This humble and modest little essay has to do with language. Specifically it has to do with the language spoken by enlisted men, always called GIs, in the American Army in the era of World War II. This is the language spoken among enlisted men, and it has very little to do with the lofty tones used by officers, particularly those of general rank. This essay might very well be unintelligible to clowns such as General Patton or Bernard Law Montgomery of the British Army. It is concrete language spoken by young men such as myself who served in the Second World War in an effort to defeat the forces of Adolph Hitler and the Nazis.
The language spoken by GIs was often salty. It was not intended for Sunday School superintendents. Nor was it intended for my first grade teacher, Miss Brantley. GI speak was often obscene because it had to do with such subjects as the needless death of comrades.
The American Army in the Second World War was made up of draftees who had a large measure of intelligence. You may recall that in my basic training, I made a suggestion to the corporal in charge about how he might accomplish his close-order drill. The corporal told me, “Soldier, you don’t get paid to think. You get paid to do what you are told.” Those of us who served as soldiers in that war often were brighter than the men who commanded us. We resented the fact that we were mere statistics who could be sent to our deaths simply to impress general officers with the scale of the ferocity of battle that they oversaw.
Before going further, I should tell you that the term “GI” flowed from an Army directive concerning “general issue.” Bedsheets, blankets, food, headlights, etc. were considered “general issue” to the United States Army. Somehow or other, because the enlisted men were at the bottom of the pecking order, that description was used to describe those of us who occupied those positions.
The fact is that GI speak had no grammar of its own. It was never studied in the great universities of the world. But it contained unmistakably clear directions as to the intent of the user.
I told you in the beginning that GI speak was often salty and obscene. But as a speaker of GI speak myself, I conclude that it was direct and left no room for doubt among listeners.
A healthy part of GI speak had to do with words being f****d up. In popular parlance what is called “fouled up”. The GI speak that I refer to here has very little to do with being fouled up. It basically has to do with being f****d up, and I have cleaned that up. I hope that you will understand it. It was the belief among GIs that many of the directives given to us were “f****d up.” And so one of the major elements of GI speak has to do with the words f****d up.
Originally the world knew the word SNAFU, which means “situation normal, all f****d up.” I daresay that SNAFU was known throughout the English speaking world as well as many of the other major languages associated with World War II. As the Second World War drew to a conclusion, a new word came into GI speak, FUBAR. Translated, FUBAR means “f****d up beyond all recognition.” I hate to tell you this, but many of the efforts in World War II looked great for publicity purposes but in fact were f****d up beyond all recognition.
And now I turn to less well-known words that concern the f****d up locution. The first is SESFU. It means “situation unchanged, still f****d up.” I did not know about SESFU until it was called to my attention by a book that is being read to me, which I will get into in a minute.
The next word in the GI speak is SAFU. It means “self-adjusting f*** up.” Now we proceed to TARFU. Translated, this means that “things are really f****d up.”
The next word is FAMTU. It means “f****d up more than usual.” Then there is JANFU, which means “joint Army Navy f**** up.”
In the Second World War there were many exercises where we were associated with the British. There were always debates about the American tendency to fly into the face of the storm as opposed to the Brits’ usual penchant to wait and see how things would develop. This is not meant in any way as a criticism of the Brits, because they were often much more right than we were. But now we come to the word JAAFU. It means “joint Anglo American f**** up.”
Here is a tougher one. This one is called a FUAFUP, which means “f****d up and f****d up proper.”
This concludes my recitation of GI speak, which was used during the Second World War to describe various military operations. I am indebted to Rick Atkinson who has written what he proposed to be a trilogy of books. The first book was called “An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943.” That book was written in 2002 and because of my involvement, I bought copies and gave them to my daughters.
The second book of the trilogy was called “The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944.” That book was written in 2007. And I am now reading it – or hearing it – because it has been converted into compact discs. The third book in the trilogy has of course not been written but it will cover the latter stages of the war in Italy.
I do not wish to brag in any sense whatsoever about my involvement in these adventures. The fact is that I was born in 1922 and in the early part of 1942 I enlisted in the American Army. If there is anything about which I continue to be proud, it is that when my country was in danger, at least I enlisted rather than waiting to be drafted. That may mean very little to lots of people but in my mind it was the only rational choice for me. My mother and father, who had several brothers in the First World War, hesitated to see me enlist in the Army but they agreed it was my duty to do so.
I hope that none of my readers are offended by any of the language contained in this modest little essay. This essay was an attempt to tell the rest of the world how GIs thought during that great conflict and the language they used to express it. If it was salty and obscene, then so be it. World War II was not a Sunday School picnic. It involved death and dumbness in large proportions.
Before leaving this essay, I would like to say a few words about Omar Bradley, a general in the United States Army. The fact that he came from my native state of Missouri has nothing to do with it. General Bradley did not swagger, as George Patton did, nor was he effeminate, as Bernard Law Montgomery was. General Bradley knew that in the final analysis it was the GIs who did the heavy lifting and often did the dying.
He was a remarkable man who had the devotion of every enlisted man. Very few Generals could ever make that claim.
Well, there you have my thoughts about GI speak. No one contends that our speech from World War II was elegant. It was direct and to the point. And, finally, if you are interested, you may wish to buy a copy of Rick Atkinson’s book, “The Day of Battle: The War in Italy and Sicily, 1943-1944.”
Looking back, I was not necessarily privileged to be through the battles in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. I was simply standing there when there was a need for my services and so I saw the whole panorama before me. But in every case I remembered the lesson I learned in basic training, which was that “Soldier, you don’t get paid to think. You get paid to do what you are told.”
E. E. CARR
February 6, 2009
Essay 363
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Kevin’s commentary: A related essay can be found here. And here is what it means to have the GIs.
I think this is the first instance of product placement in an Ezra’s Essay that I can recall. I am not opposed.
Many of these terms were unfamiliar to me. In fact I can only really say that I recognized SNAFU and FUBAR. For reasons that I cannot properly articulate, JANFU and JAAFU bring me particular joy. Perhaps it is because both the Carr and Shepherd families are experts in assigning blame and those expressions do just that.