Last week we were wondering about the origin of the name “Blue Lantern” for the pre-shipment and post-shipment verification program conducted by DDTC. Andrea Fekkes Dynes of General Dynamics, via “The Daily Bugle,” has an idea:

Last Friday’s Daily Bugle contained an article about State/DDTC’s Blue Lantern program [Daily Bugle, 26 Jan 2007, Item #10, Counsel Comment (R. Clifton Burns): “Beware My Power, Blue Lantern’s Light!”]. That article posed the question about the possible origin of the term “Blue Lantern.” One of our export compliance officials (who works in the UK) provides a possible answer: “It probably originates from the UK as, before about 1970, every police station in the UK had a blue lantern illuminated outside which signified to all the ‘strong arm of the law’.”

That seems a reasonable possibility, although I wonder whether anyone at DDTC had any familiarity with UK police stations during that period.

I’m beginning to suspect that it might actually be a reference to the comics. In an ODTC (yes, you remember the ODTC) presentation on the Blue Lantern program, there is a reference to three government wide end-use monitoring programs: Blue Lantern (ODTC), Golden Sentry (Department of Defense) and Green Lantern (Department of Commerce). The Sentry, in case you have forgotten, is a Marvel comics character whose clothing changes into the Golden Sentry suit when he undergoes the obligatory transformation from ordinary Robert Reynolds to a superhero.

The mystery thickens.

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