Embrace the Suck

By: Austin Bay

Narrated by: Dave Michaels

Milspeak: Slang for military jargon, troop idioms, and Pentagonese.

Members of America’s armed forces have their own distinctive language: milspeak. Especially since WWII, soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines have invented and adapted their own slang vocabularies, creating a colorful insider’s lingo of bureaucratic buzzwords, acronyms, mock jargon, dark humor, and outright profanity. Milspeak gives a unique and touching insight into military life from basic training to the trenches; from the flight deck to the cockpit.

This comprehensive field manual includes more than 500 colorful entries including:

• Voluntold: Derisive slang for “I was ordered to volunteer”.
• Back to the taxpayers: Navy slang for where a wrecked aircraft gets sent.
• Dome of obedience: Slang for a military helmet. Also called a brain bucket or skid lid.
• Echelons above reality: Higher headquarters where no one has an idea about what is really happening.
• Embrace the suck: The situation is bad, deal with it.

Embrace the Suck is the perfect gift for the soldier, sailor, marine, or airman in your life - or for the Beltway Clerk* who yearns to speak like one.

*Derisive term for a Washington political operative or civilian political hatchet man. May refer to so-called “Washington defense experts” who’ve never served in the armed forces.

©2017 Austin Bay (P)2018 Post Hill Press

Some will lack a sense of humor for this

I missed the wars and never was in the service. I grew up in two towns right alongside big bases though, and my pals as a kid and today include many active and former members, from grunts to senior officers. I understand the spirit expressed here. Some doubtless would focus on the offensive elements of some of the slang. Alongside that, there are plenty of acronyms for all sorts of equipment and other things encountered in various branches of the service. Some of the terms date back to WW2. I enjoyed this a lot. It gives something of a flavor of the experience and the life. There are some clever wags in the military.