Throughout the history of warfare, soldiers and sailors brought slang to an art form. I'm 54 years old, so my experience doesn't go beyond the Vietnam era, but every war brought its own form of slang into the lexicon of GI jargon. Some words or terms com and go, but many enter our every day speech.
Granted, most professions and sports activities have their own jargon and it often is incorporated into our speech. Baseball terms are in common use. "Hitting a home run" may mean you were a success, or if someone "threw you a curve", you were presented with something unexpected or difficult to handle. Sports and professional jargon are interesting, but it's never quite as colorful as GI slang.
From WWII, we get SNAFU which simply means, "Situation Normal, All F***** Up. In my day, we used the term "Lifer" for someone who was making a career out of the military. We used DEROS to know when we would leave the foreign assignment and FIGMO when we got our orders to the next assignment. I'm sure the combat vets know a lot more.
The Iraq war is no difference. We've got some new ones to add to the list including "Embrace the suck".
"Embrace the suck" isn't merely a wisecrack; it's an encyclopedic experience rendered as an epigram, gritty shorthand for "Face it, soldier. I've been there. War ain't easy. Now deal with the difficulty and let's get on with the mission."
Colonel Austin Bay, in an LA Times op-ed, gives us a veritable dictionary of words and phrases - some of them are holdovers from other wars - from the current war.
God bless our servicemen and women. We are thankful for them and their sacrifices.
Merry Christmas!
VW
"Embrace the suck" is the improved version of "drive on." Gotta love those kids....
Posted by: Cop The Truth | Sunday, December 16, 2007 at 17:50
Izzat like Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot, Charlie-Foxtrot or in the case of a long(9month) deployment to the Indian Ocean/WestPac counting days left until we get "back to the World?" Just asking.
Keep up the great work, VW.
From the Old Retired Petty Officer.
Posted by: GMCassel AMH1(AW) USN RETIRED | Tuesday, December 18, 2007 at 18:11