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BOHICA J. D. Pendry Aren’t acronyms
great? Have you ever walked into a
conversation and then leave it having no idea what was said to you. It happens.
GIs are famous for them hell, we even have our own acronym dictionaries. Why doesn’t the Army have a language
identifier for acronyms or teach them as a second language. Not counting all of the official acronyms,
soldiers made up some of their own over time, which usually express their
feelings about life at a particular moment. Soldiers’ acronym
creativity may have actually caused one business to modify its name or at least
its corporate logo. In the 1960s and
1970s, MAC (The Military Airlift Command) routinely chartered Flying Tiger Airlines
for overseas flights – those that took soldiers to Vietnam for example. Their logo was FTA. Soldiers traveling in the direction of
Vietnam referred to it as Fun Travel and Adventure. Those returning home following their tours used
other terms for FTA that were not enduring ones for the Army and eventually
Flying Tiger Airlines became known simply as Tiger Airlines. Now, did the GI modification of the FTA
acronym cause Flying Tiger to change their name? Who knows, but sticking to my method of no research and reliance
on the validity of war stories, I’ll accept that it did. When I worked at
USAREUR DCSOPS in the 80s, there was a running joke about a new piece of
equipment the Army was fielding at the time.
It was a tactical kitchen unit called the Field Utility Combat Kitchen –
Improved Tactical. The name and its
acronym didn’t last for obvious reasons. Oh, there’s some
more. This one is used to describe a soldier,
mission, piece of equipment or just about anything that one might be displeased
with the condition of. It’s FUBAR. To keep the article PG13 rated, I will tell
you that stands for Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition. This is one of the great time saving acronyms developed by the
improvising minds of soldiers. I used
it often when inspecting the barracks as a 1SG, a soldier knew that when his
room or gear got a FUBAR rating from the 1SG it was not a good thing. Another time saver was the All Fouled Up
rating or AFU, which served the same purpose.
AFU was a slightly better rating than FUBAR but neither was good. Another soldier
favorite is SNAFU or Situation Normal All Fouled Up. (Keep the PG13 rating in
mind.) This is what one uses when no
one really seems to know what’s going on.
It’s sort of a fog of war acronym.
Think of the movers who can’t seem to find half of your HHG (household
goods) or your car. Or the Battalion
PAC (Personnel Administration (or Assistance) Center – maybe, I think) that
hasn’t been able to correct your ERB or PQR during the last several years of
SIDPERS updates. Or…the DFAS office
that suddenly can’t find your EFT routing number. No, I’m not sure what I just said, but that’s what a SNAFU is all
about. WHOGAS is not as
common in some circles as it is in others.
I’ll give you a hint, however.
We are not talking chemical warfare here. Let me see if I can steer you into this one. Pretend you’re a 1SG. You walk into the barracks and your CQ
(Charge of Quarters – do we still have those?) tells you that the BN SDNCO just
had his lips removed by the OD (Officer of the Day) because the flag detail
showed up late and the CSM wants to see you in his office about it and, oh by
the way, he said the police call area sucks so you respond with a pleasant
morning WHOSGAS (Who Gives A S**t). I do want to share
another of my favorite acronyms with you, but first I want to take a few lines
and discuss something else. I’m not
sure how many of you are familiar with the law regarding concurrent receipt of
military retired pay and veterans disability compensation. If you’re not familiar with it, you may want
to educate yourself if perhaps someday you expect to retire from the service. Let me explain it briefly. During the late 1800’s (that would be the 19th
century as opposed to the 21st which we are now in), 1891 to be
exact, Congress discovered that some veterans of the Mexican War (1846-1848)
were drawing both disability pensions and their retired pay. They also discovered that some drew
disability pay while they were still on active duty. To fix this, they passed a law stating no military person could
receive disability pension while either on active duty or retired. In 1944, Congress modified this law by
passing legislation that allowed retirees to receive disability compensation as
long as they agreed to waive military retirement pay dollar for dollar. Because of the 110 plus year-old law,
military retirees are the only category of Americans that must
give up retired pay to be compensated for physical disabilities incurred on
while on active duty. The Congressman,
who is a disabled veteran, will not give up one red cent of his Congressman’s
pension in order to receive disability compensation. This year, many of
us thought that Congress finally discovered a conscience and was going to
repeal one of the most unfair pieces of legislation on the books. Our confidence rose as 83 percent of our
representatives and 73 percent of our senators, co-sponsored legislation to
repeal the concurrent receipt laws. It
rose again as they repealed the legislation in the FY 2002 Defense
Authorization Bill… until we read the fine print. The fine print explains that it’ll be repealed as long as the
President proposes legislation to fund it.
So, our elected representatives made themselves look good politically by
cosponsoring legislation and sending it to the President knowing that he and
the Department of Defense do not support it and very likely will not propose
the needed legislation to fund it.
Frankly, I believe I trust those who didn’t co-sponsor the bill more
than those who did. At least I know how
they feel about it for sure. Once
again, the politicians did to disabled military retirees what they have been
doing to soldiers and veterans for years.
They said BOHICA, or, Bend Over Here It Comes Again. Copyright 2000 James D. Pendry All Rights
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