Reply To: Sitrep Podcast: Historical Gaming (and Register for Upcoming Gaming Event)!

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@jemmy – you are correct about the “new.”  The F and the G … have different meanings. 😀 😀 😀

F*cking New Guy.

Derisive and derogatory term for the new replacement troops in a squad or platoon.  He hasn’t put his time in, he hasn’t “suffered” yet, he’s incompetent, his inexperience is likely to get someone in the unit killed.  Mortality rates for FNGs were astronomically higher than for more experienced men with even 30-60 days in the bush.

syn:  a “cherry,” a “boot,” (USMC), etc.

This was a real problem in Vietnam because unlike World War II and Vietnam, where draftees were in the field until the war was done and everyone knew that going in, troops in Vietnam had to serve a tour of only 12-13 months.  Everyone knew that, so no one wanted to stick their neck out, many troops were just “counting days.”  Also, because new men were always coming in and old troops always going out, there was never really a build up of overall unit experience in longer-term units.

In other language, in almost every squad, platoon, section, squadron, or battery in Vietnam, there was almost always someone who was “just in from the world” whom the veterans always felt was a liability, hazard, nuisance, or just a target for easy abuse.  This was the “FNG.”