Military Acronyms and Slang Dictionary

[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

 

[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

 

[pilot fish]

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