red-one report
n.— «An Army regiment apparently does not move an inch before knowing that everyone is accounted for. The process, known as a red-one report, is not unlike what you did in elementary school at the morning bell. And these warriors line up alphabetically about as smoothly as does a sixth grade class.» —“Long road into Iraq is only the beginning” by Bill Johnson in Baghdad, Iraq Rock Mountain News (Denver, Colo.) Nov. 6, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Advice about college essays from the winner of a top prize for children’s literature: Kelly Barnhill encourages teens to write about experiences that are uniquely their own, from a point of view that is theirs and no one else’s. Plus, why do we say...
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a word-pecker is “a person who trifles or plays with, or quibbles over, words.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Word-Peckers” I always love it when I’m looking through the dictionary and...
So is this a reference to The Big Red One, the nickname for the 1st Infantry Division recently discussed on the ADS list?
Dunno. It strikes me that the journalist may not have understood the term correctly, in part because to call a “report” a “process” doesn’t quite work. Also, I’m not sure of the relationship between the Army’s 1st Infantry Division and the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment.