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~ Your 1 st Navy test ~ Navy Slang Do you know the Navy basics? (10 questions) Rules: 1. These questions are to be answered without the use of the internet. Your sailors will not have internet access in boot camp, neither shall you! 2. You will answer each question. Each question counts. So it is better to guess than not to guess. 3. Your are REQUIRED to post the ones you got wrong. 4. The answers are posted below question #10. 5. Remember, this is only for fun. It truly doesn t matter how many you got right. What truly matters is that you learned something about the Navy. Rev: 1 st Navy test
Question 1 1. You are visiting Mayport, Florida when you walk into a bar and see your old friend, John Smith, in a Navy dress uniform. After exchanging greetings, you say you re surprised to see that he has become a seaman. John indignantly replies that he is not a seaman, he is a "snipe." What is a snipe? 1. A Navy SEAL. 2. An Officer. 3. An Engineer. 4. An Aviator.
Question 2 2. After a few words of conversation, John mentions that he is currently assigned to a "bird farm." What is a bird farm? 1. A aircraft carrier. 2. A submarine. 3. A repair ship. 4. A destroyer.
Question 3 3. Jack is a Gunners Mate (GM), while performing routine maintenance on a 5 inch gun, he decides to Gundeck the maintenance so he could get done sooner? What is Gundeck? 1. To lay the barrel of the gun on the deck to clean, rather that obtaining the correct equipment, to get the job done sooner. 2. To clean the barrel with a round metal brush, thus, the barrel and the shell will have zero clearance. This is similar to car engines and heads that get decked to make them with zero clearance. 3. To mark a maintenance or PMS check as complete without doing the actual work (Pencil-whipping). 4. To oil the barrel of a gun. The oil what originally made by a company called the Deck Gun Company. Sailors thus call it Decking (oiling) the barrel.
Question 4 4. You order a round of beer for yourself and your friend. As your shipmate takes a drink, He says: "Boy this really hits the spot. We just got back from a Med cruise, and for the last three weeks, all we had to drink was bug juice." What is "bug juice?" 1. Kool-Aid. 2. Powdered milk. 3. Water. 4. Canned soda.
Question 5 5. As you are enjoying your beer, John spots a friend of his on the other side of the bar and points him out to you. "That's Jack Jones," he says, "he's a bubblehead." What is a bubblehead? 1. A Submariner. 2. A Seabee. 3. A civilian. 4. A welder.
Question 6 6. Jack comes over to your table to join you. You notice his left arm is in pain. When you ask him about it he replies, "Oh, I just got my crow tacked on yesterday." What does this tell you? 1. He has had a vaccination. 2. He has injured himself. 3. He has been promoted. 4. He has been drinking too many beers (12 oz curls).
Question 7 7. You also notice Jack is sporting a black eye. When you ask him how he came by it, he replies: "Oh, some friends of mine were out celebrating last night, and we got into a fight with a pack of jarheads." What is a jarhead? 1. A member of the Coast Guard. 2. A civilian. 3. A Marine. 4. A homosexual.
Question 8 8. You and your friends decide to leave the bar and take a tour of John's ship, the USS Monica Lewinsky. While you are walking to your car, you pass a shop and John says, "Wait here for a minute. I want to go inside and get some geedunk." 1. Contraceptives. 2. Shoe polish. 3. Aspirins. 4. Candy/Pop. What is/are geedunk?
Question 9 9. The three of you arrive at John's ship, and he begins your tour. Taking you to the engineering spaces, he tells you that when the ship was returning from its last cruise, she was going "balls to the wall." What does this mean? 1. The ship was steering erratically. 2. The ship was leaking. 3. The ship was experiencing mechanical problems. 4. The ship was cruising at maximum speed.
Question 10 10. You are walking down a passageway when you come to a door. You start to open it, but John stops you. "Don't open that door," he exclaims, "It's the Goat Locker!" What would you expect to find in a Goat Locker? 1. Prisoners. 2. Female Sailors. 3. Classified material. 4. Chief Petty Officers.
The Answers
Answer 1 1. You are visiting Mayport, Florida when you walk into a bar and see your old friend, John Smith, in a Navy dress uniform. After exchanging greetings, you say you re surprised to see that he has become a seaman. John indignantly replies that he is not a seaman, he is a "snipe." What is a snipe? Answer: 3. An engineer Engineering ratings crew members in the engineering rates; someone who works in the engineering spaces and seldom is seen topside when underway. There are 8 Snipe ratings. They are: MM (Machinist's Mates), EN (Engineman), DC (Damage Controlman), EM (Electricians Mate), IC (Interior Communications), MR (Machinery Repairman), HT (Hull Maintenance Technician), and GS (Gas Turbine System Technician). In today's modern gas turbine fleet, also GS rating includes GSM (Gas Turbine Specialist, Mechanic), GSE (Gas Turbine Specialist, Electrician). Non-rated (i.e., E-3 and below) personnel who work in engineering are known as firemen, not seamen. They can be distinguished by the fact that they wear red stripes on their uniforms, whereas seamen wear white stripes. It is believed that true snipes cannot stand direct sunlight or fresh air, must have machine oil in their coffee in order to survive, and get nosebleeds at altitudes above the waterline. It is also firmly believed that fresh-air Sailors who venture into SNIPE COUNTRY are never seen again.
What is the history of a Snipe? In Medieval days up till the early 1800 s there were no engines and no Snipes. Along about 1812 the Navy obtained their first paddle wheel steamer named the USS Fulton. To run the boiler and engine, men of steam were also acquired. They were not sailors but engineers from early land based steam engines. From the beginning the sailors did not like or appreciate these landsmen and their foul smoky plants. They were treated with contempt and pretty much given the short end of the stick. In spite of all this the steam engine prevailed. There were still two crews however. The Engineers and the Deck crew. Soon an Engineer Officer was appointed to each ship. He was the Engineer Master and all the Engineers reported to him. The Deck sailors reported to the ship s Deck Master Curiously, the two masters were on equal footing and neither was over the other. The Deck Master though was in the best position. He controlled the quarters and rations. The Engineers were still at the mercy of the deck gang. By the height of the civil war, as steam was taking over and sails were disappearing the old Admirals that controlled the Navy were in a quandary what to do about the situation. They accomplished a couple of things. First, they managed to make the senior Master a Captain. As Captain he was in overall command of the ship and the Engineering officer reported to him. Beings as how there were occasions that the Engineer master outranked the ship s master something had to be done to keep the Engineer from becoming Captain. To solve this problem they developed two separate Officer branches. Staff and Line. Only Line Officers could succeed to command. Staff Officers would always be subservient to Line Officers at sea. Staff Officers consisted of Surgeons, Supply and yes, Engineering officers. To this day that is still true. The second change was to make all engineers Navy men, however they were also made junior to all deck sailors. A petty officer machinist was junior to a deck seaman third. All this went to make the life of the engineers even more miserable. They could now be flogged and harassed at will by the Deck crew. Along about this time came an Engineer Officer by the name of John Snipes. I cannot find the name of the ship he first appeared on, but he was a different cut from the others. He demanded sleeping accommodations, and food equal to the Deck gang. He also declared that there would be no more harassment for his gang. When the ship s Captain laughed at him Snipes simply had his men put out the fires in the boiler. To make a long story short, Snipes brought about the changes in the system. In time these changes extended to the entire Naval fleet. The Engineers became strictly hands off for the Deck gang. They became known as Snipe s men and over the years as just Snipes.
Answer 2 2. After a few words of conversation, John mentions that he is currently assigned to a "bird farm." What is a bird farm? Answer: 1. An aircraft carrier "Bird Farm" a common nickname for a aircraft carrier. "Birds" are the aircraft themselves. 63 = USS Kitty Hawk 41 = USS Midway 68 = USS Nimitz
Answer 3 3. Jack is a Gunners Mate (GM), while performing routine maintenance on a 5 inch gun, he decides to Gundeck the maintenance so he could get done sooner? What is Gundeck? Answer: 3 To mark a maintenance or PMS check as complete without doing the actual work (Pencil-whipping). In the Navy if you are caught intentionally falsifying logs or records, filling in the blanks just before an inspection, you will be hammered. This is one of the Navy s biggest pet peeves.
Answer 4 4. You order a round of beer for yourself and your friend. As your shipmate takes a drink, He says: "Boy this really hits the spot. We just got back from a Med cruise, and for the last three weeks, all we had to drink was bug juice." What is "bug juice?" Answer: 1. Kool-Aid Not real Kool-Aid, but a Kool-Aid type beverage ubiquitous on Navy ships. I found it vile. It is usually orange or red in color and is made from some unknown chemical compound. The differences in color are purely cosmetic; it all tastes the same. Med cruise is short for Mediterranean cruise. A Western Pacific deployment is called a West Pac. Believe it or not, Bug juice is used to clean brass fire station hoses nozzles. You leave the nozzles in a bucket of bug juice for a day, they come out nice and bright, much like coke.
Answer 5 5. As you are enjoying your beer, John spots a friend of his on the other side of the bar and points him out to you. "That's Jack Jones," he says, "he's a bubblehead." What is a bubblehead? Answer: 1. A submariner Submariners are referred to by personnel on surface ships as bubbleheads (among other things). Submariners call surface ship Sailors Targets. They have just approved females to be bubbleheads.
Answer 6 6. Jack comes over to your table to join you. You notice his left arm is in pain. When you ask him about it he replies, "Oh, I just got my crow tacked on yesterday." What does this tell you? Answer: 3. He has been promoted When one is promoted to the pay grade of E-4, one becomes a "Petty Officer." Petty Officers wear a badge denoting their rank on their left arm. It consists of an eagle (or crow) on top, with one or more inverted chevrons below it, denoting one's rank. On dress uniforms, there is a symbol embroidered between the eagle and the chevrons that denotes one's specialty, or rating (for Electrician Mates' it is a globe, which looks exactly like a basketball; for Boatswain's Mates, two crossed anchors, etc.) All of one's shipmates of equal or higher rank celebrate your promotion by hitting you, a small smack to so congratulations. However some try to hit as hard as they can, on your rating badge which totally goes against the tradition. This is called "tacking on the crow." This is a lot of fun for the tackers, not so much fun for the tackee. In the newer, more proper Navy, this is not allowed because of the idiots that try to hit hard. I don't care what it is, there is always idiots out there.
Answer 7 7. You also notice Jack is sporting a black eye. When you ask him how he came by it, he replies: "Oh, some friends of mine were out celebrating last night, and we got into a fight with a pack of jarheads." What is a jarhead? Answer: 3. A Marine. The Marine s work under the Department of the Navy, the women s department. j/k The word Jarhead is reportedly, due to the "high and tight" haircut favored by many Marines; it looks as if someone put a bowl on the victim s head and cut or shaved off all the hair that protruded. At the back of the head, you will see folded up rings of skin folds that appear similar to the one used on canning jars, making him, literally, a "jar head.
Answer 8 8. You and your friends decide to leave the bar and take a tour of John's ship, the USS Monica Lewinsky. While you are walking to your car, you pass a shop and John says, "Wait here for a minute. I want to go inside and get some 'geedunk.'" What is/are geedunk? Answer: 4. Candy/Pop Geedunk is a generic term for any kind of sweet, but usually it implies a candy bar or a can of pop. The National Defense Service Medal, which is given to everyone who served during specific periods of time, is sometimes called the "Geedunk Medal.". BTW: The name Monica Lewinsky was used to throw you off, but it does look like she had too many geedunks.
Answer 9 9. The three of you arrive at John's ship, and he begins your tour. Taking you to the engineering spaces, he tells you that when the ship was returning from its last cruise, she was going "balls to the wall." What does this mean? Answer: 4. The ship was cruising at maximum speed This term has nothing to do with the male anatomy. An early type of engine governor (speed control) consisted of two metal balls connected to a shaft. As speed increased, centrifugal force made the balls move outward. At maximum speed they would be horizontal, nearly touching the walls of the space that contained them. Hence, when a ship is going "balls to the wall," she is cruising at high speed.
Answer 10 10. You are walking down a passageway when you come to a door. You start to open it, but John stops you. "Don't open that door," he exclaims, "It's the Goat Locker!" What would you expect to find in a Goat Locker? Answer: 4. Chief Petty Officers The "Goat Locker" is the berthing space for Chief Petty Officers (CPO) onboard a Navy ship. It may get its name from the fact that CPO's are older than most of the crew (i.e., are "old goats"). The female CPO berthing is called Menopause Manor.
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God bless all sailors May they sleep good tonight! Oct 27, 1940