I was in the infantry for 8 years, 25th Infantry Division and others and am the son of a Vietnam Vet. This is actually how they talked, how I was even spoken too as a kid and even how I was talking in the 25th ID which I joined specifically because of Vietnam. I was in 3/21 Infantry and 5/14 Infantry. 3/22 the unit in 'Platoon' was in my quad. I grew up around many Vietnam vets. I was born in '71. My friends father, David Nimmons, was in this battle with the 101st ABN.
The whole thing about the brothers doing the 'dap' and saying 'It dont mean nothin, not a thing!' True to life.
For all you, green apple, cherry, FNG types here who have never been boots on the ground in anywhere other than a National Forest here is some help for this movie alone. Covering them all would be a pain in my 4th point of contact:
Boonie Rat - the greatest complement you could call an infantryman. grunts who have learned to live in the boonies.
Boonies, Boondocks, the bush, brush - the field, beyond the wire also known as Indian Country.
Bloods - term black soldiers coined for themselves.
11 Boo - 11Bravo is the Military Occupational Specialty for Infantryman
Cold Steel - artillery support
Chieu Hoi: Program under which Government of VN offered amnesty to VC defectors
Dinky Dao: crazy, as in your all Dinky Dao Number 10.
fast movers: jets, usually the F-4s, F-5s, A-7s
Grunts - Infantryman
In Country: in Vietnam, as in, "Ive most definitely been incountry beaucuop and I'm short"
Tee tee - a little or some, as in, "we are receiving tee tee small arms fire from that tree line.
Troop - soldier, skytrooper, etc.
Skate - to take it easy
The 'Nam or Vietnam, Republic of - Mostly I always heard it called The 'Nam.
Number 1 - very good, colloquially, "GI you Numbah one"
Number 10 - Very bad, colloquially "VC Numbah ten"
Boom Boom - doing the nasty with the local bar girls,
beaucoup -Vietnamese/French term for "many," or "lots of..."
Diddi - short slang for diddi bopping, getting the hell out, or leave me alone. When doc, Motown, and the other brother are walking up they are telling the kids to Diddi Mao!
Diddi bopping - FNG type activity, walking on trails, bunching up, talking loudly in the field, not paying attention and otherwise diddi bopping around with a death wish.
Un-ass - get it, yourself, or someone else out of there post haste.
Most definitely - affirmative
Short, short timer - a lucky SOB whose time having to be in the Nam is drawing to a close.
six - "Six wants us to maneuver aggressively. I told him half my men were still on the hill" 6 is generally the man in charge. In a platoon you have a 6alpha and 6 bravo. 6actual or 6 alpha would be the Platoon commander. 6bravo, platoon sargeant, squad leader. Blackjack6 was the real call sign of the dingus running this real event.
The Pig - the M60 machine gun
Round eye - anyone not of Asian descent.
Alright you get my drift.
My friends father told me Hamburger Hill is the most accurate Vietnam War movie he has seen and he served three tours to include one as a door gunner with the 174th Assault Helicopter Company, the only unit in Vietnam with sharks teeth on their Huey Gunships. He fought at Hill 937.
Apocalypse Now showed the insanity, the twisted psychology. Hamburger Hill showed the reality he said.
Si vis pacem, para bellum
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