Military Slang

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

found a few more....

Arclight = The act or removing a grid square through the use of B-52s.

By the time I got in the Army, this had morphed into any time anyone was called upon to obliterate a target.

Horse Pill = any large tablet that it is mandatory to take.

Stimtab = the amphetamines (and later Provigil) they gave us in very limited circumstances to keep us awake (used very sparingly). I guessing someone got that term from The Forever War, though I'm not certain (Haldeman is a Vietnam Vet). I suspect the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq still use Provigil (someone confirm this for me), because by then I was using Provigil regularly to fight medication-caused drowsyness, and after the invasion of Afghanistan, Tricare took off their formulary and you had to have special permission from you doctor to get it. For the past three years, you haven't been able to get Provigil at all, and now I take concentrated Adderal.

Go Pill = The same as above.

Third Jerk = slang for the Third Lieutenant, that annoying West Point cadet in his junior year that spends his summer vacation with the troops.

We had a bunch of those assholes descend upon us about six weeks in when I went to OSUT (Basic+AIT put together). We already knew more about being in the Army than they did. And they insisted on calling us "troop," and they insisted on calling the Drill Sergeants just "Sergeant." (Anytime I saw a Drill Sergeant later on active duty, I still called them Drill Sergeant -- they've earned the respect.) And don't get me started on Pointers later on in the Army...

Torch = any flamethrower equipped tank.

Or in Vietnam, "Zippo" for the flamethrower equipped M-113s.

No-Goes: Active duty term for National Guardsmen (I never used it, since I started out as a National Guardsman).

Drop-and-pop: If you happen to accidentally land on or near the objective on a parachute drop, you were to immediately shed your parachute, leave where it lay without folding it up, and start fighting. (Happened sometimes because of wind drift.)

Grid-square weapon (or grid-square killer): an MLRS.