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thedrifter
02-19-08, 08:16 AM
The Few. The Proud. The Glossary. Please.

By Robert W. Gee | Monday, February 18, 2008, 10:23 AM


Just as I was feeling proud of myself for mastering the vernacular of the Army — or, at least enough to fake it — I met the Marines.

For the last 24 hours, I’ve been living with the Marines in crude outposts around Ramadi, where they train Iraqi police, oversee reconstruction projects, lift weights and smoke cigarettes.


The Marines control Western Iraq, once a hotbed of the insurgency, now remarkably peaceful.

Here, a latrine is a head, a door is a hatch, a medic is a corpsman. (And, for the record, the Marines say their corpsmen are much better trained and qualified than Army medics.)

Last night, speaking to Capt. Matthew Martin, I wanted to confirm when we would be leaving in the morning (for the opening of a health clinic).

“At oh nine hundred?” I said, meaning 9 a.m., which would have been exactly how an Army soldier would say it.

He laughed. “oh nine hundred,” he said to a staff sergeant nearby. “That sounds like MASH,” referring to the television show about an Army MASH unit. I was corrected. We were leaving at zero-nine.

Ellie