Matterhorn (84 page)

E-tool
Entrenching tool. A small folding shovel about two feet long, carried by all combat Marines. Designed primarily to dig fighting
holes, it was also used to dig latrines, bunkers, and firing pits and to clear brush for fields of fire. On rare occasions
it was used as a weapon.

executive officer, XO
The second in command of a Marine company. The XO handled the administrative details of the company and acted as general
counsel to the commanding officer (CO) and platoon commanders. On combat operations, the CO and the XO were usually physically
separated so that if the commanding officer was hit the executive officer would probably be able to take command.

FAC
The forward air controller, an enlisted man from the air wing who was attached to a company-size unit to coordinate all air
support from resupply to bombing and strafing. An officer pilot usually occupied the same position at battalion headquarters.
The Marine Corps pioneered close air support tactics and procedures in World War II, and the close working relationship between
Marine Air and Marine Ground is a specialty of the Marines.

FAC-man
Nickname commonly given to the enlisted forward air controller.

fire team
Smallest unit in a rifle company. A fire team was designated to be four riflemen, but under combat conditions, because of
attrition, fire teams quite often consisted of only three riflemen.

Five
In radio code, the company executive officer, the second in command; for example, Bravo Five.

flat-hatting
Flying extremely close to the ground.

FLD
The final line of departure, an imaginary line behind which the assaulting troops wait for the signal to move forward. Once
this imaginary line is crossed, the unit is irrevocably committed.

football team
Radio brevity code for a platoon (forty-three Marines).

foxtrot whiskey
Fixed-wing aircraft (as opposed to helicopters). Marine Corps, and occasionally Navy or Air Force, fixed-wing jet aircraft
delivered almost all the close air support.

fragging
Murdering someone, usually an unpopular officer or sergeant, by throwing a fragmentation grenade into his living quarters
or fighting hole. The Marine Corps had forty-three fragging incidents during the Vietnam War, although not all ended in fatalities.

frag order
Fragmentary order. This term has nothing to do with fragging. It was an addendum to a larger original order. Frag orders
were usually more prevalent than original orders and were done for the sake of efficiency (at least as far as issuing orders
was concerned). For example, an original order might have told a unit to enter a certain valley, destroy what it found, and
return. A frag order could amend that original order, telling the unit to continue the mission for another week, or to proceed
to a certain place, with the same mission but without having to repeat everything over the radio.

G-2
Also, G2. Division intelligence. American military organizations designate staff functions and organizations with letters
and numbers. G stands for a division-level staff, R for regimental level, and S for battalion level. Staff functions are designated
by numbers: 1 for administrative, 2 for intelligence, 3 for operations, and 4 for supply. So, at the
division level, the intelligence staff would be G-2 and at the battalion level it would be S-2. The officer in charge of that
staff function would be called “the S-2,” or “the Two.” Major Blakely, as head of operations at the battalion level, is called
“the Three,” because he is in charge of battalion operations, S-3.

grid coordinates
All military maps are divided into one-kilometer squares (that is, each side of a square is six-tenths of a mile). A baseline
point is established and designated 000000. The first three digits refer to the distance east from the base in tenths of a
kilometer, and the last three refer to the distance north. For example, grid coordinates 325889 would refer to a point 32.5
kilometers (about 20.3 miles) east and 88.9 kilometers (about 55.5 miles) north of 000000.

gunjy
Slang for zealous and combative, or overly zealous and overly combative, depending on the context and the tone of voice.
It is probably derived from “gung ho,” a Marine expression borrowed from Chinese meaning “work together.”

gunny
A company gunnery sergeant. During the Vietnam War, with the companies operating at long distances from headquarters, the
company gunny was usually the highest-ranked noncommissioned officer out in the bush. The company first sergeants, one rank
higher, usually handled administrative functions in permanent headquarters at locations like Quang Tri. The company gunny,
who reported directly to the company commander, handled most of the supply functions and had a strong tactical and personnel
advisory role. Although the gunny was not directly in charge of the platoon sergeants, who reported to their platoon commanders,
he had a very strong dotted-line relationship with the platoon sergeants. A gunny’s “request” was the equivalent of an order.
A platoon sergeant could go around the gunny by working through his commanding officer, but this was exceedingly rare. In
peacetime the company gunny would normally be an E-7 gunnery sergeant, but because of wartime shortages this position was
often filled by E-6 staff sergeants.

H & S
Stands for headquarters and supply.

heat tabs
Blue 1, 3, 5-Trioxane (sometimes called trioxin) wafers about one inch in diameter that could be placed in the bottom of
“field stoves” made by punching holes in C-ration tin cans. Because the heat tabs didn’t oxidize well in the field stoves,
they gave off noxious fumes that stung the nose and eyes. Heat tabs also took too long to heat anything. In the bush, most
Marines preferred to cook with C-4 plastic explosive, often digging apart claymore mines (this was very dangerous and strictly
forbidden) to get something less noxious with which to heat their C-rations.

heli team
The weight, or load, that a helicopter can carry varies with the altitude and temperature. The higher the altitude and temperature,
the lower the possible load. Although tactically it would be most effective to load entire organizational units, most often
tactical units had to be divided into units called heli teams in accordance with the weather and altitude. Upon arrival in
the landing zone, the heli teams would immediately disband, and the Marines would re-form into standard tactical units such
as fire teams, squads, and platoons.

HM2
Also HM-2: hospital corpsman second class. Sheller, the senior squid, has this rank.

HM3
Also HM-3: hospital corpsman third class Fredrickson, the platoon corpsman, has this rank.

hooch
Any shelter, permanent or temporary. A hooch could be anything from a rough plywood building in a rear area to a couple of
rubberized ponchos strung together over some communication wire out in the bush. Sometimes spelled “hootch.”

Huey
The UH-1 single-rotor helicopter. There were several variations, such as UH-1B and UH-1G, ranging from a “slick” (which had
little armament and firepower and was used for evacuating the wounded and inserting ground forces) to a “gun ship” (which
was armed with rockets, machine guns, or 20-millimeter cannons and was used for close air support). Hueys had many uses, including
close air support, medical evacuations, inserting and extracting reconnaissance teams, and transporting high-ranking officers.
The Army used them as assault helicopters,
and Army airborne and cavalry units had the use of many times more Hueys than similar-sized Marine units.

humping
Aside from the obvious sexual connotation, humping meant hiking out into the bush with seventy or more pounds of gear on
one’s back, the normal weight carried by the Marine infantryman. “They humped me to death” was a common complaint about being
forced to do more walking than one thought reasonable.

huss
A favor granted by a superior or by the system in general. Example: “He caught a huss when he got out of the bush to pick
up the paychecks.”

IFR
Stands for instrument flight rules. These “rules” were procedures and standards put into effect whenever visibility was so
limited by bad weather or darkness that the pilot had to rely on flying with instruments. When IFR was not in effect, VFR—visual
flight rules—would be used.

immersion foot
Condition in which the foot becomes numb and then turns red or blue. As the condition worsens, the feet swell and open sores
break out, leading to fungal infections and ulcers. If left untreated, immersion foot usually results in gangrene, which can
require amputation. Immersion foot develops when the feet are constantly cold and damp and are enclosed in constricting footwear.
It is also known as trench foot.

ITR
Stands for infantry training regiment. Upon graduation from boot camp, Marines are assigned their military occupational specialty,
or MOS. They then undergo training in their MOS at various bases. Those assigned an MOS of 03, infantry, went on to the Infantry
Training Regiment at Camp Pendleton, California. “Oh-three” was far and away the most common Marine MOS.

John Wayne
Small thumb-size can opener that folds the blade against itself and is usually worn with the Marine’s identification tags
(dog tags). Its official military designation is the P-38 can opener.

K-bar
Knife with a seven-inch blade and a wrapped-leather handle. It looked like a large bowie knife and has been standard issue
to all Marines since World War II. It could be a lethal and effective weapon,
but it was most often used for numerous more utilitarian jobs, such as cutting brush, opening cans, whittling short-timer’s
sticks, and cleaning fingernails. The name is of obscure origin, but the likely source is “Knife Accessory Browning Automatic
Rifle.”

KIA
Stands for killed in action.

Kit Carson scout
North Vietnamese and Vietcong soldiers who surrendered were offered the opportunity (and good pay) to become scouts for Marine
units, using their knowledge of NVA tactics and the terrain to help direct the Marine units on operations. Often these men
were disillusioned with communism and fought from idealistic motives, but sometimes they were simply cynical mercenaries fighting
for whoever would pay them the most. They were generally regarded as traitors by the Marines, however unfair that image may
have been.

KP
Stands for kitchen police, i.e., the menial chores of running a kitchen: peeling potatoes, washing dishes, etc. Usually,
in peacetime, KP is considered something to avoid and is often assigned as a punishment for mild infractions. In Vietnam,
however, if a Marine got KP duty, he got out of the bush and into a place of safety, so the punishment became
not
allowing the Marine to get KP duty.

lifer
Someone who is making the military a career. “Lifer” was quite often a derogatory label, obviously connoting a prison sentence.
It also implied that the lifer put career, military rules, and decorum above the welfare of the troops.

Loco Cocoa
Loud and clear. Any other combination of L and C, such as Lime and Coke or Lickety Clit, that struck a radio operator’s imagination
could also mean loud and clear.

louie
Slang for lieutenant.

LP
A listening post, usually a team of two Marines placed outside the defenses at night with a radio. Their job was to listen
(since they could not see) for enemy movement and warn their unit of an enemy attack. All Marines on LP hoped they could hear
the enemy coming, give their
warning, and make it back to safety or simply hide in the jungle until the fight was over. They were well aware, however,
that the job was sacrificial. A company in the jungle would normally have three LPs out at the same time, one in front of
each platoon.

LZ
A landing zone for helicopters. Such zones ranged from uneven, often sloping, cleared patches of ground deep in the jungle
or elephant grass, whose diameter was only about twice the expected chopper’s length, to larger, better-constructed zones
on permanently occupied hilltops. LZ could also refer to something as sophisticated as a large, permanent, often blacktop
area at a rear base that accommodated several choppers at the same time.

M-16
Standard-issue automatic rifle used during the Vietnam War. It fired a 5.56-millimeter spitzer boat-tail bullet at a very
high velocity, the object being to wound rather than kill. (Wounds tax an army’s medical and personnel systems more than kills
do.) The M-16 is still in use today, but the bullet is slightly heavier (62 grains versus 55 grains) and is fired at a slightly
slower velocity (3,100 feet per second versus 3,250 feet per second).

M-26
Standard-issue fragmentation grenade during the Vietnam War. It was also referred to as a “Mike twenty-six,” or a “frag”
(as opposed to a “smoke” or an “illume”) It weighed 21 ounces, and looked like a fat egg with an olive drab smooth steel skin.
It came with a “spoon” on the top—a spring-loaded arming device that was activated by removing a wire ring holding the spoon
to the grenade’s side. Once the ring was removed, the thrower had to keep the spoon in place by holding it against the grenade
with his hand. Once the grenade was thrown, the spoon was released and started a chemical reaction that set the grenade off
in four to five seconds. The grenade was filled with coiled perforated metal, which blew into pellet-like projectiles that
could kill people within a radius of about fifty feet. The effective killing radius of the grenade, however, was actually
only about ten feet. An average Marine could toss an M-26 thirty or forty yards. The explosive was composition B, a mixture
of mostly TNT and cyclonite (or hexogen).