Posted on 04/16/2014 8:29:47 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
The Israeli army has formed a specialized intelligence unit that includes soldiers diagnosed with autism, a neurological disorder involving impaired social interaction and communication problems.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman’s office said that the autistic soldiers have remarkable visual and analytic capabilities. “They can detect even the smallest details, undetectable to most people,” it said in a press release.
The commander of the unit, identified only as “Col. J,” said that the success of the program exceeded all expectations. “Their job is to take visual materials from satellite images and airborne sensors,” he said. “With the help of their officers and decoding tools, they analyze the images and find specific things they need in order to allow those who are planning a mission to get the best data.”
The idea of utilizing the special strengths of personnel on the autism spectrum for intelligence analysis came from a couple who had served in army intelligence. When they put their suggestion to IDF Unit 9900, which specializes in photo interpretation and mapping, a trial project was organized.
“There were many problems along the way,” Col. J said. “The process took about a year. We worked until we achieved success.”
Joining in the initiative was the Ono Academic College, near Tel Aviv, which set up a program dubbed RR (an acronym for the Hebrew words “looking far”). Autistic soldiers selected for the program are given a three-month course before joining the army. Academic personnel from the RR program continue to work with the graduates when they are in uniform and also advise their army commanders.
In the wake of the success with the first group of recruits, the college has begun working with the army in developing programs that would utilize other strengths of those with autism. One course is for software quality assurance and the other for information management.
Asked about the relations between the autistic soldiers and other troops in the unit, Col. J termed them excellent. “From time to time I see them outside the building where they work sitting with others in the unit having lunch. It’s very natural.”
Elizabeth Moon wrote a book, The Speed of Dark, in which autistic people were hired by a company to do complicated pattern analysis. The book covers many aspects of autism. Parts of it are Joycian stream-of-consciousness exploring autistic thought processes.
What IDF is doing looks very interesting.
You are thinking of the code talkers. They were Native Americans who spoke their native language (most commonly Navajo), which no enemy person would know, over the radio to keep the communication unintelligible for all but those who could speak that language.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker
Are you talking about the code talkers? They made and used codes in their native languages rather than breaking codes. The idea was that the Japanese wouldn’t be able to translate Navajo or another native language and then figure out the code words used on a battlefield.
Our NSA, CIA, NavSecGrp, and ASA have been ahead of the curve with these special people for decades.
Some may need help getting to and from work, and as noted by another freeper, never expect them to look like and act like an elite military group or individuals.
Never play chess, bridge or black jack with any of them for money.
However, they often may be the best code crackers and makers.
Even more interestingly, his parents and several other family members were in a detention camp near Delta, Utah while he was doing this work.
I’ve read of this in computer programming development as well — amazing attention to detail.
I have sometimes wondered what I would have been "diagnosed" with, had today's Big Education and Big Psychiatry mentality prevailed almost a half century ago. I'm quite certain it would be some "disorder", and I'm very glad to have grown up without being labeled, counseled, and medicated.
Right you are! We have a spectrum girl in our family circle who beats me at board games -- several times in a row -- after hearing the rules read once. She's 11.
As posted, the Marine Corp/US Navy used Navajo Indians in battle and pre battle to talk in their native language to keep the Japanese Code crackers from cracking our code and battle actions.
The link below will show and tell you about their role in WWII.
Are you denying that autism exists?
I have three children, and one is obviously slightly autistic. She is in the top 99% of her age group for recognizing patterns and for her spatial memory, but she has social difficulties. She would be classified as gifted in public school and also put in some kind of Special Ed. Thankfully we are able to homeschool and we have positive social interactions with various small groups. When swaths of people have the exact same symptoms, it's a fairly straightforward diagnosis. And it helps greatly to know what she's feeling and how she's processing things, it doesn't hurt.
One set of grandparents told me to beat my daughter black and blue for her "bad behavior." I've been told by her other set of grandparents that she also must be demon-possessed, because she has "aspie eyes." You know what? I recognize her for what she CAN accomplish and I try very hard to strengthen her skills in those areas. And I stay away from people who have no idea how complicated the human brain is.
I wrote exactly what I wrote, neither more nor less.
DO NOT DARE to read into it what I did NOT write.
Now, do you have a meaningful reply to my comment, or are you just venting?
LOL!
I don’t know anything about autism but anyone who would tell you to mistreat your daughter in that way has something very wrong with them.
I know. People who don’t understand the autism spectrum think it can be solved with enough spankings.
No, we just used people who spoke Navajo, which is completely impossible to learn for outsiders.
Raymond: 12:30 is lunch.
Charlie: What do you want?
Raymond: Wednesday is fish sticks. Green lime jello for dessert.
Charlie: You want another apple juice?
Raymond: No, orange soda. Uh oh, it's 12:31.
There was a touch more to it than that ... since the Navajo language has no words for airplanes, ships, tanks, the various units of modern military organization, etc. existing Navajo words were somewhat arbitrarily assigned to these things. The result was a code wrapped in a cipher ... that didn't need a machine to operate.
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