snivel gear n. a soldier’s equipment or clothing perceived as providing comfort beyond that which is strictly necessary, such as a poncho, a sweater, gloves, a sleeping bag, etc. Editorial Note: The first cite is a nonce usage unrelated to the term...
snivel gear
n.— «SNIVEL GEAR = comfort items.» —“A Soldier’s E-Mail Changes Their Equipment” by Joe Katzman Winds of Change.Net Feb. 18, 2003. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
backfill n.— «I was mobilized to a stateside assignment at Fort Eustis in Virginia, where I would administer anesthesia at the McDonald Army Community Hospital. I was known as “backfill,” a term for identifying someone who...
bullet sponge n.— «Others in the Army call them grunts, or trigger pullers, or crunchies, for the sound of a tank rolling over a dead soldier. Sgt. Allan Toney has heard them all. “Bullet taker, bullet sponge, bullet stopper,”...
bullet sponge n. a person, especially a soldier, who takes the brunt of weapons fire. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
stove-pipe n.— «Soldiers call it a “stove-pipe.” It happens rarely, and usually in the very worst of combat circumstances: the soldier is fatally hit just as he is firing his handgun. In the split second when his weapon fires...
