Military Acronyms and Slang Dictionary

[Squalus]

I thought this would befitting to those here that do not understand our "language" at times so, I will start it out.

FNG=******* New Guy, Cherry, Newbie

[Squalus]

Hooah: (catch all word)Yes, sure, ok, I undertstand, excellent, good job. Basically is a positive word.

[The Kraken]

Slick - old time , a Huey (UH-1A, B, C, D or H) used for general aviation purposes, as opposed to a gunship, usually a UH-1C with a 540 rotor system or an AH-1G Cobra.

[WaterDawg]

CF: Cluster F___, used to describe everydat operations.

Shortitis: Not having much time left on station and using it to ones advantage

[Firebrand]

BOHICA - Bend Over, Here It Comes Again! Also known as the Marne Position!

[Rick Murchison]

Y'all have entirely too much time on yer hands!
Just get one of these. (http://www.usni.org/webstore/shopexd.asp?id=41093)
S

[O2BBubbleFree]

How about a few old ones (some of which seem to have filtered into common vernacular):

FUBAR: Messed Up Beyond All Recognition (or Repair).

SNAFU: Situation Normal, All Messed Up.

Tango Uniform: Broken. Radio phonetic alphabet for ‘T U,’ which is short for, well, um, broken. Not sure how to censor this one for the family board.

[O2BBubbleFree]

Gmafb

Gradient Magnetically Assisted Fluidized Beds ?????

http://www.urc.cc/mag/flights.htm

[mike_s]

Gradient Magnetically Assisted Fluidized Beds ?????

http://www.urc.cc/mag/flights.htm

Boy the girl in these pics is asking to have her hair jerked out when it catches in something and then the plane levels off. talk about painfull.

[O2BBubbleFree]

Based on this post:

http://www.scubaboard.com/showpost.php?p=1002466&postcount=4

maybe we should add that MWR stands for Morale, Welfare, and Recreation.

[pipedope]

Sierra Hotel = S*** Hot, meaning extreemly good at something, as "Joe is one sierra hotel gunner, he never misses."

[Dryglove]

Leg= infantryman. Primary mission - move out and draw fire :D

[O2BBubbleFree]

... but here's a couple of Tech Support codes that I like:

PEBCAK: Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard.

id10t: Idiot. As in, "They've got an ID10T on their system."

[Rick Murchison]

How about a few old ones (some of which seem to have filtered into common vernacular):

FUBAR: Messed Up Beyond All Recognition (or Repair).

SNAFU: Situation Normal, All Messed Up.

Tango Uniform: Broken. Radio phonetic alphabet for ‘T U,’ which is short for, well, um, broken. Not sure how to censor this one for the family board.
The original, circa 1940's version...
Fouled Up Beyond...
SNAFouled Up
---
S

[Azza]

How about a few old ones (some of which seem to have filtered into common vernacular):

FUBAR: Messed Up Beyond All Recognition (or Repair).

SNAFU: Situation Normal, All Messed Up.

Tango Uniform: Broken. Radio phonetic alphabet for ‘T U,’ which is short for, well, um, broken. Not sure how to censor this one for the family board.

Just to add to this post, there are 3 levels

SNAFU - Situation Normal, All Fouled Up.
TARFU - Things are really Fouled up
FUBAR - Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition (or Repair).

BOHICA was a favourite among new recruits.
REMF - Rear Echelon Mother *******er- Those that are not a combat trade
CDF - Common Dog ******* - meaning Common sense.
Number 10- boot size as in "sort your **** out ballbag i will give a number 10 so far up your arse you will... followed by all kind of descriptions that shouldnt be posted on SB :)".

Some of the less offensive ones, in this case more Aussie and Kiwi related.

ANZAC- Australian and New Zealand Army Corp. Never actually existed but that’s what the brits named us as we often worked with each other. Originated at Gallipoli in 1915 where we got hammered together because the bloody brits dropped us on the wrong beaches then sat drinking cups of tea and watched while we tried to climb up near vertical cliffs to kill Johnny Turk.

Tommy– British private or equivalent rank.

Digger– Aussie Private or equivalent rank. Actually comes from the First World War when KIWI sappers (engineers) from the 1st Pioneer Battalion were digging new trenches heavy artillery fire. The Aussies liked the name so much they stole it, along with our pavalova.

Baggie– New Zealand Private or equivalent rank. Comes from Baggie-arse as new privates seemed to always have the wrong size pants because that’s what they were issued and still don’t know any better to nick… err I mean acquire better ones from the Q-Store

Acquire- Code word for nick, steal, pinch whatever. If you stole something you were scum but if you acquired it you were ingenious. Frowned upon to acquire from your mates however ingenious it would be.

Q-Store– Quarter Master’s Store. A great place to acquire stuff.


Brew– Time for a cup of tea, biscuit and smoke, all of which was generally acquired from the Q-store.

Corp(ie) (pronounced korp(e))- Short for Corporal, the backbone of any army.

Big Chief Wallah Wallah- A soldier that thought he was higher in rank than he actually was. Usually was beaten up on regular occasions, especially if he had the nerve to enter the Baggies Bar, or even the Corpie’s Club for that matter.

Brass- Senior officer, due to all the bird*****…err I mean brass on their shoulders.

Dohbi- a wash. Comes from Arab or Indian word for wash, that one originated from the brits back in Colonial Indian days

God Wallah- Padre or chaplain

Brylcreem Boys- Air force or flyers. This comes from the amount of hair product these pretty boys wear.

Bivvy- Bivouac, somewhere to sleep. Marine equivalent of Rack I guess.

Mess- Eating hall.

Officers mess- Officers eating and drinking establishment.

50- 50 calibre round. Makes a big mess when it hits anything. Generally mounted on tanks and armoured cars

30- #0 Calibre round

556- 5.56 mm round. NATO standard. Is the same as a 223 calibre

762- 7.62 mm round. NATO standard, usually just for the Heavy Machine Guns, which takes us to

Gimpy- Short for GPMG. General Purpose Machine Gun

DPM’s- De-Patternisation Markings, or camo’s. Camouflage clothes

79Alpha- Comes from paragraph 79 A of the NZ military law book. Means conduct unbecoming of a soldier. This is an easy charge (Military discipline) to slap on a lower rank when you can’t charge him for anything else. You can get someone on a 79A for putting their hands in their pockets as soldiers don’t walk around or stand around with their hands in their pockets.

717- The request for discharge form. As in “I have had enough of this crap, I’m putting my 717 in when we get back”. NZ military is completely voluntary. You can leave whenever you like. Most soldiers state they are going to put their “717 in” about 33 times every year on average, but never do.

There are lots more but its been a while since I was in so I have forgotten most of it. Will have to do some think...

[Squalus]

LEG= Not Airborne Qualified (Lacks Enough Guts), doesn't jump from an airplane
Grunt, 11Bang Bang= Infantry Soldier
Doc= Medic
Remf= Rear Echelon Mother@#!$%#, people who are not on the line
Line= The front where the rubber meets the road, where all the action is.
PCS= Permanent Change of Station, where we move too
LES= Leave and Earning Statement, Pay stub, has how much earned and how many vacation days accured
Little Bird= MH6 Rotary aircraft otherwise known as "Little Bird"
Hawk= Short for Black Hawk UH60 Helicopter
Leave= Vacation Days
Bob= Nickname for the sun, affectionately given by the infantry

[The Kraken]

Loach = same thing as "Little Bird" posted above. In olden days the OH-6A "Cayuse" LOH (light observation helicopter) pronounced like "loach". For "hunter/killer teams" was also referred to as the "low bird".

If you ever meet an old pilot that says he flew "loaches", he probably has 2 silver stars, 4 DFC's, 5 purple hearts and more than 25 pounds of extra metal in various parts of his body, primarily his gluteus maximus.

[pilot fish]

magot,
numbnuts,
S*** bird,
kill em all, let God sort em out,
clear the area,
dispatch that crowd,
spread out, one grenade would get all of ya.
Naplam is a great disinfectant.

[wedivebc]

If you ever meet an old pilot that says he flew "loaches", he probably has 2 silver stars, 4 DFC's, 5 purple hearts and more than 25 pounds of extra metal in various parts of his body, primarily his gluteus maximus.
Probably wouldn't need ankle weights either :D

[pilot fish]

Lock and load
main line of resistance
junk on the bunk
things on the springs
Liberty call

[TCDiver1]

Let see, a few i can remember:

Water Buffalo - Metal tank on wheels used for hauling what some called potable water in bulk. Usually nothing potable about the water that came out of them.

Sea Lawyer - a self appointed know it all

Cover - Military utility hat, USMC, etc

BZO - battle sight zero for the weapon issued

Scuttlebutt - rumors, the latest word

Pyle - screwed up Marine

Rack - your bed

K's - US rations prior to C's, really terrible i'm told, circa WW-II

C's - US rations prior to MRE's, circa Vietnam, pretty terrible stuff depending on which one you got. All the C's i ever ate were packaged around 10 years before i was born making them 20-30 years old ... yummy!

MRE's - The latest issue US rations, probably only marginally better than C's although i hear they don't let em rot in storage for 20-30 years now before they pass em out. That has to help.

[Azza]

C's - US rations prior to MRE's, circa Vietnam, pretty terrible stuff depending on which one you got. All the C's i ever ate were packaged around 10 years before i was born making them 20-30 years old ... yummy!

MRE's - The latest issue US rations, probably only marginally better than C's although i hear they don't let em rot in storage for 20-30 years now before they pass em out. That has to help.

Heh Heh, NZ Army is still on C's. Actually when I put my 717 in, back in 2000 we were still getting issued Vietnam era webbing (Belt Kit-Not sure what you yanks call it).
As a consequence most of us made our own...

[Tom Winters]

Slick - old time , a Huey (UH-1A, B, C, D or H) used for general aviation purposes, as opposed to a gunship, usually a UH-1C with a 540 rotor system or an AH-1G Cobra.
How could you leave out the Loach?

Loach = same thing as "Little Bird" posted above.
Never mind...

[ScubaNorth]

Newbie- Well um a Newbie.

Short or Short timer- Like 30 days and a wake up.

AFN- Ain't (censored) nothing- see Newbie.

RADS- Local citizens (sorry but I worked on a nuke storage site and all the locals were thought of as radicals since they used to protest us, ah the 80's I miss you so)

The Rock- any base you were on when showing a newbie around, as in they call this place the rock because we are in the middle of no place with nothing to do but watch the grass grow.

The Brass- Officer

Boston or New York anyone who was born or raised within 1000 miles of New England. As in "hey NY grab that bag and follow me".

Radboro's- European Marlboro Cigarettes same package tasted like burning newspaper.

[2Tours N Iraq`]

I must clarify how the sun became affectionately known as "Bob." For those of you who have never awakend to a particularly cold morning before sunrise (read: For all Air Force personnel) you wouldn't know how the sun became known as Bob. As the sun is a Big Orange Ball (hence Bob), a freezing grunt would start to talk to Bob in an effort to will the sun to rise faster and warm things up. Bob becomes the freezing infantryman's best friend once he starts rising and warming things up.

[uscgrescueswimmer]

Blue Falcon - Buddy **@#er

[kaboom1371]

retread = person that got out of the military and then joined again later

toe jam = the gross stuff between your toes when you haven't been able to shower or clean for long periods of time. can sometimes trade toe jam for cheese in MRE's with cherry boys. (always get your cheese first) be careful though you might get (read next)

dick cheese=stuff that accumulates in private parts after not being able showering or clean for long periods of time.

fast mover= fighter jet

slow mover= helicopter

moon beam= flash light

zingers= incoming fire close enough to hear go by

[todive4]

BZ (Bravo Zulu)= Congrats, good job.

Can't think of any others at the moment...

[2Tours N Iraq`]

PRC 77: a radio no longer used that was carried by ground troops
PRC E7: Not a radio, usually a good joke to play on an FNG (tell him to go into the platoon sergeant's office and ask for the "Pr**k E7"
E7: Sergeant First Class (Army)

[neophytediver]

The term REMF hasn't been used in a while, except by the reeeeealy old timers. The correct term is "Pogue" and applies to any and all non-combat arms personnel.

Maggot=The term of affection used to describe single most underappreciated Infantryman on the planet, the Indirectfire Infantryman (MOS 11C), usually uttered by 11Bs that aren't smart enough to do math. ;)
Dope on a Rope= Air Assault qualified personnel
Bullwinkle Wings= Air Assault wings
Dirt Dart= Airborne qualified personnel
Woobie= An infantryman's best friend... his poncho liner
Snivle gear= All that cool cold weather gear you never get to wear

[FreeFloat]

WOG - "With Out Gun" - certain trades such as medics and chaplains which are unarmed trades. Can also be used as an uncomplimentary term against trades not accustomed to carrying weapons (ie. clerks, certain officers)

zipperhead - armored soldier
lawn dart - airborne assault
sh!thawk - airforce (fighter) referenced by the navy
writer, chief writer - clerk or chief clerk aboard ship
meathead - military police
binrat - storesman

[neophytediver]

Crashhawk= Blackhawk (dang near speak from personal experience)
S!@#hook= Chinook

[TCDiver1]

Irish Pendent - a loose thread on your uniform
Russian rope - see irish pendent
Pogie bait - candy, cookies or in the case of the movie FMJ, a jelly donut.
LCAC - Landing craft, Air Cushioned (i just love Naval acronyms)

[diverbrian]

NUB- Non-useful body (New guy-not qualified on any watchstation)

BC Glasses- Birth Control Glasses (Glasses issued in boot camp)

Non-qual- just above a NUB, not qualified submarines, but at least qualified on some watchstations

Khaki- Chief Petty officer and above

White hat or blue shirt- First Class Petty officer or below.

Dolphins- Submarine Warface Qualification insignia

Boomer- Missile Submarine

Slow approach sub- old missile sub converted to use as a fast attack for spec ops

Conehead- Non nuclear trained personnel on a submarine. So named because the "nucs" worked in the aft part of the sub (the engine room). The others tended to work in the forward half or the "cone"

Nucs- Nuclear trained personnel

Twidget- Electronics specialists

Wire biter- Electricians

A-Gang- Auxillary Machinists who dealt with all mechanical systems that were NOT directly connected to the nuclear plant

Knuckle dragger- Machinist mate

Butter bars- O-1 (officer just out of the academy or ROTC)

Canoe U- Navy Academy

Old Man- the Commanding Officer

[Squalus]

PRC 77: a radio no longer used that was carried by ground troops
PRC E7: Not a radio, usually a good joke to play on an FNG (tell him to go into the platoon sergeant's office and ask for the "Pr**k E7"
E7: Sergeant First Class (Army)

Get me some canopy lights for tonights airborne assualt.

Can of squelch.

Can of rotar wash.

Air sample to be submitted with AOAP.

Check for weak spots in the armor with a hammer.

Check the shocks on a M113 by jumping up and down on the back.

Need a box of grid squares.

[Firebrand]

Here are two definitions for AWOL:

Legal Definition: Absent With Out Leave
Working Definition: Another Way Of Leaving

[The Kraken]

Wobbly One - (old time) WO-1

Wodgie Bear - (see Wobbly One)

Elephant D!cks - Large water bladders hauled out to the boonies for the Lurps

Boonies - the one place you don't want to be with a bunch of FNG's

Lurps - short for LRRP's (long range recon patrol) Some BAD M/F's

FNG - Freakin new guy, someone you don't want to be with out in the boonies.

Limpy Lemon - yellow smoke grenade

Goofy Grape - purple smoke grenade

Willie Pete - white phophorus grenade

Chunker - M-40 grenade launcher

Sh!t Burner - someone who screwed up and was appointed to the delightful task of putting JP4 into the waste drums and burning it. ( you DON'T want to have to do this)

Fat Loach - when a Slick pilot gets a wild hair up his butt, becomes delusional that his Huey, since it does have 2 M-60's on it, suddenly qualifies as an OH-6A when he sees something very, very interesting on the ground (this action usually ends up in getting said pilot's butt severly chewed by the old man, or worse, his crewchief)

Duster - M-40 and twin 40mm tracked gun. Sort of like an open topped tank with pom-pom guns. Greatest thing in the world against ground attacks, especially with the flechette rounds . . . . oooooohhhhhhhh NASTY!!!!

Doughnut Dolly - the most wonderful young ladies God ever created. Wish I could meet some of the ones from 'Nam again.

[LetterBoy]

Redleg : Any Artillerymen

Cannon fodder : Marines anyone in the Infantry

Grease monkey : Mechanic

Lanyard grease : FNG ploy

Box of grid squares : Nother FNG ploy

Klingon Battle Axe : RDP

RDP : Range Deflection Protractor tool used in the FDC

FDC : Fire Direction Control Center

Fat Body : PT failure or anyone over weight

Donkey D!ck : Used to pour fuel from five gallon juggs

[FreeFloat]

muffin: anyone who prefers reporting to Sick Parade to get out of a morning class or PT

PT: physical training (morning exercise)

Sick Parade: morning medical center, functions kind of like an ER

Cepacol and foot powder: the standard remedies handed out by the medics handling Sick Parade. If it's above the belt, the remedy is Cepacol (throat lozenges); below the belt, is foot powder (unscented talc)

--------------------
MTF (more to follow) as I think of them.
--------------------

[Lil' Irish Temper]

Being a former Dirt Dart, 1st letters in US Army stand for:

U.S. Army = Uncle Sam Aint Released Me Yet

or backwards

Yes My Retarded A@# Signed Up :D

AO - Area of Operations

[diverbrian]

Target- Surface ships (so named because of their appearance through a periscope with crosshairs on them)

Goat Locker- Chief Petty Officer quarters

Chop- Supply officer

Dink- Someone delinquent in their qualifications progress

Doc- Independent Duty corpman who handled doctor's duties on the submarine

Sports pages- something that you wanted to stay out of! The part of the Plan of the Day that listed who got Non judicial punishment from the Captain

Captain- Commanding Officer of the boat regardlass of rank

Captain's Mast- when a hearing was presented for the captain to decide what to do with a discipline problem (normally) or meritious action. Punishment was normally handed out here.

POD- Plan of the day. The CO's day orders put out by the ship's yeoman (clerk) everyday

Hot Rack- Due to the low number of racks on a sub, junior people often had to rotate racks such that while one was on watch, another was sleeping in his rack.

[TCDiver1]

Hey Brian, you forgot "Bubblehead" .... you bubblehead! :D

Bubblehead - submarine sailor

[diverbrian]

Hey Brian, you forgot "Bubblehead" .... you bubblehead! :D

Bubblehead - submarine sailor

You're right! I did forget that one...

Add...

Mustang- Officer who started life as enlisted and later went to officer's schooling. Don't try to con one of these! They have seen it and/or done it before you even thought of it!

Wardroom- The officer's portion of the ship. Good place to stay out of if you are enlisted!

Basket Leave- Illegal process where an approved, signed leave chit was stored in the Yeoman's office and no checkout was done. The leave wouldn't start until someone noticed the lack of a checkout time (if they did) and if they didn't, the leave chit could be ripped up on the return of the person taking the leave and no time would be taken off of that person's leave account with the officers being none the wiser.

Day after duty- Tradition where (in port) the off going duty section would be released as soon as possible after the start of the work day. Many times this would be right after morning muster.

Bag job- Where the off-going watchstander did nothing more than the minimum on their watch and leaves the on coming watch "holding the bag" for all of the things that were supposed to happen on the off-going watchstander's watch. HIGHLY FROWNED UPON!

STAR baby- a derogatory term for an E-5 that got promoted to E-5 by re-enlisting for two years on top of the four year+2 YR extension that existed for highly technical programs. The name of the program was the STAR (Selective Training And Re-enlistment) Program.

[Firebrand]

C.H.A.O.S. - Colonel Has Another Outstanding Suggestion!

Not really a military acronym, but has anyone ever noticed that Evian (as in Evian bottled water) is Naive spelled backwards? Hmmmm, makes you wonder what these bottling companies think of thier consumers.

[neophytediver]

Wouldn't that be "NAIVE" Firebrand?

D'oh!!

[Jason B]

Scuttlebutt = Water drinking fountain
Head = bathroom
Reefer = refrigerator
Deck = floor
Passageway = hall way
Geedunk = candy
Roach Coach = little truck that drives down pier and sells geedunk to on duty sailors
FOD = foreign object destruct (trash on flight deck)
Donkey Dick = nozzle used for re-fueling ship
Gig Line = line created by shirt buttons and pants zipper
BJM = Blue Jackets Manual
ASW = Anti Submarine Warfare
**** on a shingle = corn beef hash on toast

Jason

[Firebrand]

Wouldn't that be "NAIVE" Firebrand?

D'oh!!

It is now! Thanks for catching that!

[wstein]

Cepacol and foot powder: the standard remedies handed out by the medics handling Sick Parade. If it's above the belt, the remedy is Cepacol (throat lozenges); below the belt, is foot powder (unscented talc)


When I was in the Corps it was Motrin and Malox that the corpmans carried in their unit 1's. Used to think anything up to and including sucking chest wounds could be cured with either.

Boots - FNG's outa bootcamp
Black Cadilacs - your black leather boots
Hump - the lovely walk to work for the infantryman
03-walk-alot - 0311 Infantry rifleman
SS10 - Shoes, socks, 10 toes (a mode of transportation)
Frog - CH-46 SeaKnight
Brain Bucket - helmet
Soup Cooler - your mouth as in "shut your soup cooler!"
Rubber ducks - the little roll up life vest issued on any overwater helo flight
Gators - The amphibous assault ships in the Navy
Grunt candy - motrin
Gorilla cookies - cookies that came in some of the origianal MRE's, they were stuck together and we used to say that only a gorilla could pull them apart.
BLT - Boot LT or 2nd LT
Gunny - E7 Gunnery Sgt in the Marines
Top - E8 Master Sergent in the Marines

That is all I can think of for the moment.

Paul

[wstein]

Being a former Dirt Dart, 1st letters in US Army stand for:

U.S. Army = Uncle Sam Aint Released Me Yet

or backwards

Yes My Retarded A@# Signed Up :D

AO - Area of Operations

For the Marines out there :D

U Suckers Missed Christmas

Uncle Sam's Misguided Children

Muscles Are Required, Intelligence Not Essential

Semper Gumber, Always Flexible

[GDI]

Hey what about all those indirect fire boys

Fire Mission

10 rnds of Shake and bake with Candle light for dinner it's their birthday

Translation
10 rnds He with Wp and illumination

Remember Indirect Fire is never Friendly