Former USAF SP. What is your favorite military terms?
I was in before MREs…C rats for us. My favorite?
Green eggs and ham.
beans and MFers.
John Wayne can openers.
John Wayne cookies.
What else? The people in the military are absolutely fascinating at inventing cool names for things and not just acronyms.
USN for 11+ years, as well as 26 years as a civilian employee of the DoN.
One expression I thought was handy because it was succinct was “Turn to” - often further abbreviated by holding 2 fingers in the air and turning the hand at the wrist. It meant: get everything cleaned up, tidied, in order, put away, so we can go and the next shift can come in to a clean workspace. At least that’s the context where I encountered it - I expect one can use it to say “Clean this place up now!” in any situation.
According to this site, it just meant “get to work” but I only heard it use in the context I described.
I also liked: *Goat locker: Lounge or galley for the exclusive use of Chiefs.
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That list brought back some memories…
That is wonderful. I will use that at work. My sister is a US Navy Reservist CMDR.
In the Army a TEWT is a Tactical Exercise Without Troops. Basically wargaming for staff, now mostly done on computers. Of course we changed it to PENIS, Practical Exercise Not Including Soldiers.
The Aux IC challenge.
A very specific one, probably only known to submarine nuclear-trained navy sailors. As follows:
I was a Junior Officer (JO) on a Navy Submarine. One watchstation JOs commonly stand is Engineer Officer of the Watch (EOOW), which is the man in charge of the dozen-or-so sailors in the Engine Room (ER). The EOOW sits behind a desk in Maneuvering (the control room for a submarine’s Engine Room and Nuclear Power Plant) with 3 Nuclear-trained sailors in front of control panels.
Normally every hour, one ER watchstander, the Auxiliary Electrician Aft (AEA), goes around the entire ER logging various electrical readings. One of these readings is in Maneuvering- checking the Auxiliary Interior Communications (Aux IC) circuit- basically pulling a switch and making sure a bunch of lights come on (which demonstrates that the IC ckt is working blah blah blah). This switch is located essentially right behind where the EOOW sits- so the AEA has to stretch and reach around the EOOW to test it.
If the EOOW is bored (and most 6-hour watches involve a lot of boredom), he may initiate the Aux IC Challenge. The EOOW will slowly and dramatically stand up from the desk and glare at the AEA. The AEA will ostentatiously slam down his log-papers, freeing up his hands. In the AUX IC Challenge, the goal for the AEA is to get around the EOOW (in the cramped space of Maneuvering) and flip the switch to test the Aux IC Circuit. The goal for the EOOW is to physically eject the AEA from the Maneuvering space. All the advantage is to the AEA (typically a very junior Electrician’s Mate), because he just needs to get around the EOOW. The EOOW has to keep the AEA from getting around him while at the same time wedging open a heavy door, expelling the AEA, and closing the door.
The EOOW usually loses. But much fun is had by all.
Sounds like a bunch of grab-ass to me.
DumpEX:
Getting rid of excess ammo leftover after a range or training evolution by putting as many rounds downrage as possible is the shortest amount of time as possible. I never figured out exactly “why” it happens, but it seemed that either somebody didn’t want to haul it back and check it in, or we asked for it and better use it.
DumpEx is most effectively accomplished by magazine change drills or “final protective fire” exercises.
I remember one time they had trouble getting enough people to get rid of grenades. The same 10 dudes kept getting in line, I don’t know how many we ended up doing.
Working Party!!! A whole lot of work, not much of a party…
Monkey Snot, Elephant Snot - various sealants used on Aircraft.
Turn to - I always understood it to mean “Get to Work”
Signal to a Pilot where you put hold your right fist vertically with your left hand on top of it. You pull your fist straight down out of your hand. The signal means “Pull your head out of your ass!”
I will think of more later.
Douche locker: shower
Brain housing group: your head
___ and a bag drag: time until you depart, i.e., “ten and a bag drag” = ten days
Catch the freedom bird: rotate out of Vietnam
Snot locker: your nose. “I punched him in the snot locker.”
Lifer: a careerist, but not a complimentary term and usually preceded by “fuckin’”.
Here’s one that is related to the hand signal for turn to. In Naval Aviation we need to be able to convey all 10 digits using one hand. The way we do this is by turning the fingers horizontal to reflect 6-9. So one finger held vertical means 1, but 1 finger horizontal would be 6. A common sign would be 3 horizontal fingers (8) followed by a thumbs up. This sign would usually be held silently behind the back of a f’n lifer to indicate that he or she was 8 up (ate up) meaning they had no life outside the Navy.
I once saw this written on a bathroom wall:
Lazy
Ignorant
Fucker
Excepting
Retierment
The last two are not my typos.
Whoa. All nuclear-trained sailors? Like, “those guys in ER and their hijinks?” Sort of like everyone knows what a Chinese Fire Drill is?
Also, any evidence our ex-President knew of this? Did this? Originated it? (I can’t make out if he was ever an EOOW in a nuke at sea. (Is that the correct expression?)
Neat. Cf ASL. Doubly neat with verbal pun.
Interesting topic to see what one-handed signs in other cultures (eg, markets, silent combat).
My own edit:
I just now thought that “guys in ER”–ie, only those guys, might be a another way of saying “nuclear-trained,” as opposed to everybody else on a nuke excluding commanders, right? So the question might not make sense.
On a submarine, there aren’t many options for what we can grab.
From my understanding, Carter served on the Seawolf, before it went to sea, as Engineer – he almost certainly was an EOOW or equivalent at some point, though probably only in port.
You forgot the 5 nails in the coffin (the smokes that came in the c-rat dinners)
As for me – FTA
YOYO.
Acronym for You’re On Your Own.
I still use it when I’m teaching my son a new skill and he’s then going to attempt it himself.
Goat screw - everything is totally messed up.
Dog and pony show - Whenever we have to clean up our equipment so it looks nice in front of other people.
I was stationed at a US Army base near Istanbul for a year and we had a lot of our own terms based on Turkish. I may totally blow the spelling on these as it’s been over 20 years.
Chilak - A flightless bird. All the newbies got called chilaks until the old timers got bored with calling them that and started calling other newbies chilaks. It was a 1 year tour but a lot of people liked it there and extended. Being called a chilak for over 6 months gets old.
Abi - Big brother. Generally what the Turkish people everywhere called us and we called them. Sometimes also Abi Jim.
Chibuk - To hurry. We basterdized this one to mean “leave” or “get out of here.” As in, it’s 1700 hours, it’s time to chibuk.
It’s always a combination of both your reasons. The ammo people allocated you this much stuff for training purposes, why would you not use it? is how the reasoning works. And of course there’s always extra ammo because when the commander requested it he needs some for contingencies and retests.
I like ‘bangstick’ ‘Jimpy’(GPMG) and of course the “Steyrha”, which I am pretty confident is uniquely Kiwi 
I find “Thrash it out” meaning “work out the details”, “slog through until finished” or “sort it out yerself” according to context, has entered my vocab.
Of course, the Aussies are also issued the FRED instead of a real spoon. Can’t say I’m jealous of that one.
Current Army Res, NZ