Sandbaggers: Re: What's in a name? + more on the real SIS

Re: What's in a name? + more on the real SIS

Jason Potapoff (jpotapof@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca)
Thu, 30 Jan 1997 19:05:39 -0700 (MST)

On Thu, 30 Jan 1997, Philip H. J. Davies wrote:

> On Thu, 30 Jan 1997, Jason Potapoff wrote:
>
> > But it's got something to do with doing something unexpected or
> > devious and i'm sure that's why Burnside named his squad that.
>
> My recollection is that the term 'Sandbaggers' wasn't a formal name, but a
> colloquialism refering to what was formally known as the Special
> Operations Section.

Yes, to clarify. I wasn't saying that the Special Ops. was officially
called the Sandbaggers. I'm sure it's just a nickname that some people
used. I also want to take back "that's why Burnside named his squad that".
Now that I've thought about it, I am pretty sure that Burnside didn't name
them the Sandbaggers. I think they had that nickname while Burnside was
just an agent.

It's not 100 percent clear if the name Sandbaggers was official or not. In
one episiode when BUrnside doens't want to send the 'baggers to a
particularly dangerous mission Peal said something to the extent of "But
these are the Sandbaggers, they are supposed to do the dangerous stuff."
And Burnside said he would change the name to a less glamorous one if
people started dictating to him what missions to take based on the name.
That sort of suggests that the Sandbaggers is a somewhat official name.
Maybe like the US's Green Beret or Navy Seals. But i've always thought
that the Sandbaggers name was an informal one as opposed to an official
one.

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