AK-47 – The Kalashnikov military assault rifle, used by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army.
AFVN – Armed Forces Vietnam Network, the radio service notably portrayed in the film Good Morning, Vietnam.
airburst – Munitions designed to explode above the ground, such as anti-aircraft airbursts (or flak) and anti-personnel ground artillery designed to explode above the heads of opposing ground forces.
AK-47 – The Kalashnikov military assault rifle, used by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army.
AO – Area of Operations
APC – Armored Personnel Carrier. The M113 APC was used extensively in Vietnam. It could carry a crew of two, plus eleven infantrymen, and could withstand small-arms fire. The APC carried a turret-mounted .50-caliber machine gun but could also be fitted with grenade launchers and antitank missiles.
arc light – B-52 air strikes that generally involved a “cell” of three or more B-52s, which each dropped 108 500-pound bombs from high altitudes.
arty – Artillery. The basic land-based artillery guns used in Vietnam include the 105mm howitzer, which had a firing range of about seven miles; and the 155mm howitzer, a bigger gun with a range of approximately eleven miles. Both weapons could be towed or airlifted. There was also a self-propelled version of the 155mm howitzer, a heavily armored tracked vehicle.
Naval artillery, fired from warships offshore, was also heavily used in Vietnam in support of troops in the field. The battleship USS New Jersey served one tour in Vietnam; her 16-inch guns could fire a 2,700-pound projectile about 25 miles.
ARVN – Army of the Republic of Vietnam—the South Vietnamese army
BDA – Bomb damage assessment following an air strike
Bouncing Betty – An antipersonnel mine developed by the Germans in World War II and used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. When activated by being stepped on, a preliminary explosion launched the device about three feet into the air, where it would detonate, spraying shrapnel in all directions.
CAP – Civic Action Program. Part of the “hearts and minds” effort, these programs offered medical (MEDCAP), sanitation, agricultural, and other kinds of support for Vietnamese civilians.
CAV – Army air mobile units
CIDG – Civilian Irregular Defense Group. In the early 1960s, the US Special Forces recruited and trained Montagnard tribesmen and established camps along the Laotian border to monitor the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Claymore mine – A command-detonated, directional antipersonnel mine that fired metal balls into a killing zone.
COSVN – Central Office for South Vietnam. The possibly mythical North Vietnamese military and political headquarters, believed to be operating somewhere inside South Vietnam or in Cambodia. Its existence was never fully confirmed.
C-rations – Official designation: MCI (“Meal, Combat, Individual”). A packaged meal for troops in the field, usually called C-rats or Charlie Rats. The MCI came in a dozen varieties, each of which included a canned meat entrée such as beefsteak; chicken or turkey loaf; or the least favorite, ham and lima beans, often called “ham and motherfuckers.” The package also included some combination of canned fruit, cookies or pound cake, crackers and cheese spread, and white bread and peanut butter. C-rations were replaced by MREs (Meals, Ready-to-Eat) in 1975.
CTZ – Corps Tactical Zone. Vietnam was divided into four CTZs, known as I Corps, II Corps, III Corps, and IV Corps.
DEROS – Date of Expected Return from Overseas. This is the date every short-timer counted down to.
DMZ – The Demilitarized Zone that separated North and South Vietnam. The line between North and South was established at the Geneva Conference of 1954, when the French surrendered to the Viet Minh. The DMZ extended for three miles on either side of the line. Military forces were barred from the zone, though this was an often-violated protocol.
FAC – Forward Air Controller. This person coordinated air strikes, usually from a light aircraft flying over a battle scene.
fighting hole – A defensive fighting position, generally a foxhole for more than one person surrounded by sand bags; sometimes included a tin or wood roof.
FO – Forward Observer. A member of a field unit who coordinated the placement of artillery and other indirect or direct fire.
freedom bird – The aircraft that took a soldier home from Vietnam
friendlies – Friendly forces
friendly fire – Fire mistakenly directed at friendly forces, often due to the “fog of war” confusion of the battlefield or mistaken identification of friendly troops as enemy forces.
FSB – Fire Support Base. A sometimes-temporary base, often on a hilltop, for one or more artillery batteries to support troops in the field who were operating beyond the range of the artillery at their home base.
getting hosed – Being fired at by automatic weapons; the tracers appear to wave through the air like water from a garden hose.
grunt – An infantry soldier, sometimes called a “boonie-rat,” whose primary job in Vietnam was to “hump the boonies,” meaning to go into the field on foot in search of the enemy.
GVN – Government of Vietnam
HE – High-explosives weapons, such as bombs or artillery shells
Hmong – A Laotian hill tribe, many of whom were recruited by US Special Forces to fight against the Communist forces in Vietnam and Laos.
Ho Chi Minh Trail – The supply route from North Vietnam to South Vietnam, used by the Communists to bring troops, weapons, and other supplies to the south.
hootch – Living quarters. GIs referred to all types of living spaces, from their own bunkers to Vietnamese huts, as hootches. At a base camp, hootches were often swept and cleaned by local Vietnamese “hootch girls.”
Huey – The UH-1 helicopter, the most ubiquitous aircraft in the Vietnam War. The Huey could be configured as a troop carrier or a gunship.
in-country/out-country – In Vietnam/Outside Vietnam (e.g., Laos, Cambodia, or anywhere else)
KIA/WIA/MIA – Killed in Action/Wounded in Action/Missing in Action. There were 1,643 Americans listed as MIA in Southeast Asia as of January 1, 2014. By comparison, 73,640 are listed as WWII MIA and 7,896 from the Korean War.
klick – Kilometer
KP – “Kitchen Police.” New recruits and low-ranking enlisted men were assigned to work a shift (or several) in a mess hall doing menial work.
LZ – Landing Zone. A predetermined area where helicopters could land to insert or recover troops in the field. Some LZs were semi-permanent, while others were temporary. A “hot LZ” was one that was under fire; a “cold LZ” was one that was not.
M16 – The US military assault rifle that became the standard-issue weapon in Vietnam, replacing the World War II–era M14. The M16 was plagued with reliability problems when first issued and had a reputation for jamming in combat.
M60 – The standard machine gun carried by infantry platoons. The M60 is a belt-fed 7.62mm gun that can be shoulder-fired, but it usually is set on its built-in bipod. The M60 generally required a crew of two or three men: the gunner; the assistant gunner (AG), who carried ammo and fed the ammo belts into the gun while it was being fired; and an occasional third crewmember to carry additional ammo.
MAAGV – The US Military Assistance and Advisory Group, Vietnam, established in 1955 to coordinate the military assistance to South Vietnam by elements of the US Army, Marines, Navy, and Air Force. MAAGV was absorbed into MACV in 1964 as the United States’ role began to expand into combat operations.
MACV – Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. This was a joint-services command created in 1962 to oversee and direct MAAGV’s advisory and assistance efforts; in 1964, MAAGV was disbanded and its personnel shifted to MACV as US military operations grew.
Montagnards – Refers to several tribes or clans of Vietnamese mountain people
napalm – Jellied petroleum, one of the war’s most controversial weapons. Burning napalm clings to the skin and causes excruciatingly painful burns. Its use against civilians was banned internationally in 1980.
NLF – National Liberation Front (the Viet Cong)
NVA – North Vietnamese Army
number one – An expression often used by Vietnamese to mean “the best.” The opposite end of the scale was number ten—“the worst.”
Psy Ops – Psychological Operations, conducted by US (and enemy) forces, which included propaganda leaflets, radio broadcasts aimed at demoralizing enemy troops, and disinformation.
PTSD – Posttraumatic stress disorder. An anxiety disorder that may affect a soldier for years after being in combat, resulting in nightmares, flashbacks, violent behavior, depression, and alcohol or drug abuse, among other maladies. PTSD is also common in civilian life after an individual experiences some sort of trauma. PTSD did not become a recognized disorder for years after the Vietnam War, delaying treatment for many veterans.
Punji sticks – Sharpened wooden spikes, driven into the ground and concealed, meant to inflict a painful wound on an enemy. Punji sticks, or Punji stakes, were often used in Viet Cong booby traps (Punji pits). Sometimes the sticks were treated with poisons or feces. The wounds were usually not fatal, but they took a soldier out of combat and halted his unit’s progress.
R&R – Rest and Recreation. Every soldier who served in Vietnam was entitled to a one-week R&R “vacation” from the war in one of several destinations, including Hawaii; Sydney, Australia; Hong Kong; and Bangkok, Thailand.
RPG – Rocket-Propelled Grenade. A high-explosive, shoulder-fired grenade directed against personnel, vehicles, or aircraft at close range.
RTO – Radio-Telephone Operator. All units in the field had an RTO who carried a portable radio for communicating with other units and with headquarters. The RTO was often a target of enemy snipers; without a radio, a unit could not call in air or artillery support or call for reinforcements.
sapper – A Viet Cong commando, usually carrying explosives, who would lead an attack by infiltrating barbed-wire perimeter defenses and blowing up bunkers or other structures in a base camp.
short-timer – The closer a soldier got to his DEROS date, the “shorter” he got. Many short-timers kept track by notching a stick or filling in spaces on a calendar.
smoke – Various types and colors of smoke were deployed to mark targets for air and artillery strikes or landing zones for helicopters. Troops on the ground would “pop smoke”—detonate a smoke grenade—to signal to an approaching aircraft where to land and whether it was safe to land. Artillery gunners fired white phosphorus, called “willie pete,” as a marker for a forward observer to direct fire or to create a smokescreen to hide the movement of friendly forces.
SOG – Studies and Observation Group, a clandestine unit controlled by the Pentagon to conduct cross-border reconnaissance and other classified operations, including “body snatches” in Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam.
SOP – Standard Operating Procedures
Tet – The Vietnamese New Year, the most important celebration of the year. The date of Tet is determined by the lunar cycle and marks the beginning of spring. The countrywide Communist attacks on the eve of Tet in 1968 marked a turning point in the war.
tunnel rats – American soldiers who volunteered to crawl through the enemy’s extensive tunnel complexes. Starting with the war against the French, the Communist guerrillas created large underground complexes where they would be relatively safe from bombing and artillery. The complexes held command headquarters, supplies, hospitals, training facilities, and more.
unit designations – An Army or Marine division consists of 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers. Each Army division includes three or more brigades of 3,000 to 5,000 troops; the Marines call these units regiments. Brigades and regiments are each subdivided into three to five battalions of roughly 1,000 soldiers. A battalion usually consists of four companies, designated by letters and referred to as Alpha Company, Bravo Company, and so on. The companies are divided into platoons of roughly fifty soldiers, and the platoons are further subdivided into squads or sections and fire teams. A unit designator such as “the 2/12 Cavalry” signifies 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Brigade.
