Army Slang & Acronyms:

Everything You Need to Know from Wikipedia, heavily edited for family reading!

• BOG - Boots On the Ground. Number of soldiers available.
• BTDT - Been There, Done That
• BTDTBTTS - Been There, Done That, Bought The T-Shirt
• FUBAR - F**ked Up Beyond All Recognition/Repair
• GI - Government Issue; originally used for government supplied equipment, often used by soldiers to refer to themselves.
• KP - Kitchen Patrol.
• LPCs - Leather Personnel Carriers, or combat boots.
• RnR - Rest and Relaxation (also R&R).
• SNAFU - Situation Normal: All F**ked Up

Non-Acronym Slang and Expressions

Rank:

• Bird Colonel - a full Colonel, from the eagle insignia of grade, to distinguish from the one-grade-lower Lieutenant Colonel, whose insignia is a silver leaf; also known as a "Full-Bird" Colonel, or simply, a "Full Bull"
• Black Diamond - a first sergeant, for the black diamond between the chevrons and rockers of subdued rank
• Brass, Brass Hats - Colonels and Generals
• Butter Bar - a Second Lieutenant, as well as their rank insignia; from the appearance of the yellow rectangle of the rank
• Buck Sergeant - Sergeant (E-5)
• Chicken in a Frypan - a Specialist (E-4) rank insignia, which has an eagle inside a shield
• Chief - the unofficial form of address for any Warrant Officer (WO-1 to CW-5)
• Company-grade (officer) - the ranks of Second Lieutenant, First Lieutenant, and Captain
• Command Specialist Major - Corporals (Specialist and Corporal are both E-4s, but Corporals are NCOs, and Specialists are just enlisted.)
• Enlisted Personnel (man or woman) - generic term for anyone who is not a Warrant Officer or commissioned officer
• Field-grade (officer) - the ranks of Major, Lieutenant Colonel, and Colonel
• First Lieutenant, Second Award - a Captain, so named because the insignia of grade consists of two parallel silver bars
• First Shirt - First Sergeant
• Full-Bird Colonel - see Bird Colonel, above
• Full-Bird Private - Specialist, from the eagle on the Specialist's insignia patch; similar to Full-Bird Colonel, see above
• Full Bull - see Bird Colonel, above
• Grade - pay-grade of a soldier, currently E-1 - E-9 for enlisted soldiers, W-1 - W-5 for Warrant Officers, O-1 - O-10 for Officers; each grade may translate to several ranks; i.e., Grade E-4 may be a Corporal (command position) or Specialist (Spec-4) (non-command)
• Hard Stripes - used to describe Corporal (CPL) stripes
• Light Colonel - Lieutenant Colonel; contrast with Bird Colonel, above
• Mosquito Wings - E-2 rank insignia (one chevron)
• Platoon Daddy - refers to the Platoon Sergeant, who is the lead NCO in a platoon
• Private Major - Private or Specialist who tries to act with authority they do not have
• Rank - named title of soldier with a particular grade and responsibility, such as Private, Specialist, Staff Sergeant, Captain, etc; see also grade, above
• Recruit - new soldier in training, esp. basic training; once the description of the lowest rank, which is now simply Private
• Sergeant Major - the First Sergeant's wife

Equipment

• Battle-Rattle - combat gear
• Brown Round - Drill Sergeant's hat
• Bunk - bunkbed
• Civvies - civilian clothing
• Class-A Uniform - the dress uniform (jacket and tie) sometimes worn in office
• Dash-Ten - an operator's manual for any piece of military equipment, vehicle or aircraft; all operator's manuals' reference numbers end in "-10."
• Dome of Obedience - slang for a Kevlar helmet
• Fast-Mover - a jet aircraft, especially one equipped to make runs
• Fatigues - an archaic term for the work/combat uniform
• Fatigue Jacket - the shirt of the fatigue uniform
• Full Battle-Rattle - the complete set of combat gear
• Gore-Tex - camouflaged, hooded outer jacket replacing traditional field jacket
• Hillbilly Armor - improvised vehicle armor
• John Wayne Bar - chocolate and toffee candybar found in C-Rations/MREs
• K-Pot - the ground troops' ballistic helmet; a contraction of "Kevlar" and "pot,"
• Ma Deuce - the Browning .50 caliber machinegun; from the weapon's actual designation, the "M2"
• Mickey Mouse Boots - 1) WWII term for the early issue lined combat boots;
• Salad - ribbons and medals, named for the color differences, just like a salad

Soldiers

• BB Stacker ­ soldiers involved with ordnance
• Brown Hat - Drill Sergeant
• Cadidiot - derogatory term for West Point and ROTC cadets; from the combination of the words "cadet" and "idiot"
• Cannon Fodder - Infantrymen
• Chair-borne Ranger - 1) a paper-pusher with Jump wings;
• Cookie - Mess Sergeant
• Crunchie ­ Mechanized infantry, because when they get run over by their APC's, them make a crunch sound.
• Drill - Drill Sergeant
• Greenie Beanie - Green Beret
• Ground-Pounder - see Grunt, below
• Grunt - Infantryman; historically associated with the sound a soldier makes when shouldering his field pack.
• Lifer - career military person
• Doc - a term of respect for medical professionals; generally used for medics
• Mud Puppy - military policemen
• Sparky - radio operator

Other terms

• Zero dark thirty, zero beer thirty - Slang terms for having to wake up very early in the morning and quitting time, respectively.
• Army Brat - the son or daughter of a career soldier
• Bennie - a benefit, a good surprise
• Bugout - a hasty retreat
• Chow - food, or "breakfast/lunch/dinner," as in, "Is it time for chow yet?"
• Fort Living Room - civilian life referred to when leaving the service
• Front-Leaning Rest - the push-up position
• GI Party - after-hours barracks cleaning detail
• Gut Truck - food vendor on wheels, esp. in training areas
• Hurry Up and Wait - describes the hurry to get ready and the early wake up times that lead to sitting around for hours with nothing to do.
• Klicks - kilometers; .6214 mile each
• John Wayne - act of improperly wearing a helmet with the chinstrap unfastened
• Land of the Big PX - refers to the United States of America
• Mess - meal
• Mess Hall - dining facility
• Re-up - to re-enlist
• Real World - return to civilian life; return to USA from overseas
• Roger - "I understand," used for radio communication
• Sandbox or Box - training area
• Side-Straddle Hop - jumping-jacks
• Time hack - a rough schedule of the day's events
• Wall-to-Wall Counseling - to physically beat a subordinate in order to impress

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