Favorite Military "sayings"

rudiewhitebwoy said:
The one I haven't seen is " Shines like a diamond in a goat's ass". Is this considered Military jargon or just some inbred Rowley saying, and what the He'll does it mean?
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I've heard that while in the Marines.

It means that among a group of people, that there are non-performers (the goat's ass) and also a person who is the exception (the diamond).

The exception stands out.

(Now, standing out among the group in a military context may or may not be in a person's best interest.)
 
rudiewhitebwoy said:
My Dad was ROTC at BU, when graduated, he did his basic at Ft.Drum in N.Y. Is it SOP that Air Force does basic on an Army Base?
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The USAF has only been legally independent of the Army since 1947. It took them quite awhile to start up their own bases, uniforms, doctrine, culture, and training MOIs. I don't know when they stopped using Army bases and became entirely independent, but I know that West Pointers could take a commission in the Air Force instead of the Army as late as the mid-50s if they intended to fly. USAFA didn't graduate its first class until 1959, which gives some idea of how long it took to iron out officer accessions.

Your dad was in a transitional period, that's all. His time in the USAF is probably a lot like people joining the Space Corps now: they still use USAF bases and curriculum, and they will for quite awhile. But they're trying hard to make themselves different.
 
Picton said:
The USAF has only been legally independent of the Army since 1947. It took them quite awhile to start up their own bases, uniforms, doctrine, culture, and training MOIs. I don't know when they stopped using Army bases and became entirely independent, but I know that West Pointers could take a commission in the Air Force instead of the Army as late as the mid-50s if they intended to fly. USAFA didn't graduate its first class until 1959, which gives some idea of how long it took to iron out officer accessions.

Your dad was in a transitional period, that's all. His time in the USAF is probably a lot like people joining the Space Corps now: they still use USAF bases and curriculum, and they will for quite awhile. But they're trying hard to make themselves different.
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Not sure how this fact plays into all that, but the Army didn't formally organize an aviation branch until 1983!
 
Andy in NH said:
Not sure how this fact plays into all that, but the Army didn't formally organize an aviation branch until 1983!
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Wow!

Makes sense. I know that when you see pictures of aviators in Vietnam, a lot of them are wearing Engineer brass.

I think the service-academy thing (and, for awhile, a concurrent ROTC thing) was based on the lack of options. If you were a bright kid who wanted to fly jets in 1953, you wanted to join the Air Force... but there was no USAFA and there probably weren't many USAF ROTC programs yet, because there would not have been enough USAF field-grades and senior NCOs to staff them. So it made sense for the Army to take on some of that burden.
 
“Lima Lima Mike Foxtrot.”

We were on a pre-REFORGER exercise 1994 and one of our Scout M113’s had not checked in when we got to a phase line. Cav platoons are routinely so spread out none of the five scout vehicles could see each other. The four tanks usually operated together, somewhat behind us. So no big deal but I radio’d him “Fix, Over.”

The TC of that vehicle was a very experienced Scout NCO. He Iimmediately replied “Lima Lima Mike Foxtrot.” I was puzzled as that wasn’t any sort of code we used. But the VC, Sergeant Plummer (whose nickname was “Bigfoot”), was laughing.

Over the intercom: “Sergeant Plummer, what is “Lima Lima Mike Foxtrot?”

”Sir, it means ‘Lost like a motherf***er.” [rofl]
 
I entered the Lumber world in the mid 70's. In order to avoid mistakes over the phone when ordering Plywood we used WWII Phonetic code. The four veneer grades were Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog. Now when I try to clarify my specs over the phone to some Gen-Xer, they have no phucking idea what I'm talking about. I told this one dip shit, AC, AC, Anal Cuckold. Then he got it.
 
Smoke um if you gotta um, DEROS date of estimated return from overseas station, FIGMO Fuc* it got my orders. Conus continental U.S. , TDY temporary duty. R R rest and relaxation.
 
I'm not sure anyone has added this one yet (hell, I might have myself!), but I'm VERY often tempted to say something I often heard from a first sergeant I once knew:

"That's as wrong as two boys f***ing."

Clearly, there are a couple of reasons why that's an unwise thing to say in civilian-land. But I always want to.
 
garandman said:
Fact.View attachment 711533
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Hellz yeah.

When I did my MI transition course in like 1998 or 9, I remember they were still preaching Soviet OB. We all sat there wondering why, since there'd been no USSR for like ten years, but the instructor just shrugged. "We don't think they've changed a damn thing," he told us.

And the latest news from Ukraine tells me they still haven't.
 
Picton said:
Hellz yeah.

When I did my MI transition course in like 1998 or 9, I remember they were still preaching Soviet OB. We all sat there wondering why, since there'd been no USSR for like ten years, but the instructor just shrugged. "We don't think they've changed a damn thing," he told us.

And the latest news from Ukraine tells me they still haven't.
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In conversation I always refer to Russia as the Soviet Union.
 
NHKevin said:
In conversation I always refer to Russia as the Soviet Union.
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When in NROTC mid-70s, anticipating a Nuke Spook career thereafter as a NucE major, they told me to take Russian as my language requirement. While others were taking Seaman tests, I had to take Russian tests too. Nothing useful came of it in military life, but I was able to read signs in Russia during a mid-90s visit. All the street signs were still early era but people referred to their new names (like Leningrad vs St Petersburg) so I had to translate and deal with history too.
 
garandman said:
Ranger Class 5-83. Sergeant Major pulls all the soon-to-be grads into a loose formation before we get on the bus to Benning.

“You’ve earned your Ranger Tab for life: no one can take that away from you.

But if you ever get fat, I hope you f***in die.”
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40 years ago this week. Every time I want to cut short a workout I think about this.
 
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