brown-water Navy
n.— «They came from all over the fleet—off destroyers, from the Seabees, out of the gators and small boat units. Two of the 225 sailors in the squadron came right from boot camp, and the brown-water Navy is the first Navy they’ll know.» —“Getting their feet wet” by Andrew Scutto Navy Times SEpt. 25, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In 1916, a small-town newspaper in Pennsylvania printed a fanciful item about a local gathering with a guest list that included, among others, Miss Ella Vader, Mr. Ray Zor, and other punny names. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
A Navy vet recalls learning the slang term gundeck, meaning “to sign off on checks or reports without fully completing them.” A possible origin involves a ship’s gun deck, either as a place where sailors hid to avoid duties or where navigational...