Military Talk - What Airman Say

[Hog Wally]

Keep screaming lieutenant we'll find you

[lee G.]

My son uses " Just living the Dream" a lot. He is AF

[dmorgan66]

Was in the Army.

Your gig line is crooked boy!

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

Still concentrate on my "gig line". NJROTC High School

[Smallieguy87]

I Served US Army from 05-09 as a medic. The terms stand by, wait one, squared away, you're beat up from the feet up, tore up from the floor up, this is a goat screw,SNAFU, FUMTU...etc were in use during that period of time. I think a lot of them are to good to go away.

[Old plug]

Having been Navy and dual Navy Marine Corp for a very short few weeks. I will agree with terrierman + 6 at least. I loved the Navy md would have stayed forever if I could have. I do not think any other service is filled with so much tradition.

Navy Jargon is hard to understand sometimes. Some of the best are.

The Head.------ Bathroom

Smoking lamp is lit or out----- This one is applied to many things it prohibits or authorizes certain activities. It is a historic term from the sailing ships.

Bulkhead------ Wall

Overhaed------ Cieling

Deck-------- Floor but also used to discribe mimium altitude a pilot might fly in a given area. It was for safety . Senator McCain got in trouble more than onece disregarding the Deck.

Shellback-------Sailors who have crossed the equator and been properly iniatated into the order. There are no exceptions to this. There are only two ranks for a few days before the crossing Shellback and Pollywog. On the day of the croosing every pollywog will present themselves in a formation on there knees face to the deck like amoslem prayer group. . They then will crawl through garbage shutes have, there face smeared into the Royal Babbys nasty belly, ( the fattest shellback on board) dumped into vats filled with garbage among other thing while crawling on his knees. It is really a revered Navy tradition. None of the following require initation

Golden Dragon ------ International date line

Golden Shellback------ crossing both of the above at the above

Blue Nose------ Artic Circle crossing

Royal Order of the Suez------Transit the canal

All the crossing are duly recorded in your service record and you are issued cards for each one.

Bosan pipe and Bells------- They signify time. They will be blasted throughout the ship through the speaker system

Fantail------ Farest rear decks before the stern.

Skivy------ Your under

[Smallieguy87]

I also forgot the late great "smoke em if you got em"

[Terrierman]

I also forgot the late great "smoke em if you got em"

Sir. The smoking lamp is lit. Aye Aye sir. Tell Saint Peter at the Golden Gate that you hate to make him wait, but you just have to have another cigarette. Aye Aye Sir.

At the top of your lungs in a double line outside the boot camp barracks, MCRD San Diego, August 1970. There are a lot more in the memory bank but they are not for this particular website.

[Old plug]

Terrierman---- In late 1960 they called Navy Wide for volunteers for a new program they discribe only as by land by sea and by air. They took every one that applied , even me when at that time I had a H 3 pgysical profile for hearing. They said it would improve after I left the flight deck. Well I went and they did not send us to regular UDT training. They put the worst marine DI's on us you can imagine. There whole purpose was to break us one way or other. There was no limitst to the things they would do and also say about tour girlfriend or family members. They iliminated volunteers by the droves every day. About the 3rd week a doctor questioned my H3 profile and they re- excmined it. That was the end for me right there. At that time there was no name for what we volunteered for. What they became was in time the Seals. I will be very homest I am almost certain I would NOT have made it to the end without blowing up. All you had to do was show excessive anger and you were gone right away. I was not far from that. I can understand now the reason for subjected us to such treatment. It takes very special mental atitude to even begin with.

[tippet7]

Other chair force terms I don't see.

"The air conditioning isn't working"

"What do you mean I have duty on the weekend"

"I am NOT going to p.t. that early in the morning"

"What do mean we have to get our own chow?"

Semper Fi