Military slang is obscure and puzzling even at the best of times. It’s easy for civilians to pick up terms readily bandied about by journalists like MREs (military rations) and those from TV shows and movies, like dogtag and grunt. But there’s a whole slew of others, some dependent on location, like AWACS (Airborne Early Warning and Control System, familiar if you live around Boeing Field in Seattle) and others by war, for example, the Hanoi Hilton.
For this type of rich, varied list I use talktotransformer, feeding it examples from real life military slang.
Military Slang, Part I
| Anytyzer: Enemy armored vehicle Arctic Cat: Transforming tool, used to sculpt scaly plates from sea ice Awlfish: Amphibious truck BadShibe: U.S. Army Quartermaster Barbwire Smiles: U.S. Army Rangers BB Bumblebee: Surgical projectiles Bubble Bob: A Naval officer Bushwacker: Commander of Task Force Able, or 3rd Air Force veteran Bust-O-Matic: The blast deflector array used on many ex-USMC (Ex-Navy) F/A-18 Hornet fighters Cohicoon: Heavy round of artillery Colonel Reptilicus: Ew! Compy: The x-ray dummy used to transport medicine to locations Deepwater Sam: A Naval officer Evergreen: Struck off a ship after being with too many other ships Flaming Heart: Member who sacrifices for the good of the unit GAS: Gunfighters abbreviation for gas assist Hamburger: An informal term for beer Independent: An officer who has failed at the rank of corporal |
