Glossary of Vietnam Vocabulary (B)

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