Honor and Duty (71 page)

4-F:
Selective Service classification for a person medically disqualified from the draft and military service, a status highly desired by vast numbers of American males in the period 1964 to 1972

frogmen:
slang for underwater commandos, now called Seals, but unaccountably under control of the Department of the Navy

goat:
a poor performer in academics; opposite of a hive or engineer

gray hog:
a passionate believer in the system and in West Point, and, accordingly, deemed suspect by those still in possession of rational faculties

gross:
significantly inadequate, extremely erroneous, blindingly dull, or startlingly below Academy standards; a favorite and conventional adjective and the companion of “puny”

grub:
the act of scavenging academic tenths, or credits, for higher grades or to avoid being found for being dee

Hellcats:
military band members tasked with sounding reveille with unrestrained vigor after the sounding of the cannon, and who are accordingly beloved by all cadets and remembered by them in their nighttime prayers and in their wills

hive:
a successful academic performer; a bright student who quickly understands and grasps academic principles; an engineer; also used as a verb to describe effort in academics

Honor:
the Code at West Point

India:
an all-white, brass-buttoned, high-collared cadet uniform for formal summer events, also known as the “snow suit” for making even the-most nefariously twisted cadet appear like a Sir Galahad

IOBC:
Infantry Officer Basic Course at Fort Benning, Georgia, home of the Infantry and the Benning School for Boys

IRP:
“immediate response, please,” a vigorously shouted command offered to Plebes, encouraging them to not dally in their spoken answers to the upper classes

jodie:
a cadence-based song for troops during quick-time or double-time march, named for the proverbial boy back home who is dating the soldier’s girlfriend (“Your momma was there when you left / Your baby was there when you left / Jodie was there when you left / Sound off …”)

Juice:
see EE 304.

LBE:
load-bearing equipment—the cartridge belt and suspenders upon which infantrymen carry pack or ruck, rations, mess kit, bedding, grenades, D-rings, first aid pack, flashlight, canteen, entrenching tool, pistol holster, ammo pouches, gas mask, foot powder, cosmetics, aftershave, magazines, and boodle

Lost Fifties:
the divisions of barracks numbered in the fifties, which were the last constructed before the 1964 Academy Expansion Plan began; so called because they were on the outer periphery of barracks

LT:
lieutenant

max:
maximum grade on a writ. Cold max is one achieved with ease and a grubbing of extra-credit tenths. Also used as a verb

mike-mike:
millimeter, derived from radio shorthand. An “81 mike-mike” was an 81mm mortar.

MP:
Military Policeman—an Army cop

muck:
to strain by main effort at a task

NVA:
Army of North Vietnam—Communist regular forces with twenty-two years’ combat experience against two better-equipped armies before the first U.S. ground forces arrived in Vietnam

oak leaf:
second identical military award or decoration. A recipient of two Silver Stars would receive a gold leaf for insertion into the original ribbon to indicate a second award, described as “Silver Star with first oak leaf cluster.”

OAO:
one and only—
the
girlfriend

OC:
officer in charge; member of the TD appointed for a twenty-four-hour period to represent the Commandant of Cadets in the maintenance of good order. OCs patrol the Academy on search-and-quill missions, looking for cadet infractions. The OC’s job is never done; the OC never sleeps; his pen is never still. Some tacs, when serving as OC, performed with a commitment that reminded casual observers of the burning of Moscow.

O Club:
Officers Club, adult extensions of Snuffy’s, with dining and smoking rooms and at least one bar; used for receptions, dinners, and after-duty socializing. To use the club, an officer must join by paying annual dues.

OCS:
Officer Candidate School—a compressed officer-commissioning program for qualified enlisted personnel

OD:
olive drab, a standard, subdued, military color used with little imagination on anything that couldn’t be painted white

Odin:
Norse god to whom Plebes sang in loud, elongated, mass chants, in the hopes that singing his name would bring rain for cancellation of parades and inspections. Sadly, Odin was the top deity in Norse mythology, responsible for everything except the weather. Thor was the Norse god of thunder, which no doubt explains why the overwhelming majority of pleas to the heavens went unanswered.

OMI:
Office of Military Instruction, which formally teaches cadets how to teach for data retention when quill and slugs cannot be used for academic reinforcement

OPE:
Office of Physical Education, or oppression of physical exertion

op order:
operation order, the five-paragraph military planning
format for Situation (enemy and friendly forces), Mission, Execution (concept of operation, sub-unit missions, coordinating instructions), Service Support, and Command and Signal; reducible to the neumonic “SMESC”

P:
professor

ping:
to move with great panic in an unmilitary fashion. A ping meter is an imaginary instrument (sometimes a cotton ball on a string) by which upperclassmen can quantify the amount of ricocheting activity undertaken by a frantically animated Plebe required to perform eighteen duties in two minutes.

Plebe:
a Fourth Classman, in tenure equal to a college freshman and socially equal to a condemned prisoner held in an armed, maximum-security installation surrounded by water and rocks; also known as crot, crothead, tool, dooly, dumbjohn, doowillie, beanhead, knob, smack, and smackhead

PM:
Provost Marshal, chief law enforcement officer on an Army post, equal to a chief of police; manages the MPs and the Criminal Investigation Division

point man:
lead man in a patrol, tasked with breaking trail, taking directions from the compass man, who follows the course dictated by the patrol leader. “Point” finds every precipice, low log, swampy bog, and rat hole on a night patrol before anyone else does, evidenced by the sounds of crashing and subdued moaning in the dead of night.

poop:
information; usually, information to be spec’ed, for spouting

poop school:
USMAPS, United States Military Academy Preparatory School, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where candidates not initially admitted to West Point are specifically trained for a successful second application from the ranks. Poop schoolers frequently perform very well at the Academy, maxing tasks while their civilian counterparts muck and draw ire.

post:
an order meaning “take your post,” i.e., move with great purpose; also, the military reservation

present arms:
salute, by hand, rifle, or saber; refers to both the action of saluting and the command to do so

pro:
proficient in academics—signifying minimum competence
in a course by maintaining at least a 2.0 academic average—and attained by grubbing, hiving, or brains

Q:
quarters, as in bachelor officers quarters

quill:
a Form 2-1 for recording conditions out of military order, resulting in demerits; based on the use of a nineteenth-century pen to write the record; issued by the TD, by wheels, ranking First Classmen who become the primary deputies of TD policies, and by Cow squad leaders; also used as a verb; usually used as a weapon

Rabble-Rouser:
cheerleader

rack:
cadet bed or cot, a sacred place where freedom and privacy can be realized in deep REM sleep; also used as a verb (“rack-out”), a hope (“hope for clothing-formation-free rack”), and a prayer (“Please, God, let me rack-out and not dream of being late to formation”); home of the “rack monster” which invisibly seized cadets and threw them bodily into the rack, or allowed them to nod off in class; also called “sack”

Ranger:
graduate of Ranger School, an elite infantry skills program emphasizing patrol skills, night marches, hill negotiation, and maximum physical endurance under duress. At one time, all West Point graduates automatically attended Ranger and Airborne schools.

R-Day:
Reception Day, July 1, when the New Cadet class reports to West Point for the beginning of Beast Barracks and the opportunity to test the drop resilience of their luggage and their qualifications for the Academy choirs

Recognition:
acceptance of Plebes as upperclassmen on Graduation Day; celebrated by bashing and human vandalism and a great deal of smiling and handshaking after a year of abuse, torture, torment, and character development. A recognized Plebe has been accepted by an individual upperclassman before Graduation. Frequently done by an upperclassman to a Plebe from the same hometown or high school, or players on the same Corps Squad team. A recognized Plebe calls the recognizing upperclassman by his first name when they are not in duty status, and can seek the upperclassman’s counsel on a friendship basis.

REMF:
rear echelon motherf—–. A Vietnam-era reference to noncombat personnel assigned to the rear, with air-conditioning
and steaks, presumed by the slur to be uncaring about troops on the line

RF:
rat fornication: periodic episodes of pandemonium, when community testosterone reaches critical mass and barracks mates must fight, punch, gouge, wrestle, destroy, and scream in a rowdy effort to relieve the pressure before a fatal white-out

RPG:
rocket-propelled grenade used by NVA/VC

RTO:
radio telephone operator: an enlisted man who carries the twenty-three-pound, backpacked PRC-25 radio for the platoon leader; a high-profile target because of the whip antenna and because the platoon leader is always next to the RTO

Rumor Control:
basis for confirmation of alleged facts

San-gahng:
The Three Bonds defined by K’ung Fu-tzu, prescribing the strict obedience that sons owe to fathers, subjects owe to the emperor, and wives owe to husbands. The related social concept was expressed in the comprehensive
Wu-lun
, or the Five Relationships, the first three of which are the
San-gahng.
The two non-primary relationships prescribed the respect that younger brothers owe to older brothers, and that younger friends owe to older friends.

saltpeter:
chemical substance used in the manufacture of gunpowder rumored to be (1) capable of diminishing prurient impulses and (2) an ingredient in every Academy mess hall breakfast since the end of World War I, without any noticeable effect

shit magnet:
Plebe who draws hazing, quill, and AI with ferromagnetic force

short round:
artillery round which falls short of the target and is likely to impact in your own AO

slug:
a specially packaged punishment involving both demerits and punishment tours on the Area; may include hours of confinement to room except for duties; described in shorthand as two numbers, i.e., eight and eight; sixteen, sixteen, and ten; also used in verb form

snow:
to fool someone, customarily, by presenting a better appearance than conditions warrant

Snuffy’s:
a tavern located ten miles outside West Point, where
cadets are authorized to imbibe alcoholic beverages; replaced Benny Havens’s renowned tavern, which was frequented by cadets in the nineteenth century, and part of the culture where once, to be a man meant to drink to the point of insensate breathing

SOP:
standard operating procedure

South Odd:
South Thayer Hall Auditorium, where major lectures, evening programs, and weekend movies superior to those in the gym, but still of dubious value, are presented; also “South Aud”

spec:
memorize; part of “spec and dump”—memorize, regurgitate, and instantly forget, SOP for many of the engineering courses for many cadets

spoony:
militarily neat in appearance

spout:
to recite spec’d poop by memory

Strac:
derived from STRC, former military acronym for U.S. Strike Command, which came to be synonymous at West Point with a neat and spoony appearance

stud:
poker game with five cards dealt to each player, the first one down, and the next four up, with new bets after the second, third, fourth, and fifth cards; also, a manly cadet

system:
the culture of the Academy, derived from the Thayer Academic System, and modified by the disciplinary requirements of the TD and OPE

tac:
company tactical officer, a member of the TD, and father confessor, inquisitional inspector, and, friend or foe, depending upon personality

tar bucket:
a shako, the traditional short, black, tightly fitting, stovepipe, nineteenth-century military hat with a brass chain, chin strap, short brass-rimmed brim, an oversize brass emblem on its front, and a pom-pom or plume of feathers inserted into its flat top, designed to reduce a cadet’s cranial circumference by one-half hat size per year of wear

TD:
Tactical Department, responsible for the military training of cadets through the administration of command via company tacs, i.e., the system; exemplified by rigid inspections with
quill for militarily disreputable quarters, equipment, or persons, leading to slugs

tenth:
one-tenth of a grade point and one-thirtieth of a cold max; increment of academic grade points, which cadets gain or lose through the daily writ system

Thayer:
Sylvanus Thayer, USMA Class of 1808, who reformed the Academy and created the Thayer Academic System of daily writs. Dickens described Thayer’s work as “severe but well devised and manly,” ample proof that Dickens never spent a night in the place.