QFC

Short for Quality Food Centers, QFC is a supermarket chain founded by Fred Meyer, Jr., centered mainly in Seattle and Portland. Founded in 1958, QFC has grown from six stores to become the largest chain in Western Washington. The Bellevue based company merged with Kroger in 1999, creating the largest grocery company in the United States.

QFC sells Rainier Beer for around $6.99 a case, which I thought was really cool, but from what I've heard from Seattle residents, QFC tends to be the priciest of the grocery chains in the Pacific Northwest. But the stores are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and they also have a Boat Supply Department, which delivers groceries to coastal towns from Washington to Alaska. QFC is also active in the community, sponsoring teachers, recycling programs, and a pasta drive for needy families.

An Army acronym for Quadrant Fire Control. The QFC is a nifty device found within the turret of older tanks and is used for indirect shooting. Indirect shooting is the technique of "lobbing" shells onto an enemy target (similar to the artillery) whereas direct shooting is where the main armament is shot directly at the target. The QFC basically allows the gunner to determine the proper angle to place the main armament at in order to lob shells onto a target that is beyond the range of direct fire.

The QFC consists of two scales, one with an elevation/depression scale measured in mils and the other listing ranges for the various types of main armament and a bubble, used as a level. The entire system is connected to the main armament such that given the setting of the two scales, the bubble will be level when the gun is at the correct angle. The actual mathematics of the system is quite easy, except I can't rememeber the names of all the various angles.

In modern tanks, this is all taken care of automatically by computers, however in older tanks, such as Britain's Scorpion and Canada's Cougar (which uses the Scorpion turret), the QFC is an integral part of being a gunner. The QFC also uses a radioactive element to allow the scales to be read in the dark.