Military Usage
In US military slang, "ground truth" is used to describe the reality of a tactical situation as opposed to what intelligence reports and mission plans assert the reality to be. The term is reflected in the title of the 2006 Iraq War documentary The Ground Truth and is used in military publications, for example Stars and Stripes saying "Stripes decided to figure out what the ground truth was in Iraq."
The military usage of the term is long-standing but its origins are obscure. It is plausible but difficult to prove that "ground truth" began life as military terminology and then was applied to other domains such as remote sensing control.
Read more about this topic: Ground Truth
Famous quotes containing the words military and/or usage:
“Who are we? And for what are we going to fight? Are we the titled slaves of George the Third? The military conscripts of Napoleon the Great? Or the frozen peasants of the Russian Czar? No—we are the free born sons of America; the citizens of the only republic now existing in the world; and the only people on earth who possess rights, liberties, and property which they dare call their own.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“...Often the accurate answer to a usage question begins, “It depends.” And what it depends on most often is where you are, who you are, who your listeners or readers are, and what your purpose in speaking or writing is.”
—Kenneth G. Wilson (b. 1923)