Worldbuilding Wednesday 4/15/20: Military Slang, Part I

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
Fucus: Genital warts
Fun Grab: Use of a pebble where it hits a person in the groin
Funny: To have an adverse reaction to something or someone

GAS: Gunfighters abbreviation for gas assist

Hamburger: An informal term for beer
HASL: Large Assam Rifles
Hedgehog: Parachute type windbreak
Hafiah: A TOW ATGM launcher
Hayride: Elevated or broken ground
Hazel: .50 caliber machine gun
Hell Ball: A derogatory term for an American or an American military man
Hubble: The act of rolling on your rear to be as near the ground as possible

Independent: An officer who has failed at the rank of corporal

 

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