Military Slang

[perardua]

A few British (mainly RAF) ones:

IW - Individual Weapon (the L85A2 rifle)
LSW - Light Support Weapon
LMG - Light Machine Gun
UGL - Underslung Grenade Launcher
GPMG - General Purpose Machine Gun
HMG - Heavy Machine Gun
GMG - Grenade Machine Gun
The General/Gimpy (pronounced 'jimpy') - L7A2 General Purpose Machine Gun
STAB - Stupid Territorial Army Bastard (now a generic term for most reservists)
Crow - British Army equivalent of FNG, generally accompanied by cawing sounds.
Sprog - RAF version of FNG, though the RAF Regiment use Crow and Sprog interchangeably
NATO Standard Tea - Tea with milk and two
Julie Andrews - Tea with milk but no sugar (or white, none)
Greeny - Container for 81mm mortar ammunition, often made into oversized mugs
Combat Body Warmer/Combat Corset - Name for Combat Body Armour
Rock, Scissors, Paper, Tour - Method of deciding order of importance between low ranking personnel (i.e. whoever has had the most operational deployments wins)
Station Bike - RAF term for a promiscuous Airwoman.
WAAF Arse - Derogatory term for the oversized posterior seemingly possessed by all female members of the RAF. Commonly believed to be a standard issue item.
Rock Ape/Rock - Nickname for members of the RAF Regiment
Guin - Short for penguin, derogatory term used by members of the RAF Regiment to refer to all other trades in the RAF.
Snowdrop - RAF Police, so called because of their white hats.
LMF - Acronym for Lack of Moral Fibre.
Squipper - Safety Equipment Fitter
Gash - Rubbish/not very good
Good drills - General term of approval
Bull Night - The frenzied night of cleaning that occurs before a block inspection.
Mudguard - The RAF Regiment shoulder tab

[Sanjuro]

You forgot:
Whoopie Goldberg: tea or coffee, no milk, no sugar (aka black, none)

[95th Rifleman]

Back in my NAAFI days I spent most of my career on RAF bases. The RAF have nicknames for their tech specialties

Avionics: Fairy
Engines: Sooty
Armourer: Plumber
Electronics: Sparky
Airframes: Rigger

[Sanjuro]

Some techies used the nickname growbags for aircrew; especially aircrew who did their ground duties in flying kit instead of in blues.
Because (allegedly!) they're green, and full of ****.

[dragoon500ly]

Don't forget

Amei or Amy = German slang for an American.

Barracks Bandit = any enlisted man that spends his European tour in the barracks, usually with an expensive stereo system, getting drunk on American beer and whining because there is nothing to do after duty hours.

Black Hole = any terrain feature that is utterly and completely impassable to armored vehicles, almost always has two or three stuck in it. Always results in a glazed and confused lieutenant.

Bring Smoke = Hitting the enemy with anything and everything at one time.

Gausthouse Commando = Any soldier who spends his off duty time helping the local economy prosper by infusing their paycheck in drinking German beer, eating German food and in pursuit of any German woman.

Glazed = Any Lieutenant in their first year.

Glazed and Confused = Any company grade officer, after being reamed by the Colonel.

God Bird = any helicopter, usually hovering overhead, that has a high ranking officer "advising" the troops on the ground on how to do their job. HIGHLY Insulting. Also referred to as Godding, God D**ned, F**king God.

Hammerhead = any TUA (TOW Under Armor).

I.M. Dumbjohn = Any West Pointer.

Mustang = Any officer that served a prior tour as an enlisted man. Usually highly skilled, on the ball and respected by their troops and hated by the regular officer caste.

Ole Leaky = any M-901, they leak almost as bad as a Chinook!

Pentagon Commando = Any officer that manages to spend their career no further east than Washington D.C. and no further west than Alexandria, Virginia. NOT a compliment!

Raining = Using MLRS to clear a grid square. "We're gonna rain the grid square" "We're raining that location", "Its been rained."

Rat F**K = old school nickname for the reaction force.

Ringknockers Association, = That West Point clique dedicated to keeping their members out of serious trouble while advancing their careers.

Rockhead = Any member of the Third Infantry Division, play on the division nickname "Rock of the Marne".

Rotcee = Play on ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) those straight from college lieutenants that are either very, very good, or totally worthless.

Smoke'em! = Open fire, bring the hurt on, etc.

Vimmie = VMI grad, an officer who graduated from the Virginia Military Institute, they totally suck at football, but have had more more members serve as Chief of Staff than West Point. Also used to praise a lieutenant that is on the ball. "He's a vimmie."

[perardua]

Another key British phrase/concept is that of 'gen' (pronounced jen). Gen has several meanings, but is most commonly used to mean information, as in "here's the gen", or "what's the gen?" However, it can also be used to convey that something is the gospel truth, as in "that's gen".

Furthermore, when someone questions the veracity of a statement, they may be asked to "gen it". If they gen it (by saluting with their right fist and saying gen), that person is considered to have staked their eyebrow on the truth of what they have just said. If it later turns out to be false, they will be required to remove their eyebrow, or will have it removed for them. It is possible to double-gen something, which can lead to both eyebrows being shaved off.

[Panther Al]

WPPA = West Point Protective Association: The informal body that serves to keep fellow grads of West Point safe from any negative actions due them, and to ensure that the best assignments fall their way.

Nasty Girl = Member of the National Guard.

Head Shed = Where all the officers hang out.

Talking out of his Brass = An NCO or Junior Officer trying to ingrate himself to senior officers.

(the) Musket = The M16. Usually found in units that are predominately equipped with M4's.

[dragoon500ly]

And here's a few more!

Air Mattress = nickname for the 82nd Airborne

Believer = any dead enemy soldier.

Blanket Division = the 1st Cavalry Division, proud owners of the largest shoulder patch in existence! AKA "Horse Blanket"

Bloody One = Nickname for the 1st Infantry Division.

Butterfly = conducting a patrol on multiple paths and changing patrol formations at random.

Button up = in tanks, the slamming closed of all hatches due to fire, usually screamed in annoying high levels over the intercom.

Bushbeater = any dismounted infantryman

Cloverleaf = patrol technique in which component units move out from the main body and loop back into the vicinity of the main body's direction. Used to cover large amounts of ground when contact is doubtful.

Contact = Usually screamed over the radio, ie CONTACT LEFT! CONTACT TWO OCLOCK!, alerts the platoon as to the direction of enemy contact.

Dead Space = any area that cannot be covered by fire or observation due to terrain, or in case of tanks, having to button up.

Doc = Beloved title given to a Army medic.

Drag = any unit covering the rear of a larger unit, usually to secure the rear from attack.

Dust-Off = term for any medical evacuation helicopter.

Electric Strawberry = Nickname for the 25th Infantry Division's "Tropic Lightning" patch

Foogas = containers of jellied gasoline, often used as an antipersonnel weapon.

Frag = any fragmentation hand grenade.

Fragging = refers to the act of killing an officer or NCO by tossing a frag into their tent.

F***in Fourth = Beloved nickname of the 4th Infantry Division.

Hotel Alpha = HA or haul a**

Hump = the act of carrying a rucksack aka humping.

Lifer = a career soldier.

Mad Minute = the act of firing all weapons at max rate for a specific period of time. Sounds crazy, but it is usually timed for an expected enemy attack and is intended to through off their attack.

Marching Fire = dismounted infantry firing from the hip while advancing.

Next = any soldier due to rotate back to the states within the next few days.

One oh Worst = insulating nickname of the 101st Airborne.

Out F***ing Standing! = Refers to the excellent (but unnecessary) job just performed by a**kisser currently kneeling in front of the CO.

Piss tube = any mortar tube

Rock-n-roll! = set all weapons to full automatic and hose the country side!

Rules of Engagement = any set of regulations or directives designed to give the enemy the maximum possible advantage in any engagement with US forces.

Shake-n-bake! = any NCO or officer who has been promoted ahead of the curve, usually highly insulting.

Turtle = your replacement, nicknamed that way due to the extended amount of time it took him to show up.

Zap = to shoot and hit a enemy soldier, usually making a believer of him.