Sept. 19, 1964 - The war in South Vietnam is producing its own vocabulary.

Sept. 19, 1964 - The war in South Vietnam is producing its own vocabulary. Among the Americans stationed there, World War II’s jargon has faded away, and even Korea’s glossary sounds dated.




Replacing them are words like these:
ARVN — The Army of the Republic of Vietnam, pronounced as though it were a name like “Alvin.” “Then the ARVN moved in,” an American adviser might say, distinguishing those soldiers from civil guard battalions.
FRIENDLIES — Generally the ARVN or civil guard troops but sometimes used to designate townspeople who cooperate with the Americans or the Saigon Government.
HOG — A helicopter without the M-60 machine guns that have been mounted in the doors of other helicopters. Instead, the Hogs carry 48 rockets, 24 to a side.
HOOCHES — The huts woven from banana leaves and roofed with straw or corrugated tin that are the standard housing for Vietnamese outside the cities. Some Americans have appropriated the term for their own Quonset-styled barracks.
HUEY — The Helicopter Utility Model 1-B. About 50 of them are based in the Mekong Delta. In a country where bridges may be destroyed overnight and roads are unpaved, mined, or controlled by the Viet Cong, the Hueys are a combination of shuttle bus, supply truck, ambulance, and weapon of war.
OIL SPOT — The first village in a hostile area to be won over by the Government. Its troops and civilian cadre then attempt to extend their influence in a widening circle, using the pacified village as their base.
OUTSTANDING — Said with gusto, the word can mean anything from excellent to merely passable. 
SLICK — A Huey without rockets or other built-in armament. The slicks carry eight ARVN, in addition to the four-man American crew, to the scene of battle. Because they were built to accommodate fewer but larger passengers, the Vietnamese crouch on the floor, often with their feet dangling from the doors.
SORRY ABOUT THAT — The opposite of “outstanding” and generally rolled off tonelessly. When a young lieutenant learning craps lost $5 in five rapid rolls last Saturday, his instructor shrugged and said, “Sorry about that.”
V.C. — They are of course the Viet Cong, the enemy. But when a private displeases his sergeant, he may hear “you knucklehead V.C.!”


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