I'll take what's in the box

So for the longest time, a way over-used, cliched catch phrase has been "Try to think outside the box"

I have never really understood what that meant. I guess it's supposed to be a way to apply new ideas to a complex problem.  Now the U.S. Army has not been insulated from this phrase and I have been told on more than one occasion since arriving in Afghanistan to "Do some outside the box thinking."  This is thrown around quite frequently when discussing counterinsurgency strategies, and how best to win over the Afghan population.

Despite this outside the box rhetoric, it seems that the Army has instead taken a page out of Justin Timberlake and Lonely Island's playbook and put everything into a box.

Much like the  Enigma 'code breaker in a box' made famous in the WWII Navy film U-571, the military continues to create useful items packaged "In a Box"

Here is a small list of the items that the Army currently fields in OEF that come conveniently packaged this way:

RIAB (pronounced ReeAb) Used for PsyOps(Psychological Operations) its is the best acronym in the bunch - Radio In A Box.
CON 150  - FOB(Rember this one? Forward Operations Base) in a box that can house, feed and has bathrooms for 150 people and can be set up in a few short days
Interrogation center in a box - this one is pretty self explanatory (no water boarding area though - I asked)
USO in a box - computers and phones for soldiers to call and email home from anywhere in the world that can again, be set up in just a few days.


That is just a small list of the latest and greatest ways to fight a war in neat little packages.


Here's to celebrating Friday the 13th the Lonely Island Way - Step One: Cut a hole in the box.

Man, remember the first fifteen guys you saw with that Halloween costume.  2007 was fun.