Earthmover (290): a long cavernous metal container on wheels connected by a universal hitch to a diesel cab; below the metal container a wide, adjustable cutting blade hangs at a slant, facing forward (like a vegetable slicer), that cuts swaths of dirt into the metal container when the blade is lowered and pulled across the ground.
Eleven Bravo: nickname for a trained infantryman; based on the numerical designation of an infantryman’s military occupational specialty (MOS), that being 11B10.
EM Club: Enlisted Men’s Club; provides beer and entertainment for soldiers under the rank of sergeant; NCOs and officers have their own clubs, but NCOs in Vietnam often drink at EM clubs; see NCO.
Firebase (or Fire Support Base—FSB): usually a small encampment having six or more howitzers (105-mm and/or 155-mm) that provide artillery support for patrolling units and other encampments.
Flack Jacket: a thick, heavy, fiberglass-filled vest worn for protection from shrapnel; offers protection from small arms fire, too, but not as effectively.
Frag or Fragged: murder or injury of an officer or NCO by use of a fragmentation grenade.
Gook: derogatory term for a Vietnamese person.
Grunt: an infantry soldier serving in combat operations.
Gunner: a machine gun operator on a helicopter; see Door Gunner.
Gunship: a heavily armed helicopter; also a heavily armed C-130 Hercules Airplane with three or four mini-guns that fire out an open side of the plane’s fuselage—nicknamed “Puff the Magic Dragon.”
Hand Grenade: see M26 hand grenade.
Hooch: a Vietnamese house or hut; also GI living quarters.
HQ: headquarters; often used as an abbreviation for a headquarters building, as in “Bravo Company’s HQ” or “Headquarters Company’s HQ.”
Huey: UH-1 helicopter, its side doors usually opened or removed; used for troop transport, medical evacuation, and fire support for ground troops; the workhorse of the Vietnam War.
IG Inspection: an inspection by representatives of the Office of Inspector General, once every six to twelve months, of every aspect of a major Army unit; military units prepare for months before its occurrence.
Incoming: enemy mortar rounds, rockets or small arms fire coming in on your position.
Incounty: short for “in Vietnam.”
Iron Triangle: a triangle of heavily forested land about ten miles northeast of Cu Chi and twenty-five miles northeast of Saigon; between the Saigon River on the west and the Tinh River on the east; the site of a large underground complex of tunnels used by the VC; U.S. and ARVN military units that ventured into the Iron Triangle experienced extensive VC resistance.
Jesus Nut: helicopter rotor nut that holds the main rotor on the mast; if the nut comes off while the chopper is in the air, the rotor flies off, the chopper drops like a stone, and people on board meet Jesus.
Jungle Hat or Floppy Bush Hat: broad-brimmed, green cloth hat worn by American troops instead of heavy, sound-distorting steel helmets.
KA-BAR Knife: the standard KA-BAR knife has a wooden handle and a seven-inch steel blade with a two-inch indentation along the shank to reduce weight (popularly called a “blood groove” but technically called a “fuller”); designed for combat by KA-BAR Knives, Inc.; adopted by the Marines in 1942 as a standard-issue weapon and utility tool.
KIA: Killed in action.
Klick: short for kilometer; one klick is a little over half a mile or 3280 feet.
Lai Khe Base Camp: northwest of Cu Chi about forty miles from Saigon on Highway QL-13; a major base camp and headquarters for the 1st Infantry Division (Big Red One).
Land of the Giant PX: America, where you can buy anything.
Laterite: reddish soil found in the tropics (rich in iron, quartz, and hydrates of alumina); can be spread, watered, and compacted into a hard surface for use as road bed; older tunnels dug in laterite soil, like many tunnels under Cu Chi, have walls hardened like concrete from humidity .
LAW (M72): a Light Anti-tank Weapon weighing 5.5 pounds; fires a four- pound rocket from two extended telescoping tubes balanced on the GI’s shoulder; the rocket’s propellant is fully expended before the rocket leaves the tubes, the exhaust blowing out the open end of the rear tube; the blast from the shaped explosive in the rocket can penetrate a foot of armor; this is the American version of the RPG (rocket propelled grenade) used by VC and NVA soldiers.
LBJ: the Long Binh Jail; also the initials of Lyndon Baines Johnson, U.S. President from November 1963 to January 1969 when Richard Nixon became president.
Lifer: (1) a person committed to the military as a career; (2) a derogatory term used by draftees for career soldiers; (3) anybody who puts unrealistic emphasis on military rules and regulations above care and concern for the men themselves.
M14 Rifle: U.S. Army semi-automatic rifle; fired 7.62mm bullets; replaced by the M16.
M16 Rifle: U.S. Army rifle that replaced the M14 rifle; semi- and fully automatic; weighs about 7.6 pounds with a full magazine; fires high-velocity 5.56mm bullets at 650-700 rounds per minute; copper-covered M16 rounds are designed to tumble on impact, creating a large irregular wound, thereby violating the spirit and intent of the Geneva Convention’s ban on break-apart or mushrooming bullets.
M26 Hand Grenade: a twenty-six ounce fragmentation grenade with a smooth outer surface shaped like a large lemon; a chemical, non-smoking fuse is activated by a spring-loaded hammer; the hammer is held back by a handle (or spoon) extending the length of the grenade and locked in place by a pin; when the pin is pulled out and the grenade is thrown, the handle flips off and the hammer hits the fuse; four or five seconds later the explosive is detonated; the explosion causes a long, serrated wire—coiled between the explosive and the inner surface of the grenade’s outer casing—to fragment into pellets that blow outward in a killing radius of ten feet and a wounding radius of forty-five feet.
M60 Machine Gun: U.S. Army machine gun; fires 7.62mm bullets in linked belts (100 rounds to a belt) at 550 rounds per minute; effective range about one mile; designed to be manned by a gunner and one ammo carrier/assistant.
M72 LAW: see LAW.
M79 Grenade Launcher: single-shot, 40-mm grenade launcher carried by troops; looks like a pregnant shotgun the length of a man’s arm; fires fragmentation grenades with a five-meter casualty radius; alternate rounds include high explosive, heavy buckshot, smoke, and illumination rounds; see Blooper.
MACV: Military Assistance Command Vietnam is central headquarters for all U.S. forces in South Vietnam and is located at Tan Son Nhut Air Force Base; General William Westmoreland, stationed at MACV, was in command of all U.S. military forces from June 1964 to July 1968 when he was replaced by General Creighton Abrams.
Mama-San: a Vietnamese woman, usually older.
MARS: Military Affiliate Radio System, or, Military Amateur Radio Services; a network of ham-operated, short-wave radio connections that allow troops in Vietnam to converse with friends and loved ones back in the States.
MEDCAP: Medical Civil Action Program; free medical treatment for Vietnamese villagers provided on-site by traveling U.S. and ARVN medics.
MEDEVAC: Medical evacuation of wounded by helicopter; see “dust-off.”
Military Payment Certificates (MPC): “Funny money” issued to GIs in place of U.S. currency so U.S. dollars cannot accumulate and be used by the NVA or VC to buy military supplies on the black market from manufacturers in other nations; the design printed on the MPC changes every four to six months—the day before the change occurs, troops are notified that on the following day they should exchange their old MPC for new MPC since the day after that, the MPC bearing the old design will be worthless.
Military Time: counting starts at 1:00 p.m., which in military time is 0100 hours (pronounced “oh one hundred hours”); 2:00 p.m. is 0200 hours (oh two hundred hours), and so on, adding one hundred for each remaining hour of the 24-hour cycle; so noon is 1200 hours (pronounced “twelve hundred hours”), 1:00 a.m. is 1300 hours, and midni
ght is 2400 hours. Minutes are expressed the same as civilian time, so eighteen minutes after midnight is 2418 (“Twenty-four hundred hours eighteen minutes”).
Mini-Gun: a machine gun with five or six rotating barrels driven by an electric motor; fires 7.62mm bullets at 6,000 rounds a minute.
MOS: Military Occupation Specialty is the kind of work in which a soldier is trained, e.g., an infantryman’s MOS is 11B10 (commonly called “Eleven Bravo”), and a clerk/typist’s MOS is 71B30.
MPC: see Military Payment Certificates.
National Liberation Front: a South Vietnamese national and political organization created in 1960 to attract support for overthrowing the South Vietnamese government of Ngo Dinh Diem and unifying the country (north and south) under communist rule; it tried to hide its communist intent; its military arm was the People’s Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF), most commonly referred to in the West as the Viet Cong (VC).
NCO: Noncommissioned Officers are sergeants (all categories) who move up in rank by promotion; by contrast, lieutenants, captains, and colonels, etc., receive their ranks by commission.
Newbie: anybody newly arrived in Vietnam.
NLF: see National Liberation Front.
Number One: slang for “most,” “best,” “highest,” “greatest.”
NVA: the North Vietnamese Army controlled by communist Hanoi.
Papa-San: a Vietnamese man, usually older.
Parade-Rest: heels twelve inches apart; legs straight and rear edges of heels touching imaginary line running behind all men in that formation row; hands held at back, right hand in left palm unless a weapon or other device is held, in which case device is held in front of body, arms hanging loose, hands holding device at waist or groin level.
Personnel File (201): Official Military Personnel File (OMPF); file folder that contains a soldier’s records; when he moves from one military unit to another, he carries his personnel file with him; once assigned to a military unit, his 201 file is stored in that unit’s headquarters’ personnel office.
PIO or PIO Clerk: Public Information Office or PIO officer or clerk.
Point Man: the leading GI of a squad or platoon walking in the boonies; he discovers trip wires and potential ambushes and warns buddies who are following him.
Poncho: a square nylon sheet for protection from the rain; has a hole and a hood in the middle for a soldier’s head, and snaps on the edges to fasten the sides of the sheet around the soldier’s arms in baggy sleeves.
Pop Smoke: a smoke grenade is “popped” or released to give a predetermined sign that a landing site is clear or something was seen, etc. Various colors of smoke are available, e.g., red, green, yellow, and white.
POW: Prisoner of War.
PRC-25 Portable Radio: the “prick 25” is a backpack radio for communication in the field; weighs about 23½ pounds; the squad or platoon’s radio-telephone operator (RTO) carries it strapped to his back; the high aerial makes the PRC radio operator a prime target for snipers.
Pucker Factor: a measurement of the tightness of a person’s asshole when he or she is experiencing fear, thus a measurement of fear; #1 is considered the tightest or greatest possible fear.
Puff the Magic Dragon (also Puff or Spooky): A Douglas AC-47D transport plane converted to a gunship by instillation of three or four 7.62mm Gatling Mini-guns (each firing 6,000 rounds a minute, a tracer every fifth round) mounted in the port side of the fuselage; approx. 16,500 rounds are carried on a typical mission; flying in a circle, with the plane tipped toward the center, and firing out the side of the plane will produce, due to the tracers, a visual effect called “the cone of fire” where the cone’s tip is on the ground.
PX: Post Exchange (general store for military personnel).
Quad-Fifties: four .50-caliber machine guns mounted two over and two under, often on an armored personnel carrier (APC); capable of firing all at the same time.
Razor Wire: see concertina wire.
R & R: Rest and Recreation (or Rest & Relaxation); every soldier in Vietnam is allowed one week of R & R at approved locations—Bangkok and Hawaii are most popular—plane tickets free of charge.
Ready Rolls: originally a name used in the early 20th century for commercial cigarettes rolled by machine rather than by hand; the name was adopted by GIs in Vietnam for marijuana cigarettes made and sold to GIs by the Vietnamese; a Kools cigarette is rolled vertically between a worker’s hands until all the tobacco falls out leaving a tube of paper with a menthol-flavored filter at one end; the worker then fills the tube with finely cleaned top quality pot, twists the end of the paper tube shut, collects twenty of them in the original Kools package, reseals it, and sells it for the equivalent of two American dollars, a lot of money in the Vietnamese economy.
REGS: official Army regulations or Department of Defense regulations.
REMF: an acronym for "rear echelon mother fucker," a derogatory phrase used by grunts in the field to describe men working as support personnel on safe and secure base camps and seldom exposed to the dangers of combat. Four-fifths or more of all soldiers who serve in the Vietnam War are REMFs, which is also true of most other wars.
Re-Up: re-enlistment in the armed forces; provides bonus pay and sometimes one’s choice of assignment.
Revetments: sturdy, free-standing walls five or six feet high and fifteen feet or more long; designed for protection of choppers against mortars and rockets.
Round: one bullet, shell, or projectile (fired or unfired).
Roving Guard: an armed guard on the perimeter of a large base camp who walks back and forth behind assigned bunkers looking for sappers or other enemy who sneak through the perimeter defenses.
RPG: Rocket Propelled Grenade; fired from a variety of handheld devices; the rocket is similar to that of the LAW and has a shaped charge for punching through armor.
RTO: Radio-Telephone Operator; most units in the field have one or more RTOs; in the field, RTOs carry PRC-25 radios for communication with other field units and base commanders, and for calling in artillery and air strikes as well as dust-offs. See PRC-25.
S-1: a battalion’s central legal and administrative office.
Sappers: VC or NVA who sneak through U.S. base camp defenses and plant explosives they’ve carried with them or commit other acts of aggression.
Satchel Charge: an explosive carried in a canvas satchel by infiltrating sappers.
Short: having few days left before DEROSing (going home).
Short-Timer: a person with only weeks or days left before DEROSing (going home).
Short-Timer’s Calendar: a cartoon figure (often Yosemite Sam from Bugs Bunny cartoons) drawn so short his head rests on his combat boots; picture is divided into 365 numbered spaces (like a paint-by-the-number picture) and each day the soldier colors in another numbered space, starting with space #365 and then space #364, etc., until only one space is left—space #1, DEROS day—the day the soldier leaves for home; most commonly used by REMFs who have a locker, next to a cot, on which to hang their calendars.
Silver Bird of Paradise: the name Vietnam GIs give the commercial, silver-winged passenger plane that takes us back home.
Sit-Reps: Situation Reports; term most often used for reports received over the radio.
Slope Head: derogatory term for Vietnamese people.
SOP: Standard Operating Procedure.
SPC-4 & SPC-5: pronounced “speck four” and “speck five”; clerks, cooks, mechanics, engineers, and other men with non-combat training are ranked in the Army as Specialist Four or Specialist Five; SPC-5 is equivalent to the lowest grade sergeant. (See “Army Enlisted Ranks.”)
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