Cassi Creek: Sunny, partly cloudy, 87 degrees at 1300
By their
words you will know their war.
The armed forces have a work-related language peculiar to
them. To further complicate situations,
each war has a subsection of words, graffiti, and phrases all its own.
WWI gave us “No
man’s land” for the area between the trenches.
WWII gave
us “Island hopping” from the way the war
in the PTO was conducted. “Kilroy was
here” along with a paired graffiti emerged in the ETO.
Korea donated
“Human wave Attacks” and “Mash Unit.”
VietNam
spawned its own litany. I’ll note a few
of them.
My sub section of the litany is determined by my assignment
as a medic in an infantry unit.
From VietNam,
we still recall today:
“Grunt.” – the infantry
soldier
Search and destroy -
Mission to eliminate a village later called “search and seizure” in an
early effort at political correctness.
Zippo Squad – team assigned to light village structures
chosen to be burned.
“Hump the boonies” – patrol outside the wire
“hump a ruck” carry a
back pack in the bush.
P-38 – C-ration can opener – I still have mine.
“Dust Off.” - the use of helicopters to remove casualties
from battles and transport them to the best available medical unit based upon
triage and the capabilities of the medical units.
CA – Combat assault – insert troops by helicopter.
Hot LZ - landing zone taking fire
Hoist Mission – required a helicopter to hover while wounded
were lifted to the ship by electric winch.
The chopper and crew were exposed and subject to being shot at by enemy
troops during the whole process.
DEROS – Date Estimate Return (from) OverseaS departure date
Short timer – soldier having only a few days left to serve
in VietNam.
Various pidgin phrases entered the lexicon
“Bac si” Vietnamese
for Dr. Used also for medics
Dinky Dau - crazy
Didi mau - leave immediately
“Number one – the best
relic from Japanese American pidgin
Number ten – the worst relic from Japanese American pidgin
Souvenir -request for
gifts or black market items by LIP’s
And when the
weight of the war fell onto our shoulders and refused to let go, when the
extraction birds were tasked to another purpose, leaving the troops stuck in
the field with no resupply and no way to stay dry, warm, or safe, all we could
say was:
Fuck it! Don’t mean nothing! Drive on!
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