If you were in the armed forces (I was Army) there are many phrases you don’t ever use as a civilian, but which you will never forget. Mostly, because they were screamed at you.
Here are a few: “Get yo’ head outta yo’ ass troop!”
“Double time...All I wanna see is asses and elbows!”
“When I get back, I want this barracks standin’ tall!”
“Yo’ ass is grass, and I’m the lawnmower!”
“I want every swinging dick ready for inspection at o-six hundred”
I’m sure you have a few more, including Marine, Air Force, and Navy phrases.
"soup sandwich"
"balls deep"
"FUBAR"
"blue falcon"
"full battle rattle"
"birth control goggles"
"police call"
"I've got your six"
Sidewalk sailor
Lame and Lazy
Sea Lawyers
Skating
catch edge Commando
Goat smelling ass (a favorite term of endearment at basic training)
Leg (non-airborne personell)
Pogie Bait (real food snuck out into the field)
The ville or Down Range (going off-post)
Out Foxtrot Standing (you guys did good)
Crunchie (Tankers name for infantrymen)
Tread-head (Infantryman's name for tankers)
Butt Pirates (Calvary Troopers)
Rotor-heads (Helicopter pilots)
Box kickers and stamp lickers (quartermasters)
Top (a First Sergeant)
A to B (asshole to belly button, IOW crowding together)
tactically acquired (stolen)
no impact, no idea (someone who is completely clueless)
break it down shotgun-style (simplify an explanation, sometimes Barney-style instead)
shitbird (not exclusively military but I sure heard it used a lot more frequently back then)
good training! (sarcastic comment on a screwed-up situation)
"nasty" as an adjective means anything that's particularly civilian in nature as opposed to military-like, "undisciplined" basically
woobie (poncho liner)
silkies (tiny PT shorts made of a satiny material)
gouge (the inside scoop, as in "Anyone got the gouge on what this formation is about?)
pisscutter (barracks cap)
high speed, low drag (anything really advanced and awesome, the best)
four fingers of death (the hot dog MRE)
Marine bootcamp in particular has its own odd lexicon that doesn't really leave Parris Island or San Diego:
running shoes = gofasters
pens = inksticks
Sharpies = El Marko
head = grape
hands = paws or dickskinners
teeth = fangs
Overhead - ceiling
Big Chicken DInner - Bad Conduct Dicshcarge
Gedunk - junk food/canteen food
Roach Coach - Gedunk truck
Goat Locker - Chief's quarters
A.J. Squared Away - top notch sailor, has their shit together
Auto Dog - Ice cream machine....looks like dog shit coming out of the machine.
Ditty Bag - Used to carry toiletries to the head
Head - bathroom
You're going to be standing on the Blue Carpet/Tile - Going to Captain's Mast
Fan Room Discipline - A place a wayward sailor is taken to receive "behavior correction therapy".
CUNT - Civilian Under Naval Training
Pollywog - One who has never crossed the equator
Trusty Shellback - One who has crossed the equator and been transformed from a slimy polywog.
There are hundreds more.
Dick dance
Shit show
Goat rope
Bird (any aircraft, mostly helos)
Bullet catcher (infantrymen, 11B)
Bitch box (land lines used for unit comms)
Wind dummy (airborne qualified)
Dope on a rope (air assault qualified)
Clothing sales hero (the guy who was always "there")
"It's a shit sandwich and everyone is taking a bite" ( self - explanatory IMO )
Fng
Butter bar
No load
Slapdick
Unfuck(this situation)
Flyboys(not endearing term from maint. troops)
& more
Me neither
The ones I heard most from Master Sgt's and our trainers was:
- FUBAR
- Shit sandwich
- Leg - while at Jump School
- Ranger Pudding (MRE related)
Also, doing anything properly had some form of square in it. "Square away the barracks". "Square yourself, cadet".
"All squared away", etc
When getting in to formation..."Nut to Butt, make the man in front of you smile!"
Several others already covered but yeah...skating, overhead, bulkhead, roach coach, bug juice, midrats, FOD Walkdown (I was on a carrier), Wog, Lifer....goes on and on..
sat/unsat
The word Kinetic gets thrown around by people trying to sound smart. I hate it. It means nothing.
Lance Coconut
Butter Bar
Don't skyline yourself
Field strip
Army gloves (pant pockets)
Air Force salute ("who knows" sign with your hands)
Spelling with the phonetic alphabet
Gutter slut/Road whore
NPQ (aka pregnant)
His name is legend within the Lance Corporal Underground
"soup sandwich"
"balls deep"
"FUBAR"
"blue falcon"
"full battle rattle"
"birth control goggles"
"police call"
"I've got your six"
My first day at Leonard Wood was the first time I heard "soup sandwich". I was very confused. Then my head instinctively made a mental image, I burst out laughing, and subsequently was in the front leaning rest for what felt like an hour (and was probably only 15 minutes). Still makes me chuckle from time to time. Thats a pretty accurate list, at least from my memory. Birth control goggles was another good one.
Regular navy coming through
"I'm not an officer, I work for a living"
Shit for Brains
New Sea Pu$$y
Mail buoy watch - Absolutely loved that!!
A common response to complaining nonrates was "you know what USMC stands for, right? U Signed the Motherfucking Contract"
This is "4th point of contact". It's a term used in Airborne units that got bastardized in other Army units. The "4th point of contact" is your butt. In a parachute landing fall, you have 4 points of contact on landing: (1) balls of the feet; (2) Calf; (3) Thigh, (4) push-up muscle. When you land wrong, your 4th point of contact is your butt.
Most commonly (especially during night opns) though you have 3 points of contact: feet, ass, head.
A common response to complaining nonrates was "you know what USMC stands for, right? U Signed the Motherfucking Contract"
And the navy equivalent..."Never Again Volunteer Yourself"
See the bosun for 600 feet of bluewater line
Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
See the engineer for relative bearing grease
Good times...
- Ranger Pudding (MRE related)
MRE's were before my time, but in the C-Ration days, "Ranger Pudding" or "Ranger Ice Cream" was a packet of sugar mixed into a packet of non-dairy creamer, then consumed. Mmm Mmm Good.
We were doing an exercise once where we were choppered into a location. When we landed, I kept smelling chicken a la king and I was like, shit, a MRE exploded. Instead, it was our version of Private Pyle who threw up all over my ruck.
I can't look at or smell chicken a la king since then.
Mess Crank - 90 days of hard labor! lol..
"Hey Boats!" - Boatswain Mate
General Quarters
Slushing - Loan sharking
Always sent the newbies to find a can of liquid squelch or a box of grid squares.
Couldn't eat the pound cake unless it was heated up. Same for the chocolate and cinnamon cakes.
Always liked to watch a newbie open a can of Beef and Potatoes with Gravy for the first time, not knowing that the big white slab on top wasn't a potato until they bit into to it and discovered that it was a chunk of fat.
Beef with Spiced Sauce reminded me of those Mighty Dog commercials, where they brand the dog food in the can. Still, it didn't taste nearly as bad as the Spaghetti, which was absolutely vile.
I do. The beef frankfurters right? Never ate them. I would always trade to get something like the chili mac, beef ravioli, beef stew, something I could put tabasco on and made it edible. I usually didn't have time to heat them, so did them cold.
I was a driver for an O-4, in addition to my other duties. He always would insist on me getting him the Chicken Tetrazinni.
Dope on a rope
Nut to butt
Go get some prop wash from Chief
We need some shore line to tie this down
Get some grid squares
Blue falcon
Soup sandwich (was always funny)
Head (bathroom) never called it latrine after basic
Super troop
WOG
FUBAR
Shield of shame (E-4 specialist rank)
TOP
Butter bar
Princess (that soldier who's uniform was always creased even in the field)
Shit on a shingle
And so on
Blood, Blood, Blood Drill Sergeant!
Which was funny because he hated the rest of the food. He wouldn't eat chicken or eggs after being in the Army. Said the mess hall chicken was rubbery and the eggs green
My grandparents sent him a big salami when he was there (I don't know if it was from Katz's or somewhere else). By the time it arrived, it was covered with green mold. He was going to throw it out when one of his buddies said, "Like hell," then he took out his bayonet, shaved off all of the mold, and they all ate what was left.
Oddly, my old man was a SeaBee on Okinawa and he loved Spam, stewed tomatoes and SoS....
Jambalaya
Thai Chicken
Meatloaf (as long as you heated it up, it was gross when cold)
Beef stew
Chili mac
Chicken and salsa
The bad ones were:
Four fingers of death
Country Captain chicken
bean burrito
Ham steak
Jamaican pork chop
And the absolute worst one I encountered, the infamous vegetable omelet, aka the Vomlet. Who wouldn't find this an appetizing delight?
And the sad thing was that it tasted worse than it looked.
Zack had no formal education, and could barely read or write. At the pay table (we were paid in cash in those days) he couldn't sign his name and had to make his "mark" in the pay register. No matter, he had more common sense and sea knowledge than any other Navy man I came across in my 27 year career.
One of the first things Z insisted we get right was the proper navy term for creamed chipped beef on toast. He explained that only the sand crabs (Army & Marine troops) we transported referred to it as Shit on a Shingle (SoS). Creamed Chipped beef he averred was properly called Creamed Foreskins, while SoS was the frequently served alternative concoction of ground beef, onions and tomato sauce on toast.
One's mental images of those respective culinary delights comport quite aptly with the names Z insisted were correct. Sixty years later I still insist on the distinction for any miscreants who misuse the terms. Even my three granddaughters have been schooled in the proper terminology, for which my wonderful daughters-in-law are only mildly amused.
This is too long already, but ole Zack taught his flock many other arcane and uniquely Navy terms that this thread has brought to mind. Thanks for calling up the memories.
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My father couldn't even look at Spam or stewed tomatoes. As I recall, he said that was all they had to eat on Okinawa for several weeks. He never wanted to see them again.
Oddly, my old man was a SeaBee on Okinawa and he loved Spam, stewed tomatoes and SoS....
Well, Hormel doesn't sell 50 billion cans of the stuff every year because nobody likes it, so I'd say your old man was in good company, but mine hated it. However, he did appreciate it, because when he was doing occupation duty in South Korea after the war was over, they'd give tons of it, as much as they could scrounge, to the Korean people, to keep them from starving. I believe it's still very popular there, and I think even Eisenhower once remarked about how important Spam was to the war effort.
I don't know if Ike ever took a position on stewed tomatoes.
As for SoS, we had a Mess Sergeant in Germany who made the best damned SoS you ever had. As a matter of fact, he made the best damned everything you ever had. The guy was a rock star.
Nope. Marines say Hoorah!
Well, Hormel doesn't sell 50 billion cans of the stuff every year because nobody likes it, so I'd say your old man was in good company, but mine hated it. However, he did appreciate it, because when he was doing occupation duty in South Korea after the war was over, they'd give tons of it, as much as they could scrounge, to the Korean people, to keep them from starving. I believe it's still very popular there, and I think even Eisenhower once remarked about how important Spam was to the war effort.
I don't know if Ike ever took a position on stewed tomatoes.
As for SoS, we had a Mess Sergeant in Germany who made the best damned SoS you ever had. As a matter of fact, he made the best damned everything you ever had. The guy was a rock star.
I have actually, to my knowledge, never had Spam. Stewed tomatoes, yes. SoS yes. Had it as chipped beef and also as chop meat.
Yes there are people that can turn chicken shit into chicken salad.
No, they don't. The Navy does.
SOURCE: was a Marine for five years.
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Nope. Marines say Hoorah!
No, they don't. The Navy does.
SOURCE: was a Marine for five years.
Well then someone has to correct the internet then?! Whatever, I was in the Army for 30 years and HOOAH was the only thing that I’m familiar with.
Quote:
Nope. Marines say Hoorah!
No, they don't. The Navy does.
SOURCE: was a Marine for five years.
Yut! Kill!
So anyway, being shortly after 9/11, you had to show your ID to the quarterdeck duty every time you entered the building. Being young, stupid Marines, this was often acknowledged with a loud "kill babies!" The Air Force troop handler bitched to our troop handler about this, claiming it was offensive, and we in turn got bitched at in formation by the gunny. So the next day, the kid on ID watch taped a sign to the desk that read BABIES. When a Marine came in, he'd hold up another sign that read KILL. When the the Air Force came in, he held up on reading CRY. That was a good laugh....until Gunny Guy made us field day for the entire weekend.
Quote:
to get 50 feet of fallopian tubes
Always sent the newbies to find a can of liquid squelch or a box of grid squares.
Oh yes.
For us it was a can of squelch. Also chem light batteries. ID-10-T was a good one. And sent privates for BA-1100-NS's.
And one of the biggest laughs I ever had was watching a private behind a Humvee struggling to maintain a plastic trash bag around the muffler as the motor pool sergeant was yelling at him because he was told to collect an exhaust sample. LMFAO. 🤣
Assholes & Elbows
Shit Hot
Hubcapping
Thanks, all of you, for your service.
Chow – An interesting term for the food served in a mess hall. Chow was a welcome respite unless you had to eat C Rations. Anyone got a P-38? A P-38 was a very small compact can opener that came with the C Rations. I’ve still got one or two someplace in a souvenir drawer.
Claymore Mine – These were explosive devices used for perimeter defense. When it was detonated, it threw small metal balls in an outward arc, and, at short range, the metal balls would cut human beings to pieces. Since it had to be set up so that it exploded away from your position, markings on the mine indicated This Side Toward Enemy. Didn’t the Army trust us to know the difference? If I think about a few of the GIs I worked with, maybe the Army had a point.
Di Di Mao – Scram! Get the Hell out of here!
Fatigues – The standard green uniform that GIs would use for working and fighting. Stateside fatigues were different from the jungle fatigues and boots worn in Vietnam. Jungle fatigues took longer to rot during the monsoon or wet season.
Freedom Bird – The chartered jet that would bring you home from the Nam. Guys would daydream about them. Mine was a beautiful chartered Eastern Airlines jet. Because Eastern brought me home, I was very upset when they went out of business.
FNG (*##*ing New Guy) – Any GI newly arrived in country. You could tell the new guys because their jungle fatigues were very green and shiny. The longer you were in country, the more your fatigues became worn and faded.
Hootch – A GI slang term for living quarters. Our hootches were little more than wooden frames, screening and corrugated metal roofs. Double-sided wooden walls about four feet high surrounded the hootches, and dirt filled the space between the walls to provide protection against exploding mortar shells. The construction didn’t keep the rain, rats, bugs, and especially the mosquitoes out, but we didn’t complain much.
Mess Hall – An Army dining facility where food is served cafeteria style. Cuisine (Ha!) was plain Jane, in your face, and care was not usually given to ambience or amenities. You wouldn’t expect to sit and have a relaxing meal. The prevailing philosophy was “eat up and get out of my mess hall.” No mints were supplied as you left, and no one said thanks for coming.
Numbah 1 – A Vietnamization of the phrase “Number One.” It meant that something was very good or the best.
Numbah 10 – A Vietnamization of “Number Ten.” It meant that something was very bad or the worst.
REMF – (Rear Echelon Main Force) Instead of Main Force, the MF portion of this acronym was usually spoken as a perverse Oedipal practice. It was a term used to describe anyone who had it better than you. To an infantry grunt sleeping under the stars, we Engineers would be REMFs because we had a barbed wire perimeter and slept in a hootch. We Engineers looked at GIs stationed at large bases who never had to carry a weapon, and who were sleeping in concrete barracks with flush toilets and all the hot running water they wanted as REMFs. It was a subjective call.
R & R – An abbreviation for rest and recuperation. Part of a program that gave guys a week’s vacation from the war in places like Taipei, Bangkok, and Hawaii. We really looked forward to R & R. Guys who were married usually met their wives in Hawaii. Single guys frequently went to Bangkok (aptly named) or Taipei. One of my friends met relatives in Australia.
Paddy – An area where rice was raised. Rice is a plant that grows in water, so paddies were surrounded by clay dikes so the paddy could be flooded. If you had to cross a wet rice paddy you had to be prepared for major slogging through some serious, sucking, clinging mud. If you walked on the dikes, you had to watch for mines.