Fire fight

I would have to agree. There is such an immersion effect that we are scarcely able to conceive the degree to which language molds society and us.

I don't have any dates or text to back it up, but I'm almost positive that it was used by the media in reference to skirmishes during the Vietnam War. Also, I believe it should be presented as one word "firefight", not two.

I think the phrase "taking emeny fire" goes all the way back to WWII, if not earlier. In the US Fire & Rescue is on the trucks, but "firemen" is the typical term. Of course the differences between the Queen's English and American are varied and amusing. For example, American's have a contraction for the name Randolph: Randy. So Randy goes to the UK and is met at Heathrow by a young lass and says, "Hi, I'm Randy, are you here to give me a ride?" For all my American cousins Randolph actually wanted a lift. He got a cool reception instead. This is a true story. And of course there are others. Now imagine translating that into Chinese. Or German. The mind boggles....

I believe British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (who had an American mother) paraphrased American humorist Mark Twain when he described the English and the Americans as "two peoples separated by a common language."!

A commonly used (at least in the U.S.) term for chasing stray balls in tennis is, or at least used to be, to "shag balls for you" or "shag your balls". As we Americans found out through the "Austin Powers" movies, "shag" as a verb (not talking about "shag" rugs or carpet, but.....hmmmm!") can have a whole different meaning in the U.K. Back in the 1970's my family in the Midwest (U.S.) was visited by my Dad's Scottish cousins from Edinburgh, Scotland. Both Dad and his male cousin happened to be avid tennis players, so they proposed "having a go" at it one afternoon. Imagine the British cousin's misunderstanding and surprise when my Mom offered to come along and "shag your balls for you"!

I think this came out of VietNam as did fire-base. I thus take it to mean any conflict the US ends (I do not mean wins) with Napalm!

"Fire fight" goes back at least to the Viet Nam War. It describes an extremely intense battle with small arms beetween opposing forces, usually not including hand-to-hand combat, but possibly including small artillery.

I, for one, have no trouble distinguishing between a military "fire fight" involving soldiers and civilian "firefighting" by trained "firefighters".

What is interesting is the parallels between the two. Both involve highly dangerous work by highly trained and skilled personnel. Both require courage and dedication. Both utilize highly technical equipment with considerable engineering involved in its development.

Both are traditionally male activities, although females have made headway in recent years, showing grace and coolness "under fire". In both cases personnel involved are part of a uniformed service with an extremely high "esprit de corps". The on-scene commander is usually a "Captain" although higher ranks may be involved. Personnel showing extreme bravery in these situations are awarded decorations. In both cases, anyone killed "in the line of duty" is given "full honors" in burial, usually with a large turnout by comrades and superiors in uniform.

Getting back to engineering, in both cases there is combustion involved (usually gunpowder in the case of a military "firefight" and just about anything else in "firefighting"). The physics of the situation involves ballistically projecting a large mass of material onto a target. In the military version this is munitions, bullets, explosives, or fragmentary metal. In firefighting this is usually water and chemical fire suppressants. Protective gear is also involved, including helmets, "flak" vests for soldiers, heat-resistant clothing for firefighters, specialized boots, breathing gear (gas masks or oxygen masks). Other equipment includes tactical radios, motor vehicles (fire engines or assault vehicles), first aid and rescue gear. Both also utilize infrared viewing equipment. Soldiers use "night vision" scopes and goggles to locate enemy movements, while firefighters use hand-held infrared viewers for locating people and fires through doors, walls, and smoke-filled rooms.

However, that being said, I could offer some alternative language:

Military: rifle rumble (too sophmoric), gun battle (wait, cops might have dibs on that one), heavy action (accurate, but not very descriptive). Better stick with "fire fight".

Civilian: flamebusters (who ya gonna call?), smoke eaters (actually, they do use that one!), heat eliminators (sounds like the air conditioning repairman). No, I think I will stick with "firefighters", thank you very much.

Do not forget the term firefight as applied to engineering.

Most companies engineers have worked for have regular bouts of firefighting to make schedule.

Some companies are constantly engaged in firefighting as a de-facto standard of operation.

Excessive firefighting results in engineer burnout.

However, sometimes management feels that it is essential to throw at least one engineer into the volcano on a regular sacrificial basis to appease the industrial gods. For this reason, Nomex has been gaining as fashionable attire among emerging engineers.

The principle method to indicate the difference between a firefight which involves the local fire company and a firefight which involves engineers is that the engineer's desks have not been chopped up when the firefight is of an engineering origin. Conversely, for a firefight which does employ the local fire department, there is rarely large consumption of hot caffeinated beverages and donuts throughout the firefight.

When a firefight is of a military origin, large quantities of lead are typically exchanged between parties as gifts to show their appreciation. Firefights of an engineering origin do not result in such gift giving ceremonies because firearms are typically banned for engineers while on company property. This is mostly for the management's protection, as it is a well know tactic for management to shoot their engineers to bring projects to a rapid conclusion, thus, the term dead-line was coined.

Engineering firefights used to involve large quantities of lead being exchanged, but CAD, Word, and Excel changed all that!

Now we exchange megabytes! ;-)