n575  0410  11 Mar 84
BC-SLANG-03-09
     By Henry Kisor
    (c) 1984 Chicago Sun-Times (Independent Press Service)
     Beetle crusher, blister foot, blue, boonie rat, bravo, dogface,
doggie, doughboy, eleven bang-bang, eleven bravo, eleven bush, field
rat, footslogger, gravel agitator, gravel crusher, gravel pusher,
groundpounder, grunt, leg, mudcrusher, mud thumper, pebble pusher,
peon, rifle, straightleg, stump jumper. All these mean one thing: an
infantryman, a soldier who fights on foot.
     Eleven bang-bang? What the ...
     That stands for ''11B,'' as any ex-GI can tell you. It's the
infantryman's ''MOS,'' or Military Occupation Specialty
classification.
     The foregoing is one of more than 3,000 enchanting discoveries in
''A Dictionary of Soldier Talk: Definitions and Origins of Army Words
and Phrases, Both Official and Slang, From the Revolution to the
Present, Plus an Appendix of Navy and Marine Terms,'' by John R.
Elting, Dan Cragg and Ernest Deal (Scribners, $35).
    The authors are neither professional lexicographers nor certified
scholars of language, but their work is perhaps even more
authoritative.
    Elting is a retired Army colonel and, better yet, Cragg and Deal are
retired top sergeants-the horse's mouth of soldier talk if ever there
was any.
    Their compendium is not only a valuable reference for historians and
writers but also good browsing for the casual reader. It'd make a
fine birthday or Christmas gift for a veteran, too.
    For the word lover, it's additional evidence that American slang
always has been vigorous, colorful and creative.
    Some examples: You've heard of bird (full) colonels and light
(lieutenant) colonels, haven't you? During the colonial wars of the
18th century, a ''rattlesnake colonel'' was a derogatory term for an
Indian trader with a self-bestowed military title.
     The ''Diarrhea Rangers'' of the Mexican War of 1846-48 were the
suffering souls left behind at Veracruz while Winfield Scott's troops
marched on Mexico City.
     A ''pumpkin rind'' was a second lieutenant in the Union Army during
the Civil War, so called because of the plain cloth shoulder straps
that denoted his rank.
     During the Indian Wars of 1866-1890, a ''Poor Lo'' was a horse
soldier's term for a native American, after Alexander Pope's ''Lo,
the poor Indian.''
     A century later the Vietnam War contributed many terms. Among them:
''Howard Johnsons,'' the little pushcarts of Vietnamese food vendors;
''Disneyland East,'' the American military headquarters in Saigon
(also the Pentagon).
     Of course much (if not most) Army slang is of questionable taste,
but the authors did not shirk their duty. They tracked down every
imaginable derivative of the expletive most often heard in the Army
(the one small children refer to in front of their parents as ''the f
word''). Under ''F'' alone there are no fewer than 16 entries,
including ''FUMTU'' (''- - - -ed Up More Than Usual,'' a
second-generation offspring of the World War II term ''SNAFU,''
rendered in polite company as ''Situation Normal, All Fouled Up.'')
     Enough of that, however. Military folk can be witty as well as
salty. ''Since Christ was a corporal'' is a jocular term indicating
it is a long time since something has happened, or perhaps it never
happened. During World War II the British Royal Air Force version was
''Since Pontius was a pilot.''
     The only real lack in this book are Navy and Marine terms, which
are relegated to an inadequate appendix. The authors can be forgiven,
because they are obeying the old adage ''Write about what you know.''
     Just the same, it would be interesting to know the provenance of
''Jewish Navy,'' a World War II locution for the U.S. Coast Guard.
''We haven't the faintest idea what inspired this,'' the authors
confess.
     In all else ''A Dictionary of Soldier Talk'' is ''a wizard show''
(much used by the British in World War II to indicate something of
superlative quality).
    END
    
nyt-03-11-84 0710est
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