Get the name right!

[Recce41]

To all you damn, movie watching a55holes. It is call BASIC TRAINING in ever damn Commonwealth Country. NOT the M^%&&#F%^&*@# word Boot Camp. Most people knew it *** Basic Training back in the 1900-70s then TV gave us that damn word Boot Camp.
So pass it on to all, the rest of Canada (BASIC TRAINING)

 

[Art Johnson]

While you are at it try Guard of Honour. I recently had a discussion that extended all the way up to the DC of a unit, they thought it was Honor Guard. VAC the same thing they wouldn‘t believe me and change their web site till they checked with DDH. At least one regiment still refers to it as honor guard on their web site. Don‘t get me started on the Media, those people don‘t know their eekie from their ockie when it comes to military terminology.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

And the flag flies at half staff, not half mast.

 

[Jungle]

... and basic training instructors are not "drill instructors".

 

[Recce41]

How many other stupid things?

 

[Recce41]

Mike
One thing, there is a Half Mast. Its a Navy Term, for Half Staff.

 

[muskrat89]

Kit bag, not "duffle" bag?
And, of course, rifles are not "guns"

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Recce - we ARE at the Canadian ARMY War Diary.... The thumbtacks, Jack Tars and other seagoing types can call it whatever the **** they want!

Of course, civvies get even more of the basic stuff wrong, like calling an M113, Bison, Grizzly or Cougar a "tank"...but we can forgive them for that.

I hear soldiers talk about "hat brasses", when of course they mean "cap badges".

 

[Ralph]

About turn, not about face...my warrant didn‘t like when I said the American term...

 

[toms3]

I know exactly what ye-all are sayin…just last night during KP duty after coming back from my Recon and cleaning my M-16 – the Gunnie said to me that dem things are potato’s not potaaato’s.

 

[McG]

I’m going to guess that you were still in your fatigues?

 

[IceHawk]

Or "cammies" as my Cousins in the states call them.

 

[Jungle]

Mike
One thing, there is a Half Mast. Its a Navy Term, for Half Staff.

Hey Recce41, right now I believe the entire Navy is "half staffed"!!! LOL...
Sorry sailors, I can‘t make fun of the Army, we are too busy as we are in the middle of our perpetual reorganisation...

 

[IceHawk]

Has anyone mentioned being part of a squad? Or using Bazookas?

 

[Pikache]

lef-te-nant, not loo-te-nant

 

[Jarnhamar]

Muckel. I guess that IS a canadian word but it still sounds like some kinda monster from a disney movie.
"hurry and hide before the muckles come"

 

[sgt.shmedly102]

One thing I‘ve noticed, it seems all the "American" terms y‘all use are actually Marine terms. ‘Cammies‘ are only cammies in the Marines, if they even still call them that; we in the Army call them BDU‘s. No one calls them ‘fatigues‘. The Marines are the ones who call their Drill Sergeants ‘Drill Instructors‘, they call half-staff ‘half-mast‘ (what with being a naval service and all). ‘Boot camp‘ is a Marine/naval term, we call it Basic (Basic Combat Training or BCT if you want to be precise). And Gunny is short for Gunnery Sergeant which is the proper title of an E-7 in the USMC. In the Army E-7‘s are Sergeants First Class (SFC) and are addressed as ‘Sergeant‘. No NCO anywhere in the US armed forces tolerates ‘sarge‘. Then again, I always though Master Corporal sounded a little funny, until I got chewed out by one for calling him ‘corporal‘.

We do call duffle bags, ‘duffles‘, the Marines call them ‘sea bags‘. Of course if you deploy with three bags, you have an "A" bag, a "B" bag and a "C" bag, so I don‘t know how the Marines avoid confusion.

As for LT‘s, how is is spelled? I don‘t see ‘left‘ anywhere in it.

So what‘s the deal, y‘all watch ‘Full Metal Jacket‘ too many times?

 

[Pikache]

Meh. Commonwealth tradition. Ask the Brits how they got ‘lef-te-nant"

 

[SpinDoc]

I‘ve got 2 versions that I have heard explaining why "lef-tenant"...

This is can.community.military newsgroup:

"...it came from someone who was given charge of running lands in the absence of the Lord; therefore, someone who was "left tenant." Egalement en Francais, quelqu‘un qui se trouvait "en lieu tenant" du seigneur."
- posted by "Erick"

The other explantion I‘ve heard (also from the newsgroup and from other word-of-mouth stories):

"...The legend has it that the British changed the pronunciation so that holders of that rank wouldn‘t be portrayed as living in a toilet ( a "loo tenant")."
- posted by Jay

Take your pick... I‘m not a French speaker so I can‘t vouch for the French stuff up there.

 

[onecat]

just to point it is the American‘s who changed it and have it wrong if you go by correct English. Back in the mid 1800‘s they changed a lot of words like colour etc..... and lef-tenant is one them.