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Swear Like a Trooper: A Dictionary of Military Terms & Phrases

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Swear Like A Trooper: A Dictionary Of Military Terms & Phrases is an invaluable reference, a comprehensive military lexicon that William Priest developed over a lifetime of listening, reading, and research. More than 5,600 entries chart the language and acronyms of the armed forces of the United States, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Vietnam, Japan, and Germany. The entries include usage dates, language of origin, and cross-references. Highly recommended for military history students, historians, writers, and the non-specialist general reader of both military fiction and non-fiction, Swear Like A Trooper is enhanced with the back-stories of such basic terms as "taps", "unconditional surrender", and the "twelfth general order".

This is a very worthwhile, superior reference book for anyone that studies history with the military involved. It seems that every period in history expands the flexible English language and uses of slang and cussing in every war has added to the language, and if you miss a war, you might be in the dark as to what the soldiers were saying. As an example, just about every news release from the foreign, violent lands carrys stories about NGO's (non-governmental organization), who are helping but getting killed and maimed on a regular basis, or being taken hostage. The book is full of terms that we see and hear every day in the media, and of course, many terms are locked away in old historical accounts, and that's where this reference book really comes in handy for clarification. How does a light colonel differ from a real colonel? Well, read the book and it will tell you. Good to have in the library for writers and historians, and especially old duffers who like to relive the glory days.

This book has tons of terms that the military has used. If you love military history you need this book.