Word: leathernecked
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...would carry no telescoped name like WACs, WAVES or SPARS; they would be Marines. But "women Marines" is a lip-twisting phrase. "She-Marines" (TIME, June 21) was frowned on, too. But the eventual development of some unofficial nickname was certain. Last week the Corps had it: BAMs. In leatherneck lingo that stands (approximately) for Broad-Axle Marines...
...Marine Corps Chevron at San Diego gathered and published a glossary of leatherneck slang heavily flavored with Chinese, Tagalog, pidgin English and plain Navy. Examples...
...Corps enlisted 305 (but commissioned no officers), winced when the U.S. public called them "Marinettes." This time the Marine Corps, planning to employ women as stenographers, parachute riggers, radio workers, telephone operators and other behind-the-line jobs, wanted no nickname for its new recruits-not even leatherneck...
Producer Louis de Rochemont had the help of the Marine Corps as a whole, and, unexpectedly, of Col. William T. Clement, USMC, veteran of Bataan and a sterling actor. He has the film's most leatherneck and authentic line: "Blow the bastards out of the water! Commence firing...
Squadron Leader John Lucian Smith's eight leatherneck pilots got 14 Zeros that day, with no U.S. losses. This was a fast and dangerous life for the accountant-trained son of an Oklahoma rural-mail carrier. But it was highly satisfactory to blast the fears of former commanding officers who, on fitness reports, had often left open to question Smitty's "presence of mind." Nineteen planes shot down in half as many months by the 27-year-old flyer was a fitting answer, and probably made John Smith of Oklahoma...