Vietnam Flashcards
.50 caliber machine gun
.50 cal
Newer version of the AK-47. Some have a permanently mounted “illegal” triangular bayonet, which leaves a sucking wound that will not close.
AK-50
U.S. Air Force high-altitude bomber; also, slang for a can opener
B-52
a resupply base for field units and a location for headquarters of brigade or division size units, artillery batteries and air fields. Also known as the rear area.
Base camp
a military unit composed of a headquarters and two or more companies, batteries, or similar units
Battalion
military phonetic for the letter ‘C”
CHARLIE
Viet Cong; the enemy
Charlie
an antipersonnel mine carried by the infantry which, when detonated, propelled small steel cubes in a 60-degree fan-shaped pattern to a maximum distance of 100 meters
Claymore
The dividing line between North and South Vietnam established in 1954 at the Geneva Convention.
demilitarized zone/DMZ
a battle, or exchange of small arms fire with the enemy
Firefight
heavy fiberglass-filled vest worn for protection from shrapnel
Flack jacket
the assassination of an officer by his own troops, usually be a grenade
Fragging
the plane that took soldiers from Vietnam back to the World
Freedom bird
a hut or simple dwelling, either military or civilian.
Hootch
Usually a small clearing secured temporarily for the landing of resupply helicopters. Some become more permanent and eventually become base camps.
Landing zone/LZ
a subdivision of a company-sized military unit, normally consisting of two or more squads or sections
Platoon
A three to seven-day vacation from the war for a soldier.
Rest and Recreation/R&R
an operation in which Americans searched an area and destroyed anything which the enemy might find useful
Search and destroy
the Communist-led forces fighting the South Vietnamese government. The political wing was known as the National Liberation Front, and the military was called the People’s Liberation Armed Forces. Both the NLF and the PLAF were directed by the People’s Revolutionary Party (PRP), the southern branch of the Vietnamese Communist Party, which received direction from Hanoi through COSVN, which was located in III Corps on the Cambodian border. After 1968, as negotiations began in Paris, the NLF established the Provisional Revolutionary Government.
Vietcong
A war crime that ended with the mass murder of many unarmed vietnamese civilians committed by United States Army personnel on 16 March 1968.
My Lai Massacre
