George,

In reference to Mary MacNeil's brand name comments.

"D" Day was D for Day, nothing more. The actual Normandy Invasion was called Operation Overlord, a rather impressive brand name, as it turns out.

All of the operations had a code name. In current military naming procedures, operations and exercises have but few three letter combinations to start with. The combinations are allocated to enable anyone with the unclassified code to know exactly what level and what component is conducting the exercise. Names are given at the lowest level and, in the case of a classified operation, should not attempt to be descriptive in any way.

I suspect these rules go out the window at the highest levels.

Al Weed (electronic mail, September 30, 2001).