles, where they repeatedly refer to the “FOB” (fobb) as the “F-O-B”. There is one exception: the “COC”… for obvious reasons.
Point being: if you read this comic as “C-A-C”, it probably won’t make sense. As well, if you don’t know what a “CAC” is, it probably won’t make sense. The CAC is the “Common Access Card” issued to all Marines and service members alike, or rather, your ID card with the little data thing on it that you can stick into computers.
When I was making this strip, the thought came into my head of “What is Abe trying to get into exactly?” But then I realized it didn’t really matter, because there’s a lot of things you have to show your CAC to get into. Making a destination of some kind in the frame or within the dialog would’ve just cluttered up the strip, so made the creative decision to nix it.
Anyway, in other news I’ll be driving up to Portland, Oregon tomorrow. I’m not so much looking forward to the 9 hour drive, but I am looking forward to seeing my family. My wife and I are very busy people, we haven’t really had time to see family until now since we moved out here over a year ago. In any case, I’m not sure if I’ll have something to put up on Black Friday for a comic strip, but maybe if all of you behave I’ll see what I can do.
I want to remind you all again about the Movember MAX-Stache contest, don’t shave until they make you! I trimmed the beard off my cheeks, it was growing too sparsely and just looked awful, leaving me with this goatee… thing. It’s also sparse, and really shows my Spanish heritage.
If you haven’t picked up a copy of “KNIFE-HANDS!!!”, I suggest you hold off until Black Friday… hint. A perfect Christmas present for any Marine!
Have a great Thanksgiving. Eat a ton of food, even the chow hall offers a good meal on this great American day of engorging.
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