List of U.S. Army acronyms and expressions
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The U.S. Army, like any bureaucratic organization, produces its own acronyms, which often come to have meaning beyond their bare expansions.
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Official acronyms
- 4x4 - 4-wheel drive vehicle; the first "4" is wheels on the ground, the second "4" is wheels driven; now in common civilian use, spoken as four-by-four
- 4x2 - 2 wheel drive common vehicle; 4 wheels on ground, 2 wheels driven
- AIT - Advanced Infantry Training; Advanced Individual Training (specialty training post-BCT)
- AFV - Armored Fighting Vehicle
- ASAP - As Soon As Possible (pronounced "Ay-Sap"; sometimes as initials)
- AWOL - Absent WithOut Leave
- BCT - Basic Combat Training (familiarly: Basic Training, "Boot Camp" or "Beast")
- BX - Base eXchange Air Force name for A PX(see below).
- CO - Commanding Officer (also: conscientious objector)
- BDU - Battle Dress Uniform (slang: Battle Dress Underwear)
- DFAC - Dining Facility (Mess Hall or Cafeteria)
- EDCSA - Effective Date of Change of Strength Accountability (date a soldier is dropped on the rolls of one unit and picked up by another)
- ETS - Expiration of Term of Service (scheduled date of separation from active duty).
- FTX - Field Training Exercise.
- HMMWV Humvee - High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle
- IG - Inspector General
- KIA - Killed in Action
- MIA - Missing in Action; missing in a battle situation, not known if alive or dead.
- MOAB - officially, Massive Ordnance Air Blast (slang: mother of all bombs)
- MOS - Military Occupational Specialty—formal job classification, usually expressed as a number or number/letter combination—e.g., 11B Infantryman.
- MRE - officially, Meal Ready to Eat; (slang: Meal Rejected/refused by Ethiopians or: Meal Rejected by the Enemy)
- NCO - Non-Commissioned Officer: an enlisted person with command responsibility over soldiers of lesser rank; a corporal (grade E4) or any grade of sergeant (grades E5 - E9); see also Specialist.
- OCS - Officer Candidate School
- PCA - Permanent Change of Assignment (new assignment at same base/post)
- PCS - Permanent Change of Station (re-assignment from one place to another)
- PMCS - Preventive Maintenance, Checks and Services
- POW - Prisoner of War
- PT - Physical Training. Although in the plural (PT's), it means the PT Uniform.
- PX - Post eXchange. A multipurpose store which usually includes a barber shop and a convenience store.
- RA - Regular Army soldier; i.e., one who enlisted, not a draftee, reservist or Guardsman; from the service number prefix for such soldiers. Not necessarily a lifer.
- RPG - Rocket propelled grenade
- ROTC - Reserve Officer Training Corps
- STRAC - STRategic Army Command; STRAC units were those designated to be on high alert to move anywhere in 72 hours or less; as slang, tight, together, by the book; also used unflatteringly for an up-tight commander, especially one who engages in Mickey Mouse as STRAC-ass, STRAC-butt
- STX - Situational Training Exercise
- TDY - Temporary DutY (individual or unit) -- from Temporary Duty Yonder
- US - Drafted soldier, from prefix of service number, in turn from Army of the United States, sarcastically: Unwilling Soldier.
- UOINDIC - Unless Otherwise INDICated (qualifier on orders or paperwork)
- XO - Executive Officer (officer second to CO)
Slang acronyms
- BOHICA - Bend Over, Here It Comes Again
- BUFF - Big Ugly Fat Fuckers (Pronounced "Buffs" to describe B-52 bombers)
- BCG - Birth Control Glasses/Goggles. This acronym refers to the standard issue glasses. The acronym is based on the fact that no one has ever "gotten lucky" while wearing them.
- DILLIGAFF - Does It Look Like I Give A Flying Fuck
- DGA - Don't Go Army (See Also, the goarmy.com antithesis [1] (http://www.dontgoarmy.com/))
- ETA - Estimated Time of Arrival
- FIDO - Fuck it, drive on
- FIGMO - Fuck it, (I've) got my orders - when someone is about to leave the unit (and no longer cares), he is "figmo".
- FNG - Fucking new guy. Commonly applied to new troops on the battlefields of Vietnam.
- FROG - Free Rocket Over Ground -- as opposed to a "guided" missile. [Compare "Towed Artillery"]
- FTA - Fuck The Army (also: Future Tankers of America, Fun Time in Alaska (no longer used), Future Teachers of America)
- FUBAR - Fucked up (or "fouled", depending on audience) beyond all recognition or Fucked up beyond all repair
- FUGAZI - Fucked Up, Got Ambushed, Zipped In
- FUMTU - (Things are) fucked up more than usual
- JANFU - Joint Army-Navy fuck-up, (also: JAAFFU, Joint Army-Air Force fuck-up)
- JESA - Junior Enlisted Soldiers Association
- MMFD - Miles and Miles of Fucking Desert (Used by the British during the Gulf War)
- RCH - Red Cunt Hair ([very small]unit of measure[, as in "just an RCH and it'll fit")]
- REMF - Rear Echelon Mother-Fucker (used for NCOs not in the front lines, i.e. radar operatives)
- RPG - Rape Prevention Goggles/Glasses. This acronym refers to the standard issue glasses. The acronym is based on the theory that wearing the glasses makes the user so visually unattractive so as to deter rape.
- RTFM - Read the fucking manual (quickly entered the computer subculture; less pejorative to the person asking the question are "RTFS" (RTF Source) and "RTFB" (RTF Binary))
- RTFMA - Read the fucking manual again
- SLUF - Short Little Ugly Fucker, descriptive of the Vought A-7 Corsair II, formery in service with the US navy.
- SNAFU - Situation normal, all fucked up (entered general language as neologism, so also: Situation Normal, All Fouled Up)
- SOL - when you're Shit-Out-of-Luck
- SSDD - Same Shit, Different Day
- SUSFU - Situation unchanged, still fucked up
- TARFU - Things are really fucked up
- WOFTAM - Waste of fucking time and money
Non-acronym slang and expressions
- and a Wake-up - the day you leave an ongoing duty assignment; usually meaning leaving combat zone or leaving the service. Used in a counting sense—if today is Monday and you leave service on Friday, and someone asks when you get out, the answer is "three days and a wake-up." (Tuesday-Thursday and Friday is "the wake-up")
- Ate up - Something that's messed up or not up to the standard.
- Bird Colonel - a full colonel, from the eagle insignia of grade, to distinguish from the one-grade-lower Lieutenant Colonel, whose insignia is a silver leaf.
- BooKoo - a lot; very good (from French beaucoup)
- BooKoo Bennies - lots of benefits; lot of good stuff
- Butter Bars - the insignia for a Second Lieutenant; from the appearance of the individual yellow bars on each shoulder or lapel.
- Candy Ass - usually a low-ranking officer, more rarely an NCO, who prides himself on enforcing petty regulations. Likely to give Mickey Mouse assignments and deal out chicken shit to enlisted personnel.
- Chicken Shit/chickenshit - petty harassment; unnecessary or inappropriate strict adherence to rules; make work (as making soldiers do a useless task to keep them busy when they'd like a break); from the fact that it is small (petty), dirty and nasty.
- Chow - food, or "breakfast/lunch/dinner". Example: "Is it time for chow yet?"
- Class A uniform - ordinary suit uniform sometimes worn in office-type work, always when wearing a uniform on leave.
- Chinese Fire Drill - An activity that gets messed up
- Cunt Cap - soft hat (officially "Garrison Hat") worn in summer with Class A uniform (from its shape)
- D-Day - the official day that war hostilities are to begin; or the day that a significant operation is to commence. Best known use is in the landing of allied troops in France in World War II. For precision there is also H-Hour and M-Minute
- DI - Drill instructor; sergeant specially trained for training recruits, wears a campaign hat
- Deucen-Half - common utility truck (2-1/2 ton truck—from "deuce-and-a-half")
- Enlisted personnel [man] [woman] - Generic term for anyone who is not a warrant officer or commissioned officer.
- E4 Mafia - See Specialist Mafia.
- Fatigues - work uniform; combat uniform; as opposed to "Class A Uniform"
- Fatigue Jacket - actually the shirt of the fatigue uniform. The outer jacket is called a Field Jacket.
- GI - Government Issue; originally used for government supplied equipment, often sardonically used by soldiers to refer to themselves.
- Gig line - visual straight line on fatigues formed by the fatigue jacket (actually a shirt), the brass belt buckle, and the fly of the fatigue pants
- Grade - Pay grade of a soldier, currently E1-E9 for enlisted personnel, W1-W4 for warrant officers, O1-O10 for commissioned officers. Each grade may translate to several ranks; i.e., Grade E4 may be a corporal (command position) or specialist (non-command).
- Gung Ho - true believer in the war or fighting, or enthusiastic about a mission or job, from Cantonese Chinese "working well"
- Gun - specifically, a machine gun, not a rifle or pistol, reflecting precision in description; colloquially, a penis, used to reinforce non-use of the term gun for rifle, as in the expression: "This is my rifle, this is my gun; this is for fighting, this is for fun".
- High Speed - a squared-away and highly motivated soldier.
- Jeep - small versatile utility vehicle, from "GP" - general purpose vehicle; usage discouraged in military since "Jeep" became a trademark for civilian vehicles. See LUV below
- Khakis - Class A unform consisting of tan colored shirt and pants optionally worn during warm weather. Usually starched. Although formerly common, khakis are no longer used in the US Army.
- Klicks - kilometers; approximately 5/8 mile each
- KP - periodic one-day duty assignment for lower grade soldiers to do mess hall work, ranging from helping to prepare food to cleaning out the grease traps (literally "Kitchen Police")
- Lifer - Soldier or officer who expects to serve as a soldier in the Regular Army until retirement. See also RA above. Often used disparagingly.
- Light Colonel - A Lieutenant Colonel; see Bird Colonel above.
- LUV or Light Utility Vehicle - a Jeep (see above), preferred usage since Jeep became a civilian vehicle trademark. Most made by Ford, not AMC-Jeep during 'Nam
- Joe - common soldier, esp. trainee, used as putdown (from "G.I. Joe")
- Mickey Mouse or Mickey Mouse Operation- petty regulation, make work, petty harassment
- Old Man - commanding officer
- Police or Police Up - Clean up an area, from the "bringing order" sense of police
- Railroad tracks - the insignia for a Captain; from its appearance of two connected silver bars
- Rank - named title of soldier with a particular grade and responsibility, such as Private, Specialist, Staff Sergeant, Captain, etc. See also grade.
- Real World - return to civilian life; or: return to USA from overseas
- Recruit - new soldier in training; esp. basic training; was description of lowest rank, which is now simply Private
- Short - soon to be released from service; usually 90 days or less
- Short-timers calendar - hand made calendar, usually a picture broken up into 90 numbered sections, which a soldier colored in each day to mark time left until departure from combat zone or service
- Special Processing Detachment (SPD) (or ...Unit, Company, etc.): Barracks in which soldiers being held before court martial or other disposition were held if it was felt inappropriate to leave them in their units, for confinement rather than punishment; if convicted would then go to the Stockade or military prison.
- Specialist - Rank of enlisted personnel, equivalent grade of a corporal (E4), but without command responsibility. A very common rank, encompassing most soldiers of E4 grade. Formerly there were Specialist grades for E5 to E9, described as "Specialist Five" or "Spec-Five" and so on. Before the Vietnam era similar non-command ranks were called Tech Sergeant
- Specialist Mafia - Also known as the E4 Mafia. Refers to a the specialists (who hold the paygrade of E4) of a military element. Often used to build an in-group between specialists against the higher ranking soldiers in a unit, just as an in-group develops between a unit's enlisted soldiers against the unit's officers.
- Top Kick or Top - first sergeant; head sergeant in unit
- TWs - lightweight Tropical Worsted wool summer Class A Uniform; so beloved by the wearers that the Army, which wanted to phase them out, kept putting off the end-date for about a decade. Finally phased out c.1968. Pronounced "Tee-Double-Youz"
- Uncle Sugar - Uncle Sam; the wisdom-filled government
- Yellow ribbon - Symbolic of memory of troops away from home, see article
- Your Ass is Grass - You're in trouble
- Your Ass is Grass and I'm the Mower - You're in trouble with me (usually a superior to a subordinate)
- Your Military Right [Left] - remark, usually to a trainee, that s/he has faced the wrong way on a marching command; also "Your Other Right"
- Zero Hour - The exact time slated for a planned attack
Field slang (esp. Vietnam usage)
- Bush - jungle; where you looked for VC
- Charlie - Viet Cong, from phonetic Victor Charlie
- Hooch - soldier's dwelling in-country, from hut to barracks
- In-country - Physically inside Vietnam on assignment, now used in any combat zone
- LBJ - Long Binh Jail, disciplinary barracks at Long Binh Post, sarcastic reference to Lyndon Baines Johnson
- Mama-san - In-country Asian regular girl-friend or wife (not a prostitute) who often lived with a soldier in a domestic relationship for his entire tour of duty (esp. in Korea). Not officially encouraged, circumstantially discouraged. Actual marriage strongly discouraged.
- Number One - Vietnamese English-language expression meaning "the best", sometimes used by a hooker as a come-on, "Hey, Joe, you number one."
- Number Ten - the worst
- REMF - Rear echelon mother fucker (i.e: anyone not assigned to a front line combat unit, used a lot in the field in 'Nam)
- VC - Viet Cong
Common Iraq slang:
- Hooch - soldier's dwelling in-country, from hut to barracks
- Hadji - an Iraqi
- In-country - Physically in a combat zone
- Wiskey-Tango-Foxtrot - What the fuck?
References
- The book Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) contains a great number of the above-mentioned acronyms, as does Full Metal Jacket.
See also
External links
Military Words (http://www.militarywords.com) searchable database of over 5700 US DoD terms plus military/government abbreviations