The Ely miner., 1943-08-26
CHAPTER vi

When Junior comes home from
camp on furlough or for the week
end, he probably will throw out his
chest, pull his shoulders almost out
of joint, and speak sort of jargon
entirely unintelligible to you. There
is no cause for alarm; Junior Is
merely exaggerating to show off his
familiarity with military life.
You will not be consoled by this
knowledge when he begins speaking
this unknown tongue. In order to
understand some of his conversa-
ton, you might tear out this page
and tuck it away in the drawer
with your recipes and patterns.
Goldbricking is an Army term sig
nifying in a word, loafing. In its
strictest sense, it means avoiding
your fair share of the work, thus
making the load harder for the 9TH
er boys. When Junior uses the
term, however, it merely means hid
ing from the work in the first place
or stretching an easy job out to make
1t last as long as possible.
Batting the breeze is the military
equivalent of ''bullshooting."
Police, as nearly as it can be ex-
planned, means ''to clean up" or "to
keep clean" Examples are kitchen
police, or kaypee, canteen police,
and police the area.
Fatigue duty is work that is not
actual military training, but part
of the turnabout method of getting
the dirty work done. Fatigue clothes
are the blue denims worn for extra
duty. Regular uniforms are called
obs, an abbreviation for "olive
drab."
CT is short for Government Is
sue" CT soap is the yellow laundry
soap, a CT brush is a hard-bristle
scrubbing brush, and a CT haircut
is the regulation style which sac
riices two-thirds of Juniors wavy
locks to cleanliness and sanitation.
The PIX is the post exchange, or
canteen, a cooperative enterprise
which sells practically everything
the soldier needs. Three times a
month, canteen books of credit tick
cts may be obtained in denomina-
tions from one to five dollars. Ten
per cent of the proceeds from these
are returned to the battery fund,
which is used to buy nonessentials
for the battery.
The old man is the battery COM
mander, who may also be referred
to among yourselves as the BE or
the skipper. The top kick is a first
sergeant, the chief of the battery's
noncommissioned officers.
Jawbone is an apt word meaning
"credit." A Jawbone corporal is an
acting corporal, who has neither the
rating nor the pay of a corporal.
A guardhouse lawyer is a self
appointed legal expert who knows
all there is to know about the laws
and rights of soldiers, he says. The
Congressional legislation for mill
tary discipline is contained in ''the
book" a manual of court-martial
known as the Articles of War. The
96th Article of War, which you've
heard about, is the one which pro-
vides punishment for conduct un-
becoming to soldier" When you
are sentenced for a number of vio-
lations simultaneously, they "throw
the book at you.'
Over the hill is an artistic way of
referring to unauthorized absence.
This is another expression for
AWOL.
Food is chow or mess. Stew is
slum or slumgullion. Salt pork,
which you rarely see in the Army,
is called lamb chop. "They lam it
against the wall to get the salt out
of it and then they chop it up into
the BEANS"
To fall out, soldiers vacate the
barracks quickly, before the SER