Pigs Aren't Pigs

If a U.S. Air Force pilot, after mushing around in a plane so full of creeps that it should have been deadlined long ago, manages to get by an enemy pig, drop an aimable cluster for a shack, and then grease it in without bugging out or buying a farm, would he be likely to be a penguin? Last week non-airmen could find the answer to that question (no) in a special 16,500-word dictionary of fly-talk put out by the Air University. The Air Force not only makes up words and phrases (e.g., brain bucket for crash helmet, raunchy for sloppy, zorch for excellent); it also uses ordinary words in some peculiar ways. Samples:

Mush--to gain little or no altitude or to lose altitude when the angle of attack would normally indicate a gain.

Creep--an undesirable play or movement in a mechanism.

Deadline--to designate equipment as unfit for a particular use.

Pig--a barrage balloon.

Aimable cluster--a cluster of bombs held together so as to be aimed and dropped by ordinary bombing methods.

Shack--a direct hit.

Grease--to make an exceptionally smooth landing.

Bug--to retreat in panic or in haste, as in "They bugged out of Seoul."

Farm--as in "to buy a farm," to crash.

Penguin--a person entitled to wear wings but not on flying status.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.