“Gangway!” = We don’t care how much you outrank us, we’re carrying something large or heavy and get the fuck out of our way!
“Belay that” or “As you were” = Often used as the Naval and Military equivalents to Emily Letilla’s “Never mind”, though there were other applications.
Ha! I was highly agitated during a field exercise and was near the command post screaming “Who was the fucking dipshit moron that launched a signal flare horizontally into the fucking dry prairie, TWICE!?! Someone point out this simple motherfucker so that I can teach them the difference between sideways and up!” A chief pulled me aside and informed me that it was our brand new butterbar that had accomplished this particular feat, and that he was standing right behind me.
I turned around and quietly said “With all due respect, sir…”
During a particularly agitating day in boot camp, I heard somebody behind me yell my name. I yelled back “FUCK! WHAT!!!” as I spun around…only to see the Senior DI standing there with his hands on his hips and eyebrows raised.
I don’t think I ever actually paid for it, either…
Guy I was in tech school with was trying to get some productive thing done in his off time one evening, but kept having people come to his door asking him about covering cleaning details, volunteering for some thing or another, verifying the time for drill practice, etc. Finally the door gets another knock, and he storms over and swings it wide open shouting “This had better be fucking good!”
And there is standing one of the NCOs, standing at the door grinning for a moment before saying “Oh, it’s fucking good.”
I forget what he was there for. He was chill as all get out as long as you didn’t actually do something wrong.
OPI, is supposed to mean Office® of Primary Interest. Usually means Only Person Interested, particularly when it was some newb’s pet project.
These are from the Danish Army and so translated, but…
“Slinger” - translates to “wobbling” - is an incredibly useful term. Everything not living up to the Platonic ideal of perfect military behavior and attributes - as in, lined up straight, of equal height, cleaned & lightly oiled, with sharp corners, hard at work, on time and snappy looking qualifies as “slinger”.
Oft-used description for those whose behavior just wasn’t soldierlike, even though it was hard to pinpoint the specific reasons why - they wobbled. (Could also mean escaping work, but not in the respectable manner that is every soldier’s right - more in a sense of leaving it for others of the same rank to pick up.)
In rare cases, you’d even be ordered to wobble - spending a night camped out in an exercise area without being tactical (i.e., no foxholes, minimum watchkeeping, no light/sound discipline enforced) for instance, was definitely wobbling. (And most welcome.)
“Tactical concealment of work” - counterintuitively, making it look as if you’d done a lot when you’d done practically nothing.
“Tankpasser uniform” - lit., “gas station attendant’s uniform”, a loathed, bad looking uniform supposed to be suitable for leave. Never, ever seen outside barracks.
“Koge” - “to boil” - sleeping.
“Banana net” - very, very unofficial radio procedure. Platoon commanders would decide on an alternate frequency before an exercise. When things went bad, someone would say “banana” on the air, everyone would quickly swap frequencies and a frank discussion could be had with no higher command elements listening.
Maybe could write books on it but with me and any other officers I was with that statement just dug your hole a bit deeper.
Um, there was a special, delicate, relationship between experienced platoon sergeants and squad leaders who had been in Vietnam for at least 6 months and their inexperienced 2nd Lieutenants who had been in country less than 4 weeks. And quiet, subtle direct orders to the sergeants and 2nd LT from the Troop (or Company) Commander before a going out on a mission.
I understand completely, some folks thought you could say anything with no repercussions if preceded with “with all due respect” of course it was not so.
When this was said the speaker took clear chances.
If the speaker was wrong, in the superiors eyes, he was wrong. He would pay.
If the speaker was not so wrong, and the superior acknowledged this it all became a matter of how much he paid.
Good LT’s could make people pay in a non-serious way.
Bad LT’s would make everybody pay.
In training we were to assault a position. LT said because of ABC we will do it ‘this way’. Platoon Sgt brought up with all due respect because of XYZ it might not work. LT went with his plan and we got mopped up.
LT decided we were wrong and needed additional duties. On the beach. Over a weekend. With lots of beer. The LT was right but we still paid.
Is the word “avast” used anymore? It was one of Popeye’s favorite words.
We never used it. We did use “Heave to!”.
“Heave out and trice up” said every morning on the ship’s PA (1MC) as part of reveille.
I don’t know that I ever heard “avast”, but “stand fast” means nearly the same thing and that is used with some regularity, especially during boot camp.