by Eric Helm
NDP — Night Defensive Perimeter (or Position). A secure or defensible position for troops to laager in overnight.
NEXT — The man who said he was the next to be rotated home. See Short.
NHA TRANG — SFHQ was located in this city about halfway up the seacoast of South Vietnam. The term was used interchangeably by Special Forces troopers to mean their headquarters.
NINETEEN — Average age of the U.S. combat soldier in Vietnam, as opposed to twenty-six during the Second World War.
NUOC-MAM — Foul-smelling fermented fish sauce used by the Vietnamese.
NVA — North Vietnamese Army. Also any soldier of the NVA.
OD — Olive Drab; the standard military color.
OP — Observation Post.
OP — Operation. Any military mission.
OPERATION BOOTSTRAP — Program in the U.S. Army to help men on active duty complete a college education. Men in the program were considered to be still on active duty while attending a college.
P-38 — U.S. Army designation for a small, two-piece, hinged can opener supplied with C-rations. One of the few really good items of equipment the Army came up with.
PBR — Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.
PETA-PRIME — Black tar-like substance that melted in the heat of the day to become a sticky black nightmare that clung to boots, clothes and equipment. It was used to hold down the dust during the dry season.
PETER PILOT — Co-pilot of a helicopter.
PF STRIKERS — Popular Forces. Similar to RFs but used on a more local level.
POL — Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants. Frequently used to indicate a refueling point for aircraft.
POON TANG — See Boom-Boom.
PRC-10 — U.S. Army portable radio transceiver used from the Second World War through Vietnam. Eventually replaced by the PRC-25. Both were backpack-type units with a telephone-like handset.
POGUES — Derogatory term used to describe soldiers who inhabited the rear areas, taking all the best supplies for themselves and leaving the leftovers for the grunts in the field.
PSP — Perforated Steel Plate. Used instead of concrete paving for runways and roadways.
PULL PITCH — Term used by helicopter pilots that means they are going to take off.
PUNGI STAKE — Sharpened bamboo stake hidden as a booby trap to penetrate the foot. Sometimes dipped in feces or water buffalo urine to increase the likelihood of infection.
QT — Quick Time. It referred originally to the rate of march of foot soldiers, but came to mean talking to someone on the side in order to expedite matters, rather than going through channels.
R and R — Rest and Relaxation. It came to mean a one-week vacation outside Vietnam, where the soldier was supposed to be able to forget about the war. Shorter, in-country R and R’s were also sometimes granted to soldiers who had done a particularly good job. R and R was also known as I and I (Intoxication and Intercourse) by the troops, since these were the two activities most often engaged in when one went on R and R.
RF STRIKERS — Local military forces recruited and employed within a province. Regional Forces were usually used to guard key locations, such as power plants and bridges, and to protect the province political chief.
RINGKNOCKER — Graduate of a military academy, such as West Point. It refers to the ring worn by all graduates.
RON — Remain Overnight.
RP — Rally Point or Rendezvous Point.
RPD — Soviet 7.62 x 39mm light machine gun.
RTO — Radio telephone operator.
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT — Rules telling American troops when they could fire. Full Suppression meant they could fire at will. Normal Rules meant they could return fire only when fired upon first by the enemy. Negative Suppression meant they could not fire back even if fired upon.
SAPPER — Soldier trained in the use of explosives. Especially a VC soldier whose primary job was to blow up bunkers and barbed wire entanglements during an attack on a camp.
SCRAMBLED EGGS — Distinctive design on the visor of the cap of a Field Grade or General Officer.
SFHQ — Special Forces Headquarters. In Vietnam, SFHQ was located in Nha Trang.
SHIT HOOK — Name applied by troops to the Chinook helicopter because of all the ‘shit’ stirred up by the massive rotors.
SHORT — Term used by everyone in Vietnam to tell all who would listen to him that his tour was almost over.
SHORT-TIMER — GI who had been in Vietnam for approximately the duration of his tour (usually about a year), and who would be DEROSed or rotated back to the World soon. When the Short-Timer’s DEROS time was the shortest in the unit, that man was said to be next.
SIX — Radio call sign for the unit commander.
SIX-BY — U.S. Army six-by-six-wheel drive, two-and-a-half-ton truck. Also called a deuce and a half.
SIXTY — M-60 General Purpose Machine Gun, caliber 7.62 x 59mm NATO. Feeding from a disintegrating metal link belt, it had a bipod fixed to the barrel for use as a squad automatic weapon (SAV) and could also be mounted on a tripod, coaxially in a tank turret or on a vehicle pintle mount.
SIXTY — U.S. M-60 Main Battle Tank.
SKS — Simonov 7.62mm semiautomatic carbine.
SMG — Submachine gun.
SOI — Signal Operating Instructions. The booklet that contained the call signs and radio frequencies of the units in Vietnam.
SOP — Standard Operating Procedure.
STEEL POT — Standard U.S. Army helmet. It consisted of a fiber helmet liner with an outer steel cover.
STRAC — Strategic Army Command or Soldier Trained and Ready Around the Clock.
STORMY WEATHER — Code name for the Cambodian border.
TAI — Ethnic minority group composed of several differing tribes found throughout Southeast Asia and inhabiting chiefly the mountainous regions and the Mekong River delta.
TDY — Temporary Duty.
THE WORLD — The United States.
THREE — Radio call sign of the Operations Officer.
THREE CORPS — Military region around Saigon. Vietnam was divided principally into four Corps areas and a few Special Zones.
TOC — Tactical Operations Center.
TOT — Time On Target or Time Over Target. The former referred to a concentrated artillery bombardment, the latter to the time that an aircraft is supposed to be over a drop zone or bombing target.
TRACK — Any tracked military vehicle. Especially the M-113 APC (Armored Personnel Carrier).
TRUNG SI NHAT — Vietnamese rank equivalent to a U.S. Staff Sergeant.
TWELVE-SEVEN — The Soviet-made Degtyarev 12.7mm heavy machine gun. Also sometimes called a .51-caliber machine gun.
TWO — Radio call sign of the Intelligence Officer.
TWO-OH-ONE (201) FILE — Military records file that listed a soldier’s qualifications, training, experience and abilities. It was passed from unit to unit so that the new commander would have some idea of the incoming soldier’s capabilities.
UHF — Ultra High Frequency long-range radio. Sometimes referred to as the Uniform, short for its phonetic alphabet abbreviation, Uniform Hotel Fox.
VC — Viet Cong. Also called Victor Charlie (from the phonetic alphabet) or just Charlie.
VIET CONG — Contraction of Vietnam Cong San (Vietnamese Communist Party, established in 1956).
VNAF — South Vietnamese Air Force.
WIA — Wounded in Action.
WILLY PETE — Also called WP, Willy Peter or smoke rounds. White phosphorus shells or bombs used for marking targets and as antipersonnel weapons.
XO — Executive Officer of a unit. The assistant commander.
ZAP — To ding, pop caps at or shoot. To kill someone. Also called grease.
ZIPPO — Slang for a flamethrower, derived from the cigarette lighter popular with the troops.
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Copyright © Eric Helm, 1987
Eric Helm has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events, other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales are purely coincidental.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-80055-214-2