Galactica Actual
by Rob - June 8th, 2008.Filed under: Uncategorized.
Now, if that isn’t a cool-sounding title! On the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, Admiral Adama refers to himself on the wireless as “Galactica Actual.” After failing to find any reference to this being an actual bit of military protocol — referring to a vessel’s commander as its “Actual” — I asked my friend Kirstin Morrell, who knows all things about the military, to see if it’s a real term. And she found this reference, that says “Actual” was a radio-talk term used by Marines in Vietnam for Unit Commander. Here’s the link.
Just don’t be surprised if next time you phone me, I answer the phone by saying, “SFWRITER.COM Actual.” :)
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
January 14th, 2010 at 2:29 am
I believe the reference is correct, kinda.
Similarly to how any USAF aircraft carrying the president is considered "Air Force One," the designation of "Galactica actual" is used to define a ship that isn't literally Galactia, but is carrying the commander.
IE, shorthand for "This is the commander speaking but from a different ship for which I hold command."
I could be wrong. The best way to know, I suppose, is to find an example of the term being used by Adama while actually ON Galactica (in which case my interpretation would make no sense).
January 14th, 2010 at 2:40 am
Sorry, Jason, but Adama uses the term "Galactica Actual" for himself frequently while on board Galactica — dozens of times in the series.
February 3rd, 2010 at 8:10 pm
Thanks very much for tracking this down. It's been bugging me for a long time, but like bowietrek I never did anything about it. It sounded like the sort of thing that would have had some legitimate derivation somewhere.