Thursday, March 20, 2014

Something I've always wondered

Not sure if I'm alone in this, but I know that while in there were a number of words that were used on a regular basis that I have never ever known the actual proper spelling or origin.

Figured I'd ask if anyone had any knowledge, especially some of you Vietnam vets.  Not sure if the terms pre-date the war there or what.

Pog/Poege/Poge - pronounced: POE-GUH - anyone who's in a non-combat MOS or someone who is but who does not do that job, or literally anyone who you think isn't carrying his load.
I've heard that it's origin is 'Persons Other than Grunts', but that seems significantly more complicated than I'd expect.  It sounds like something someone thought of after using the term.
The other explanation was that it comes from either Vietnamese or Tagalog term for pussy, 'poegee,' and is a bastardization from that term.
(There was also a claim that poegee bait comes from the idea of something to lure in pussy)

Stand 2/Stand too/Stand to - pronounced like it looks - 100% manning at the dusk and dawn hours.
Never heard a really good explanation why it's called this.  The only thing I've heard is that it's a shortened version of Stand to Arms and so it'd be written 'Stand to' but this seems somewhat hollow to me.

Anyone have any insight?

Any other terms that are interesting/confusing?


  1. It is POGUE!.I do not understand why this ahitorical legion of drooling present day jarheads do not know this,(Insult not directed at you, since you are an Army dude). The provenance is from China based Marines during the early 20th Century. The old story going around that it came from Pogey Bait (Candy, chocalate, crackers, chips, ice cream, etc.)

    At the time, sugar and other assorted sweets were rare
    commodities in China and much in demand by the Chinese, so the troops found the candy useful for barter in town. The Chinese word for prostitute, roughly
    translated, is "pogey". Thus, Marines being Marines, candy became "Pogey Bait"

    It is no wonder that today's rear echelon types have way more time to savor such delicacies, than do grunts. I Vietnam, apart from procuring pogey bait in a rear area PX (Phu Bai, being on of the few in the north), the only time the Gods saw fit to reward you, would be when the company would have SP packs flown in. These would include packs of twenty year old ciggies, with the filtered ones rat-fucked by the lifers, and the reeky Pall Malls and Camels going to the downtrodden.

    Ergo, Grunts being Grunts would hurl this invective at all who merited this appellation. Modern jarheads use POG???? Is that pronounced PAWG? ......useless eaters, useless breathers all. This from your 'umble narrator, fasteddiez, who along with mike, Al the Aviator, and Herr Seydlitz, are the font of bottomless USMC, braine-housed bagatelle.

  2. FastEddie has it right on re 'pogey bait' - those are the same stories I heard from an old China Marine. Never heard anyone say PAWG, not sure where that comes from. As far as Pogue (sounds like rogue), I've been called worse. I don't think it is the same derivation as 'pogey'? Wiki claims it has 18th Century Royal Navy homosexual roots (when they press-ganged 12 year old boys). Most every MOS used the term, not just grunts. It was mostly used for 'office pogues' or clerk/typists at company hq or higher. I have even heard Airedales use the term for their squadron clerk. Sailors too. Not sure about Army usage.

    Eddie - What was wrong with those Camels? Better by far than those filtered Vagina Slims. I used to trade C-Rat peanutbutter for Camels. Long time ago though, haven't touched one since I got outfoxed by my wife and daughters into quitting smoking cold turkey back in 1982.

    PFK - My favorite term was 'Geedunk' (with a hard G) also meaning candy or sometimes used for uniform ribbons. More great terminology was (or is) 'slop chute' (beer bar), 'feather merchant' (another word for pogue), 'pot shack' (worst ever type of KP duty), 'fart sack' (matress cover), 'horse cock' (baloney), 'candy striper' (Warrant Officer), and too many more to remember.

  3. I think the issue with modern grunts would be an inability to spell over anything more serious. How the hell does the American military use such a French spelling for a bastardized Chinese word?

    How does pogey become pogue as opposed to poge?

  4. When I came aboard in 1960, "Pogue" was a term of non-endearment for REMFs, and "pogey-bait" the term for candy and sweets. Clerks were either "office pogues" or "office pukes". I was provided the same history for "pogey-bait" as stated by fasteddie.


    I would guess that since the "pogeys" that were being baited were prostitutes, that an "office pogue" was a person who was paid for questionable services. After all, if you weren't a combat Marine, you have to be of very questionable moral status!
    My favorite term was "scuttlebutt", which arose from the nautical term for a drinking water cask (later a drinking fountain). Since the scuttlebutt was the common location for idle gossip, rumors and idle gossip became known as "scuttlebutt".

    In 1966-7, there were several former Marines in my WO Flight School class. Three of us, who had actually crossed paths in the Corps, ended up in the same Flight (Platoon). We spoke a totally different language, and were still "swabbing decks", "clearing the passageway", enjoying "pogey-bait" and "passing scuttlebutt" at graduation.

  5. Naval slang has its confusions. Dr. Johnson, the complier of the first comprehensive English dictionary (1755) visited a man-of-war at Plymouth and asked an officer about the purpose of a cabinet on deck.
    “That’s where the loblolly man keeps his loblollys.”
    Johnson, who did not like to be trifled with, replied, “Sir, you are impertinent.”
    Actually the officer had answered the question. The cabinet was where the surgeon kept his medical supplies.

  6. I always heard it pronounced as one syllable - "pogue" as in "office pogue". "Chairborne" was another version of that.

    82nd PAC did a funny take on that back when every individual unit used to have their own PT shirts (When you got to the 82nd your drew a pair of yellow short from CIF but each battalion (or separate company) had their own T-shirt, usually with some version of their battalion crest. My first unit was the 1/505th Infantry, and I wore that black-panther-and three blue stripes shirt until it literally fell apart...) with a pair of crossed #2 pencils behind the division patch and over the jump wings with the motto "We Put The Real Lead On Target"...