Another Military Question

[AndyWarholsGhost]

The characters in my story have changed from just out of bootcampers to kickass soldiers that have been around, and I need to nail down the terminology. Do you guys know if there is a site that has some sort of military terminology dictionary or glossary?

Thanks!

[The Other Steve]

Hello.

I don't have a slam-dunk answer. For what it's worth:

The .mil hierarchy offers a wealth of military information, and I think the Army's Center on Military History,

www.army.mil/cmh-pg/ (http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/)

is especially good. The "Interview" featurettes might be appropriate for picking up lingo and terminology.

www.army.mil/cmh-pg/onlin...ks-era.htm (http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/online/Bookshelves/books-era.htm)

The site has post-battle assessments from Vietnam to Bunker Hill. It's not going to tell you the appropriate use of "defilade" or "danger close", though. Or provide a glossary of casual and familiar jargon, which is what I think you'd really like.

Still, you might find something useful there.

Good luck.

[RDJ Was Banned]

you know, if the story takes place in modern times ... i haven't kept track ... they could smoke newports. god knows why, but they're very popular on military bases. i heard a story that hardcore smokers started smoking them because they tasted like @#%$ and they wanted people to stop bumming them ... but they still got bummed, and then their popularity just grew. but that could be bullsh!t.

if you had any scenes with them in boot camp, drill sergeants like to be funny & insulting. i have heard these things said on military bases to new recruits:

"beat your face up, private" = do push ups.

"you're so ugly, you open the fridge and the light turns <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> off<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->." = you're extremely ugly.

"good <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> night,<!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->" is used a lot. basically, it means: "holy sh!t."

and you can't go wrong with the well-known, "hoo-ah."

SERGEANT
Private, give me that weapon.

PRIVATE
Hoo-ah, sergeant.

oh, there's lots and lots of slang, most of which i have forgotten. what are the main characters' jobs? where did they go to a.i.t.? that will effect some of the terminology picked up.

if they're signal corps, i can offer a lot more slang and lingo specific to that.

[dclary]

As a former marine, I can honestly say you really can't go wrong by using "fukkin" as an adjective in front of EVERY noun.

[AndyWarholsGhost]

:lol at dclare!

Thank guys!

[Muckraker]

Once brainwashed, a good soldier cannot help but employ as many acronyms as any conversation will allow. Whether it's Advanced Infantry Training (AIT), or Military Occupational Specialty (MOS), or Physical Training (PT), or Military Enlistment Processing Center (MEPS).

Also there's the whole business of military time, military-speak for letter (B=Bravo, T=Tango), etc...

I work in recruitment advertising for a military client. If you need any more help, you know where to hit me, AG.

[BeefMissle]

Get "Slanguage" it may have more words and/or slang terms.
You can also post any words from your script here and I'll try to answer them. You may also want to read non-fiction books about US Army/US military special operations. I suggest;
Tom Clancy's Special Ops
Inside Delta Force; Haney
Delta Force; Charles Beckwith
SOG; John Plaster
Rogue Warrior; Richard Marcinko (all his books are great)
So That Others May Live (US Air Force Pararescue)
One Perfect Op; Chalker
Marine Sniper; Carlos Hathcock