Military Slang Questions

Lewkat said:
I was raised to address my male elders, sir and females, ma'am. They are terms of respect and nothing more in civilian life. Have nothing to do with working or not.
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Military and civilian life are not the same. Considering that this is a MILITARY sub-forum, perhaps you should take that into consideration.

Tony
 
Tommy said:
I've always thought of SOS as being WW2 vintage slang. I never heard it used in that context in common speech. To me, including my time in the Navy, it was always "chipped beef on toast".
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Not in the Army, at least while I was in.

Tony
 
Boot Licker...A guy that cozies up to the Sgt. or Lt.
FUBAR....F’d Up Beyond All Recognition
On the Double....Doing whatever quickly
Blooper guy.....The man that shoots the Bazooka
 
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A couple I used in the USAF:

Oh-dark-30 anytime after midnight

Boomer boom operator on a refueler

Elephant Walk Lots of aircraft taxi in a line

Why not Minot? - Freezin's the reason! Everyone in the USAF knows about Minot, AFB.

Goat Rope when things mess up; out of your control

Crowd Pleaser A Nuke

Trash Hauler A cargo aircraft
 
Feather Merchant: one in a position that involves little effort or responsibility or that calculatedly evades effort or responsibility : loafer.
Gooney Bird: C-47 cargo aircraft.
Pregnant Guppy: A cargo aircraft for ferrying large objects.
 
tbeltrans said:
That was the stuff we said in Basic Training as we marched and marched and marched and marched... ;) 🇺🇸
I haven't (and won't) watch the movie, but do recognize the phrases. I never thought of it as poetry but instead just cadence. Interesting thought though.

Tony
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When we were on the Island during basic and while marching, the Sergeant tells me to “Give us a cadence.” I remembered one that my dad said when he was in the Army during WWII. Unfortunately, I can’t repeat it here, but my Sergeant liked it.
 
oldman said:
When we were on the Island during basic and while marching, the Sergeant tells me to “Give us a cadence.” I remembered one that my dad said when he was in the Army during WWII. Unfortunately, I can’t repeat it here, but my Sergeant liked it.
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When I went through electronics school after getting out of the Army, the instructor had a saying that helped us remember the resistor color code. I can't repeat it here because nearly every word would be considered politically incorrect. I doubt that phrase is used today. I would be curious to know what is taught in its place though. :)

Tony
 
Verisure said:
di di mau, la dai, dinky dau, troi oi, and xin loi.
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TT (or as many Army guys would say T (f$$%%^) T.

I suppose it is amazing how much of this stuff I haven't thought about in years, so I am a bit rusty on it. I never used any of those terms when I came back. My focus was on moving forward as much as possible, and away from that experience.

Tony
 
tbeltrans said:
TT (or as many Army guys would say T (f$$%%^) T.

I suppose it is amazing how much of this stuff I haven't thought about in years, so I am a bit rusty on it. I never used any of those terms when I came back. My focus was on moving forward as much as possible, and away from that experience.

Tony
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Actually, it's "petit" ...................... and "beaucoup" from the French Indochina occupation before we ended up there.
 
Verisure said:
Actually, it's "petit" ...................... and "beaucoup" from the French Indochina occupation before we ended up there.
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Well TT is what the Vietnamese said and what we picked up from them. I am aware of the French influence. That is why it was very helpful to have a French speaking person in our unit. By the way, "TT" (or however it is spelled", simply means something along the lines of "just a minute". When asked to do something, but you are busy with something else, you might have relied "TT" if you were in Vietnam and that might have been common usage where you were. It is not the same as "di di mau".

I am somewhat surprised at the pushback and questioning of some of the things I have said in this thread. Oh well. Such is life in forums.

Tony
 
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Lewkat said:
I was raised to address my male elders, sir and females, ma'am. They are terms of respect and nothing more in civilian life. Have nothing to do with working or not.
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As the son of a career officer those were the first words I was to utter no mater the circumstance.
 
SetWave said:
As the son of a career officer those were the first words I was to utter no mater the circumstance.
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I wasn't raised to address people as "sir" or "ma'am", but instead to address adults as "Mr." or "Mrs." "or "Miss" (later, someobdy came up with "Ms" - pronounced "Mizz", and then as I got old enough that I was an adult and when familiar enough, could address others by their first name. It was in the Army that I learned to address officers as "Sir" or Ma'am".

When I say to a civilian who addresses me as "sir", "don't call me sir, I work for a living", it is in jest and I try to make that clear. If I can sense that such a jest would go over like a fart in a space suit, I don't bring it up at all. If I had known I was going to get pushback on this, I would not have posted it at all. I am narrowing what I post here to avoid this stuff, so here is another I will never mention again. In fact, I am now seriously considering not coming into this sub-forum any more to avoid any issues altogether. At the VA, I meet other veterans and we see each other, rather than trying to communicate via keyboard. That is MUCH better.

Tony
 
tbeltrans said:
Well TT is what the Vietnamese said and what we picked up from them. I am aware of the French influence. That is why it was very helpful to have a French speaking person in our unit. By the way, "TT" (or however it is spelled", simply means something along the lines of "just a minute". When asked to do something, but you are busy with something else, you might have relied "TT" if you were in Vietnam and that might have been common usage where you were. It is not the same as "di di mau".

I am somewhat surprised at the pushback and questioning of some of the things I have said in this thread. Oh well. Such is life in forums.

Tony
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That is not correct. The French word "petit" means little and all of its derivatives such as small, short, or in a sentence "in a second", "shortly", etc. Two reasons why American soldiers thought the expression was "TT" is because 1). Americans didn't speak or understand French and 2). although most schooled Vietnamese (at that time) could speak French many could not pronounce the words properly. So ... Americans arrived assuming that the badly enunciated Vietnamese-French expression "petit" sounded like "TT" and so Americans assumed it was a Vietnamese word.

BTW: I am a Vietnam Veteran.
 
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