GLOSSARY
ARVN --- Army of the Republic of Viet Nam. Some units were pretty damned good and I'm proud to have worked with them. Many were pretty damned bad. See "ARVN herding" with Loaches.
Bear Cat --- An Army installation a little
north
of Saigon.
(If you can't find
Saigon
on your map, look for Ho Chi Minh City, then you need to work on your
world
history and then you can thank the Lyndon Johnson and Dicky Nixon
administrations
for the name change. If you don't know who they were... then to hell
with
you and get off my web site!)
Crispy Critters --- VC & NVA after Wille Pete or Napom strike
Company --- Approximately 200 troops
Cavalry Troop --- About the size of a Company
Di Di Mau --- Prounounced Dee Dee Mau or just "Dee Dee", --- Leave Quickly
DooDah --- We got into trouble for saying "Rat Fuck" on the radio during Sit Reps in 1970. Pat Will, Crusader 34, inadvertently coined this unique phrase that means "Rat Fuck" (see Rat Fuck)
FNG --- What we all were at one time, Fuckin New Guys
Giant Rat Fuck --- A really big RF
Goat Screw --- Not as big as an RF
Heavy Hog --- A Huey "C" or Charlie Model gunshot with a huge, rectangular, box shaped rocket pod mounted on each side. I believe the HOGs carried 76 each of the 2.75 inch Folding Fin Aerial Rockets. FFAR. I'm sure one of my Bros. will correct me if that number is wrong.
KBA --- Killed by airstrike. What we did to them.
KHA --- Killed By Hostile Action. What they did to us.
KIA --- Killed in action. What we did to each other.
LOACH --- Light Observation Helicopter, LOH, Hughes OH6A. Some will claim the OH-58A Bell Jet Ranger was a Loach. We beg to differ. Read that identifier as "OH-5.8"--- Not quite a 6!!
LZ --- Landing zone for helicopters. Sometimes marked by a smoldering smoke grenade. Sometimes marked by a smoldering Loach.
M-60 --- Machine Gun. 7.62 caliber fired 700 shots per minute. Primary door gunner weapon on Charlie Model Gun ships where the guns were suspended on Bungee cords. Used on special mounts on slicks and was the primary weapon of our Aero Scout Ships.
"NGUY HEIM" --- Vietnamese for "Extreme Danger". A good place to get yourself killed!
NVA --- The bad guys from North Viet Nam. We killed lots of those dudes. They killed a few of us. They paid big time in Spades for each of our KIAs.
PLATOON --- Approximately 40 troops
RAT FUCK --- A very intense aerial vs ground combat engagement involving many helicopters, many ground troops and maybe a few badguys.
Reconnaissance By Fire --- the use of fire arms and explosive ordnance to locate enemy positions or try to get them to shoot at us thereby revealing their positions.
REMF --- Rear Echelon Mother Fucker. To a combat
vet there is nothing worse on our side than a REMF.
It's probably most of those lying sacks of shit that
are now getting compensation for PTSD because Chuck blew up his friggin
desk and his brand new, just arrived from Hong Kong, Stereo during TET
1968. Enough RANT. I'll go to the Light Horse Bunker now. (If
you're
interested, search PTSD on the internet.)
RTO ---Radio-telephone operator. Not as easy as the name sounds! Lots of dead RTO in America's cemeteries.
SITREP -- Situation Report
SLICK --- Troop carrying helicopter, most
Hueys
as you know them, were SLICKS after mid 1969.
Some Scouts used to claim they'd, "Rather suck dick
than
fly a slick". Some of them did though. Fly Slicks that is :-) Slicks
was
scary stuff... Guys with big hairy balls and
didn't
know it or boast about it flew slicks.
My roomy got me, a scout pilot, to go fly with him on
his slick on a troop insertion mission. Scared the crap out of me. I
kept
wishing I was back in my OH6, "Pig Pen".
Squad --- approximately 11 troops. About how many Americans you could get on a SLICK. Now ARVNs were a different story, you could get 2 squads of those little suckers aboard a slick.
"Tu Dai" ---Signs warning to "Keep Out" of the area. Chuck would put these signs up to let the local gentry know the area was booby trapped. They might as well just thrown out a "welcome mat" for the Scouts.
VC ---Viet Cong, also known as: Victor Charlie, Charlie, Chuck, Charles and lot of other more derogatory names but generally, he was a respected enemy. Sure, some of them were really pretty stupid but I'm sure they have a few documented cases of them encountering more than just a couple of "not too sharp Imperialist soldiers" too.
VR --- Visual reconnaissance conducted to find the enemy
WIA --- Wounded in action
WP --- Or Willie Pete. White Phosphorus
Grenades
dropped by the Scouts. With about a 10 meter burst radius it made Chuck
go "apeshit" when he got some white hot willie pete on him.