No doubt, some of you Gyrenes have heard this before, but I was telling an old '03 buddy about this website, and we agreed, among other things, about Marines' definitions and traditions of "Old Corps."
When we were active-duty years ago, we were informed that "Old Corps" only applied to someone who had enlisted at least the day before you did!
Also, being "salty" didn't refer to the lip you gave someone, or the mineral content you got from a shot of worm tequila either.
Being an "office pogue" in a line unit meant that you humped a pack and smoke pole (in addition to the morning report) when you had a CO that believed every swinging d-ck in his company was an '03 first.
Surveying your 782 gear didn't mean repairing your tractor while looking out over the back forty acres.
I never had to go look for a BFA for a 40 mm tube, or a box of grid squares, but I did experience the feel of a fresh-starched pair of faded green utilities for about five minutes until the high humidity wilted them to my equally sweating body.
And I have enjoyed the thrill of aimlessly marching around all night, being led by the most dangerous weapon in the Marine Corps arsenal. (Need THAT definition be openly described?)
Ha! Ha! Ha!
There are a seemingly endless line of terms and definitions that populate our Marine terminology. Occasionally, they crop up in seemingly innocuous conversations without our realizing it.
"Making a head call" is automatically taken for granted. Getting "squared away" has perhaps been taken over by almost everybody else, unfortunately.
And, no Virginia, your "bulkheads need to be chipped and repainted," is not referring to your hideous-looking toenails or makeup! (Let's not even use the term "hatch" in her presence, either!)
"Policing up your area," doesn't mean calling the local law enforcement about the crime in your neighborhood, although it does make for an interesting analogy.
"Stand down" doesn't mean to lie down and rest your weary bones.
"Snapping in," or a "snapping-in circle" (although vaguely pornographic-sounding to the uninitiated) doesn't refer to teaching a know-it-all twenty-something-year-old how to operate a simple piece of equipment, although even THAT term is vastly overused by civilians now.
Your "cover wasn't worn cocked on your noggin, or flipped backwards, and your dirty rat paws weren't shoved in your pockets to rest your arms, along with loose change, rolled-up magazines, chewing gum, Skoal, cigs, or whatever else you think you need nowadays. (Yeah.. .I'm guilty at times, too! )
What's the point of all this, you ask? When more than two Marines get together, talk eventually turns to Marine things.
Like it or not, we ALL have that ingrained habit of referring to the things we maybe disliked or hated at the time, but it still defines who we really are inside… a walking, talking Marine. Don't most of us like being able to say things that the rest of the world aren't privy to – sorta like a second language?
Don't believe me? Just ask your wife, girlfriend, kids, family and friends. They'll tell ya who ya really are!
Later…