B
- B-1 Unit: A popular C-ration offering, featuring peaches and other fruit
- B-40: A rocket-propelled grenade launcher of Communist bloc manufacture; also, the rounds fired (B-40 rockets)
- Ba Moui Ba: Beer 33, a popular Vietnamese brew the consistency of which varied greatly; often referred to as “tiger piss”
- Bac Si: Vietnamese for medical corpsman; doctor
- Banana Clip: A curved magazine holding 30 rounds of ammunition for an M-1 carbine; also standard on the AK-47 assault rifle
- BAR: Browning Automatic Rifle, a .30-calibre magazine-fed automatic rifle used by U.S. troops in World War II and Korea
- Barracks Cover: A garrison cap, in Marine parlance
- Base Camp: Also known as the rear area; a semi-permanent headquarters and resupply base for field units and a location for headquarters units, artillery batteries, other support elements, and air fields; during the war, some 27 major base camps were constructed throughout Vietnam, the largest being the logistical base at Long Binh
- Basic: Shorthand for Basic Training, usually four to five months during which newly enlisted or drafted personnel learn basic combat skills and are initiated into the ways of the military
- Battalion: One of the basic organizational elements of both the Army and the Marine Corps; a military unit commanded by a lieutenant colonel and composed of a headquarters and two or more companies, batteries, or similar units; an infantry battalion might comprise some 900 officers and men, while an artillery battalion would have only about 500
- Battery: An artillery unit equivalent to a company, composed of just over 100 officers and men and commanded by a captain
- Battle Pin: A necktie clip, in Marine parlance
- Battleship: The largest naval gun platform, armed with nine 16-inch guns capable of firing 1,600 pound projectiles with a maximum effective range of 21 miles; first developed during World War II
- Battle-Sight Zeroing: Adjusting a weapon’s sights and windage to an individual soldier to achieve accuracy in aiming and firing
- BCD: Bad Conduct Discharge
- BDA: Bomb Damage Assessment
- Beehive: A direct-fire artillery round containing steel darts (flechettes) that sprayed like shrapnel
- Belay: Stop; quit
- Berm: A rise in the ground (a dike; a dirt parapet) around fortifications
- B-52: U. S. Air Force high-altitude bomber, the Boeing Stratofortress had a crew of six and a range of more that 7,500 miles; regarded by many as the most successful military aircraft ever produced
- B-40 Rocket: An enemy antitank weapon, handheld and launched from the shoulder
- Bic (Biet): Vietnamese term for “understand”
- Big Red One: The nickname of the 1st Infantry Division
- Billet: Assignment or job; place of residence
- Bingo: An Air Force term for the point in a flight when there’s only enough fuel to return the craft to base
- Bird: Any aircraft; usually refers, however, to helicopters
- Bird Dog: A light observation aircraft or spotter plane
- Bloods: Black troops; also referred to as “Brothers”
- Blouse: To tuck in, or secure your cuffs into your boot; also, a jacket in Marine parlance
- Blousing Bands: Elastic bands used to secure trouser cuffs
- Blue Line: A river on a map
- Blue Water Navy: Traditional naval operations conducted by warships of the 7th Fleet in the South China Sea and the Gulf of Tonkin
- Blues: Dress blue uniform for Marines
- Bo Doi: A uniformed soldier of the North Vietnamese Army (Peoples Army of Vietnam, PAVN)
- Boat People: Refugees fleeing Vietnam by boat or ship after April 30, 1975
- Body Bags: Black plastic bags used to transport the bodies of the dead from the field Body count: The yardstick for “success” in combat operations in a war with no front lines, the body count was often inflated and led to a credibility gap between the military and the American public
- Bogie: An airborne enemy aircraft identified by radar or by visual sighting
- Booby Trap: Usually an explosive charge – anything from a single round of ammunition to a hand grenade to an unexploded bomb – hidden from view that explodes on contact, e.g., when a wire is tripped, a gate is opened, a souvenir is taken; booby traps also were sharpened punji stakes smeared with dung or human feces and hidden in a depression in the ground
- Boo Koo (Boo Coo): Bastardized French from beaucoup, meaning “much” or “many”
- Boom-Boom: Slang for sex with a prostitute
- Boonies: Any area outside a city or a base camp; colloquialism for “boondocks”; also called the “bush”
- Bonnie Hat: A soft, floppy hat worn by many in place of helmets
- Boonie Rat: An infantryman, or grunt
- Boot: A recruit
- BOQ: Bachelor Officer Quarters; living quarters for officers
- Bouncing Betty: A land mine that, when triggered, bounces waist-high and detonates, spraying shrapnel
- Bow: The front of a ship
- Bowl: A pipe for smoking marijuana
- Brass: Officers; also, shell casings
- Breaking Squelch: Disrupting the static of a field radio by hitting the transmit bar on another radio set to the same frequency
- Brig: Jail, in Marine parlance
- Brig Rat: An inmate
- Brig Chaser: An MP assigned to escort prisoners
- Brigade: A tactical and administrative military unit composed of a headquarters and one or more battalions of infantry or armor, along with other supporting units; three brigades, each commanded by a colonel, comprise a division
- Bring Smoke: To direct intense artillery fire on an enemy position
- Bro, Brother: A black soldier; a soul brother
- Bronze Star: U. S. military decoration awarded for heroic or meritorious service not involving aerial flights; a notch below the Silver Star
- Brown Water Navy: Navy personnel operating on the rivers, canals, and deltas of Vietnam
- Buff: Slang for B-52 aircraft; acronym for “big ugle fat fucker”
- Butter Bar: 2nd Lieutenant, whose insignia was a single gold bar
- BX: Base Exchange; the equivalent for the Air Force of PX for the Army
- By the Numbers: In sequence
