US Military Slang

Ben Brody has created an interesting lexicon of current American slang. I think some of these might be ready to spread beyond the armed forces:

Fobbit: Combination of FOB [Forward Operating Base] and Hobbit. Derogatory term for soldiers who do not patrol outside the FOB. Replaces the Vietnam-era REMF, or Rear-Echelon Motherf#@&er.

Groundhog Day: From the Bill Murray movie, the phrase is used to describe deployments where every day proceeds the same way, no matter how the individual tries to change it.

Oxygen Thief: A useless soldier, or one who loves to hear himself or herself talk.

Powerpoint Ranger: A soldier who is tasked primarily with building Powerpoint presentations for commanders' briefings.

Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone: A military doctrine or political process that appears to exist in order to justify its own existence, often producing irrelevant indicators of its own success. For example, continually releasing figures on the amount of Taliban weapons seized, as if there were a finite supply of such weapons. While seizing the weapons, soldiers raid Afghan villages, enraging the residents and legitimizing the Taliban's cause.

I've worked on projects for which "Groundhog Day" is a perfect description, and Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone describes so many things.