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military slang and sayings (Some may be mildly offensive)

GICOP: Good Idea Cut-Off Point. The point at which the leader in charge tells everyone in a planning session that no more of their 'good ideas' will be considered for mission planning. Used to drag planning meetings back out of rabbitholes, prevent mission creep, and to get idiots who don't know they're idiots to stop talking and knock if off with their inane unworkable recommendations.

Bird Roaster 20ft satellite transmitter dish.


Jumping Rat A mythical creature known to inhabit military supply buildings, especially supply cages that haven't been inventoried in a long time. These aggressive predators are the dread of section OICs who think going home early is more important than taking care of their property. Normal rat feces and/or desiccated corpses are regularly pointed to as evidence of the savage nature of the Jumping Rat.
 
Tiikeri said:
Jumping Rat A mythical creature known to inhabit military supply buildings, especially supply cages that haven't been inventoried in a long time. These aggressive predators are the dread of section OICs who think going home early is more important than taking care of their property. Normal rat feces and/or desiccated corpses are regularly pointed to as evidence of the savage nature of the Jumping Rat.
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Hmm, that one I have never heard of, and I was a US Army supply officer. As for going home early and not taking care of property, I was the one that signed for the unit property book, and any shortages would come out of my inadequate pay if they could not be otherwise accounted for. Overages ware far worse to deal with, as explaining where they came from was normally impossible.
 
timerover51 said:
Hmm, that one I have never heard of, and I was a US Army supply officer.
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That's because I made it up to torment a retarded operations officer who wouldn't do her job, but who was conveniently afraid of rats. She believed me too. There were several people present at the time, so the legend of the Jumping Rat was born.
 
I have encountered those as well, and not just in the Army.

The Scrounge: An individual who always seems to know that extra stuff has been stashed and how to get it. Generally has some knowledge of how the supply system works and knows how to exploit its loopholes. Great if he or she is in your unit, not so great if they in one near you. Tends to have several Conex containers stashed in odd and hard to get to places.

Note: I have a couple of good ones working for me in Alaska, which greatly assisted during winter field exercises. The Battalion Maintenance Warrant Officer was also one of the best scrounges on post. Aside from spare parts, as in still fully usable used parts, he had a couple of Conexs of ammunition stashed away as ell. We always had extra ammo following a familiarization shoot, as we always drew enough for everyone who was supposed to show up, knowing that about 10% would not make it for various legitimate reasons. We had to have it if they were there however. Supply units normally are not high on the list for ammunition resupply.

Note 2: I was also the Official Scrounge for one of the last GenCon conventions in Milwaukee. Quite an interesting position to be in.
 
timerover51 said:
I have encountered those as well, and not just in the Army.

The Scrounge: An individual who always seems to know that extra stuff has been stashed and how to get it. Generally has some knowledge of how the supply system works and knows how to exploit its loopholes. Great if he or she is in your unit, not so great if they in one near you. Tends to have several Conex containers stashed in odd and hard to get to places.

Note: I have a couple of good ones working for me in Alaska, which greatly assisted during winter field exercises. The Battalion Maintenance Warrant Officer was also one of the best scrounges on post. Aside from spare parts, as in still fully usable used parts, he had a couple of Conexs of ammunition stashed away as ell. We always had extra ammo following a familiarization shoot, as we always drew enough for everyone who was supposed to show up, knowing that about 10% would not make it for various legitimate reasons. We had to have it if they were there however. Supply units normally are not high on the list for ammunition resupply.

Note 2: I was also the Official Scrounge for one of the last GenCon conventions in Milwaukee. Quite an interesting position to be in.
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An excellent example in fiction is James Garner's "Flight Lieutenant Hendley" in the Great Escape. He's not greedy, just getting the stuff they need for the effort, and keeping something nice for himself.
 
MThompson016 said:
An excellent example in fiction is James Garner's "Flight Lieutenant Hendley" in the Great Escape. He's not greedy, just getting the stuff they need for the effort, and keeping something nice for himself.
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I thought that character fit James Garner very nicely given his previous role in the Maverick TV series. I did enjoy watching him in Maverick, and also The Great Escape.
 
Some Israeli military slang:

Calimero (Hebrew: קלימרו) - Military Police. Comes from the white "eggshell"-like helmets they used to wear, which reminded soldiers of the Calimero cartoon.

קלימרו-2--- by golan2072, on Flickr

Robber (Hebrew: Gazlan גזלן) - privately-operated kiosk or food truck near a military base or training ground. Usually has little or no competition and thus gouges prices accordingly.
 
any room here for equipment nicknames?

USS Carl Vinson - "chuckboat", "quarter mile island", "cvn-0070"
USS Enterprise - "the prize"

F4J(?) - "spook"
SSBN - "boomer"
destroyer - "can"
 
timerover51 said:
I have encountered those as well, and not just in the Army.

The Scrounge: An individual who always seems to know that extra stuff has been stashed and how to get it. Generally has some knowledge of how the supply system works and knows how to exploit its loopholes. Great if he or she is in your unit, not so great if they in one near you. Tends to have several Conex containers stashed in odd and hard to get to places.
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Scrounging is a well-honed art in the british army, often at the expense of other parts of the army. the saying goes, "one mans Buckshee (free item) is another mans Diffie" (deficient, as it "missing")

a few more i'd like to add to the mix:

7 questions: a formal planning tool of the british army, the list is here
. the basic idea is if you have answers to all these questions, your plan should be at least half-way to workable.

7 Ps: Informal Planning tool and acronym. stands for Prior Preparation and Planning Prevents P*ss Poor Performance.

Ally : army fashion, basically. somewhat hard to define, as its as fluid as real fashions, but basically comes down to personalising your combat kit to look good, or at least not standard issue. simplest way to put it, this man is ally, this man is not.

Egg banjo: a sandwich with a fried egg in it, normally with bacon or sausage as well. name comes form the tendency to bite into it, get egg yoke over your shirt, then to hold it off to one side while trying to get the yoke off your shirt (which looks rather like your playing a banjo)


Chin-strapped: exhausted, to the point the only thing holding you up is the chin strap of your helmet.


THEM: the blurred face brigade. the "if i told you, i'd have to kill you" guys. the "I was the Third man on the Iranian Embassy balcony" Appreciation Society. the Walter Mitty Hunters Club. the Sneaky Beakies. the Special Air Service. Y'know, THEM.
 
whartung said:
My favorite of these is the USS Theodore Roosevelt -- The Stick.
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One of our sister DDGs... The USS Ricketts DDG-5. Apparently they couldn't move the ship without making smoke bellow out of the ship's stacks.

So some of our guys, and it apparently was taken up by other ships, would say

'Must be the Ricketts, the only coal fired ship left in the US Navy !' as someone out on deck sees black smoke on the horizon.

Of course, it might tirn out to be a freighter, then the talk would change to:

'Gee, it looks just like a freighter, the Ricketts must have some new camo thing going on.'
 
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HMS Courageous and HMS Furious: a pair battlecruisers that were build mainly for a pet project of first sea lord of the admiralty, Jackie Fisher, they earned the nicknames Outrageous and Spurious.

HMS Bellerophon: 74 gun ship of the line, Known to her (mostly illiterate and not classically minded) crew as the Billy Ruffian

HMS Warspite: the Grand Old Lady, as she served ably in both world wars and earnt more battle honours than any other ship in the Royal Navy.

L86 Light Support Weapon (LSW): the standard british assault rifle, with a longer, heavier barrel and built in bipod. called the Long Silly Weapon, as its not really a proper LMG, but closer to was the USMC IAR is now, a assault rifle optimised for full auto fire.


L7 GPMG: 7.62mm belt fed machine gun, same weapon as the M240 and FN MAG (as the L7 and M240 are licenced copies of the FN MAG). normally pronounced something like "gym-p", or "the General".
 
Xerxeskingofking said:
L7 GPMG: 7.62mm belt fed machine gun, same weapon as the M240 and FN MAG (as the L7 and M240 are licenced copies of the FN MAG). normally pronounced something like "gym-p", or "the General".
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When I was commissioned the Medium Machinegun (issued 2 per infantry platoon) was the M60, affectionately referred to as the "pig." They had a bad reputation among those that only had the opportunity to fire them using blanks because the blank firing adapter sucked. Once you got to fire live rounds, attitudes changed.
 
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