25 Military Sayings, Quotes and Phrases Only Used by Military Families

If you have a family member or a friend that served, you must have heard at least some of these 25 military sayings, quotes and phrases only used by military families.

Just like any other group of people, members of the military have developed their own language for everyday use. Most of it is developed with a goal of making communication as simple and straightforward as possible, reducing chances of misinterpretation and misunderstandings, which can be fatal in combat. However, many of the military phrases and sayings have found their way into civilian life as well, either through family members that served or through movies and news. Reporters often love to use them, mostly to appear that they know what they are talking about. To the uninitiated, they tend to sound like as unintelligible as Funny Fortune Cookie Sayings for Kids. Not to worry, we have provided you with a quick rundown of the most common military sayings, quotes and phrases often heard around military families.

To create the list, we have consulted several sites that deal with family life with service members, like Military1 and Spouse Buzz. By now, some of the military sayings, especially acronyms like ASAP, are common knowledge, so we decided to omit them in favor of more obscure ones. Hopefully, you will learn a thing or two from our selection.

25. Oscar Mike

Oscar Mike or OM is military for on the move. Oscar Mike in five means we are leaving in 5 minutes.

24. Embrace the suck

This one is very useful for dealing with rebellious teenagers whining about their chores. In armed forces, people are taught early on to embrace the suck, meaning that a large portion of their enlistment will be spent doing unpleasant or simply boring stuff, which needs to be done with as little complaining as possible. For every minute of shooting or blowing things up, there are at least nine minutes of soul-crushingly dull presentation or cleaning the latrine. There is no way of getting out of it, so you might just as well enjoy it, according to drill sergeants. So, embrace the suck and keep shoveling the snow.

23. ETOC – Estimated Time of Completion

Requesting ETOC on homework, so the dinner can be served is pretty common in military families.

22. AWOL – Absent Without Leave

Informing your spouse that a kid is AWOL will ensure that the kid in question will receive a stern lecture on leaving the barracks without proper authorization or exceeding their allotted time outside the house once they return. Depending on your neighborhood and/or your spouse MOS, it may even trigger a CSAR (Combat Search and Rescue) mission.

21. Move out and draw fire

In the most general sense, move out and draw fire requires the person in question to go and do something useful or perform an order without further questioning. A good way of dealing with those “Why me?” questions after you already explained it 17 times.

20. Volun-told – Voluntarily told.

Usually reserved for those family gathering kids hate to attend, but Mum has already decided that they need to go regardless. Useful for husbands reluctant to attend said gathering as well. Pretty much the exact opposite of volunteering.

19. Do you have a visual?

Whenever you lose something and asking if anyone has seen it, regardless it the thing in question is a remote, your glasses, a pet or a child. It works in every situation.

18. Area Beautification

Dreaded and hated area beautification in military means that you will spend a good portion of a day picking up cigarette butts and other litter around the barracks. In civilian life, this military saying is usually a catch-all phrase for any type of yard work.

17. Go / No go

Informing someone that their order or suggestion is a go or no go means accepting or declining it. Be warned, though, in military families declaring a no go will require a full explanation as to the nature of declining a lawful order and it better be a damn good one.

16. Squared away

Squared away means everything is tip-top or in perfect shape. If said to a person, it is a high praise and a much-coveted compliment.

15. Hurry up and wait

Most usually used to describe waiting for mom to finish getting ready to leave the house, after she spent the last two hours screaming at everyone to get ready, instead of getting ready herself. Now the entire family has to stand at parade rest in fear of wrinkling their freshly ironed clothes and thus incur the wrath of mom who is still applying makeup. Or deciding what to wear, if you are unlucky.

14. Copy that

Copy that means that you have received and understood information that requires no immediate action, for instance when informed that the school recital is postponed.

13. Roger that

Similar to the above, but the information requires an action, like when the wife calls and informs that she can’t pick up the kids from school and you have to do it instead.

12. Pop smoke

Pop smoke means to mark an area, usually for a helicopter landing for extraction under fire. It also means to hurry up.

11. Zero comms

In this day and age, it usually means that the Internet is out, possibly as a form of punishment for behavior unbecoming to a member of a respected military family.

11. Mandatory Fun or “Mandofun”

Another expression used to describe attending mandatory family functions. “Yes, you will go to your cousin’s wedding and you will have fun or you will find yourself with zero comms for a month!”

10. FUBAR – f*cked up beyond all recognition (or repair, depending on the severity of the situation)

A bit adulty expression, not to be used in front of the little kids. Useful for describing a situation that is truly and utterly messed up: “Well, your grades are FUBAR and you need to square that staff away next semester, how copy?”

9. Good initiative, bad judgment

Number nine on our list of military sayings, quotes and phrases only used by military families, this phrase is used to describe an action which, while being performed in good faith, resulted in a FUBAR situation. A five-year-old deciding to give dog a bath is a classic example of good initiative, bad judgement.

7. Field strip

Field strip represents basic cleaning and maintenance in of military equipment, mostly weapons. In civilian life, the phrase translates into quick once-over when a job is finished and tools are about to be put away. A good example would be:” OK, we are done with this draining ditch, do a field strip on the shovel and pick ax and store them back in the shed.”

6. Detail strip

A more advanced version of cleaning usually requires removing everything that isn’t glued down and detail cleaning of said space. Nothing gets kids groaning faster than a dad announcing over Sunday breakfast that today is the day for detail strip of the garage.

5. 15 minutes prior to 15 minutes prior

An example of famous military quote “Shit rolls downhill.” Say a battalion commander wants an inspection performed at 07:00. That would require the battalion assembled at no later than 6:45. Company commanders would want to make sure to account for any potential stragglers and would issue an order to assemble at 6:30. Platoon leaders would change that to 6:15, just to be on the safe side. Their sergeants would assume 2nd LT in charge of a platoon is wrong as usual and would order everybody out at 6:00. Team leaders would add their 15 minutes and that is why you have to be assembled in full gear at half past four for an inspection that starts at seven o’clock. Each layer of command adds its own 15 minutes to the original order. Military families tend to function the same. If mom has announced that the dinner will be served at six, once the word gets passed through dad and older siblings, the youngest kid will be at the table at five, waiting impatiently for mac and cheese.

4. Shit-show

Another quote reserved for older kids. It means that a situation is a disaster, but not quite FUBAR.

3. Make a hole

When you hear someone yelling “Make a hole!”, it means you are probably in their way and need to move quickly.

2. Smoking and joking

One of the worst things you can be accused in a military family is smoking and joking. That means that you are idle and in a need of a mission and parents are more than happy to supply you with one. Off to the yard with you and make sure none of the leaves are left on the ground once you are done.

1. Police that

Policing something means getting it in line with regulations. So if you hear a military parent telling their kid to police their room, it just means that the room in question needs to be tidied up. Hopefully, after reading this list of military sayings, quotes and phrases only used by military families, you will be able t better understand the military lingo.