As an old Marine I remember learning,and using, the words and terms that were brought back by the"Old China Hands" and a few left over from the Sandino Campaign in Nicaragua.
So I’m wondering how many terms from the 20’s/30’s might still be in common use
Let’s try a few-----
Are any of these still active terms?
Mate. Joe[coffee], side arms[cream and sugar], Joe/mac ,for east and west coast recruits. pongyo, gunny, Top, on the beach[leave], Lash-up, feather merchant, ‘A’ platoon, asiatic, “missed too many boats”, forty knot stare, Charley Noble, hashmark, stupid stripes, chowhound, brown noser, pogey-bait. golden rivet,f–t sack--------
I recognise “Joe” as coffee, although I don’t hear it often now. I assume “gunny” is gunnery sergeant, which again I still hear, but only in the movies! It may kept alive by use in the Forces, being a Forces term.
“Chowhound” and “brown noser” I also know, although I really only hear “brown noser” with any degree of regularity.
I think that “forty knot stare” has now become “thousand yard stare” following the Vietnam war.
No cites, I’m afraid, just my own experience, but that was what the OP requested.
Some of the ones that Ezstrete brought up aren’t listed though, so we’ll have to wait for him to shed some light.
chowhound, is one who never misses a meal. A guy that will do anything possible to be at the chow hall when it opens, no matter what.
brown noser is standard. Ass kisser.
golden rivet isn’t listed either, but taking a guess, I’m assuming that the modern day equivalent is the Jesus Nut (the nut that holds the rotor on a helicopter… a keystone. The one critical piece that holds everything together) or the Golden BB (meaning basically a needle in a haystack… the one missing thing that you were incredibly luck to find).
While golden Rivet may have been used in the Marines, it appears to be nautical.
Lighter cites it from 1940’s as follows: “He…could get Royal to do for him the distasteful job of cleaning the bilges, by telling Royal that somewhere in the bilges he would find ‘the golden rivet’—the mythical gold rivet which, they tell the green hands, was the first rivet put in the ship.”
His second cite from the same time, I found amusing: "…There are two old Navy phrases with a similar connotation: ‘to go below to see the dead marine’ or ‘to go below to see the golden rivet.’ "
Well mates,and pongyos too,This is my third attempt to reply and thank all of the respondents who have brought me more fun with my question than a monkey has on a grapevine.
What happened to the original two answers I don’t know,except that they got lost in the sdmb maze.
What a lashup they must be running over there-----or maybe the weekend crew is an “A” platoon of feather merchants manning the posts while the regulars are on the beach.
Maybe a little more Gung-Ho is what’s needed.
I guess in fairness they’re entitled to the chinese rating of HAO–good.
Each time I lost a letter My eyes overglazed with that blank stare that comes from long action without rest—the one called forty-knot.
Of course The Stare is also a synptiom of Asiatic-------a condition that comes from too many re-ups in Peking or Tientsin and missing too many boats back to the mainland.
I’ll take it up with the top-kick if the Gunny’ll let me in to see him.
That way I’ll avoid all of the smoke and B.S. put out by the company Charley Noble if I bring it up in the squad bay.
This note covers most ,if not all, of my questions----------later on I’ll finish the list-------
Leggo yer c–ks and grab yer socks.
Grab yer guns-----er------I mean rifles
One of the Old ones
Ps—remember Nov.1,'43-----that was the biougainville show—!
Well mates,and pongyos too,This is my third attempt to reply and thank all of the respondents who have brought me more fun with my question than a monkey has on a grapevine.
What happened to the original two answers I don’t know,except that they got lost in the sdmb maze.
What a lashup they must be running over there-----or maybe the weekend crew is an “A” platoon of feather merchants manning the posts while the regulars are on the beach.
Maybe a little more Gung-Ho is what’s needed.
I guess in fairness they’re entitled to the chinese rating of HAO–good.
Each time I lost a letter My eyes overglazed with that blank stare that comes from long action without rest—the one called forty-knot.
Of course The Stare is also a synptiom of Asiatic-------a condition that comes from too many re-ups in Peking or Tientsin and missing too many boats back to the mainland.
I’ll take it up with the top-kick if the Gunny’ll let me in to see him.
That way I’ll avoid all of the smoke and B.S. put out by the company Charley Noble if I bring it up in the squad bay.
This note covers most ,if not all, of my questions----------later on I’ll finish the list-------
Leggo yer c–ks and grab yer socks.
Grab yer guns-----er------I mean rifles
One of the Old ones
Ps—remember Nov.1,'43-----that was the biougainville show—!
Well mates,and pongyos too,This is my third attempt to reply and thank all of the respondents who have brought me more fun with my question than a monkey has on a grapevine.
What happened to the original two answers I don’t know,except that they got lost in the sdmb maze.
What a lashup they must be running over there-----or maybe the weekend crew is an “A” platoon of feather merchants manning the posts while the regulars are on the beach.
Maybe a little more Gung-Ho is what’s needed.
I guess in fairness they’re entitled to the chinese rating of HAO–good.
Each time I lost a letter My eyes overglazed with that blank stare that comes from long action without rest—the one called forty-knot.
Of course The Stare is also a synptiom of Asiatic-------a condition that comes from too many re-ups in Peking or Tientsin and missing too many boats back to the mainland.
I’ll take it up with the top-kick if the Gunny’ll let me in to see him.
That way I’ll avoid all of the smoke and B.S. put out by the company Charley Noble if I bring it up in the squad bay.
This note covers most ,if not all, of my questions----------later on I’ll finish the list-------
Leggo yer c–ks and grab yer socks.
Grab yer guns-----er------I mean rifles
One of the Old ones
Ps—remember Nov.1,'43-----that was the biougainville show—!
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