BOQ: Bachelor officer quarters — a Motel Six for single officers or those traveling without family. The Air Force also has VOQ, visiting officer quarters.
BUSTER: As fast as you can, i.e., bust yer ass getting here.
C-2 GREYHOUND: Also known as the COD, carrier on-board delivery. The COD carries cargo and passengers from shore to ship. It is capable of carrier landings. Sometimes assigned directly to the air wing, it also operates in coordination with CVBGs from a shore squadron.
CAG: Carrier air group commander, normally a senior Navy captain aviator. Technically, an obsolete term, since the air wing rather than an air group is now deployed on the carrier. However, everyone thought CAW sounded stupid, so CAG was retained as slang for the carrier air wing commander.
CAP: Combat air patrol, a mission executed by fighters to protect the carrier and battle group from enemy air and missiles.
CARRIER BATTLE GROUP: A combination of ships, air wing, and submarines assigned under the command of a one-star admiral.
CARRIER BATTLE GROUP 14: The battle group normally embarked on Jefferson.
CBG: see Carrier battle group
CDC: Combat direction center — in the modern era, replaced CIC, or combat information center, as the heart of a ship. All sensor information is fed into CDC, and the battle is coordinated by a tactical action officer on watch there.
CG: Abbreviation for a cruiser.
CHIEF: The backbone of the Navy. E-7, -8, and -9 enlisted paygrades, known as chief, senior chief, and master chief. The transition from petty officer ranks to the chief’s mess is a major event in a sailor’s career. On board ship, the chiefs have separate eating and berthing facilities. Chiefs wear khakis, as opposed to dungarees for the less senior enlisted ratings.
CHIEF OF STAFF: Not to be confused with a chief, the COS in a battle group staff is normally a senior Navy captain who acts as the admiral’s XO and deputy.
CIA: Christians in Action. The civilian agency charged with intelligence operations outside the continental United States.
CIWS: Close-in weapons system, pronounced “see-whiz.” Gattling gun with built-in radar that tracks and fires on inbound missiles. If you have to use it, you’re dead.
COD: see C-2 Greyhound
COLLAR COUNT: Traditional method of determining the winner of a disagreement. A survey is taken of the opponents’ collar devices. The senior person wins. Always.
COMMODORE: Formerly the junior-most admiral rank, now used to designate a senior Navy captain in charge of a bunch of like units. A destroyer commodore commands several destroyers, a sea control commodore the S-3 squadrons on that coast. Contrast with a CAG, who owns a number of dissimilar units, e.g., a couple of Tomcat squadrons, some Hornets, and some E-2s and helos.
COMPARTMENT: Navy talk for a room on a ship.
CONDITION TWO: One step down from general quarters, which is Condition One. Condition Five is tied up at the pier in a friendly country.
CRYPTO: Short for some variation of cryptological, the magic set of codes that makes a circuit impossible for anyone else to understand.
CV, CVN: Abbreviation for an aircraft carrier, conventional and nuclear.
CVIC: Carrier intelligence center. Located down the passageway (the hall) from the flag spaces.
DATA LINK, THE LINK: The secure circuit that links all units in a battle group or in an area. Targets and contacts are transmitted over the LINK to all ships. The data is processed by the ship designated as Net Control, and common contacts are correlated. The system also transmits data from each ship and aircraft’s weapons systems, e.g., a missile firing. All services use the LINK.
DDG: Guided missile destroyer.
DESK JOCKEY: Nonflyer, one who drives a computer instead of an aircraft.
DESRON: Destroyer commander.
DICASS: An active sonobuoy.
DICK STEPPING: Something to be avoided. While anatomically impossible in today’s gender-integrated services, in an amazing display of good sense, it has been decided that women can do this as well.
DOPPLER: Acoustic phenomena caused by relative motion between a sound source and a receiver that results in an apparent change in frequency of the sound. The classic example is a train going past and the decrease in pitch of its whistle. When a submarine changes its course or speed in relation to a sonobuoy, the event shows up as a change in the frequency of the sound source.
DOUBLE NUTS: Zero zero on the tail of an aircraft.
E-2 HAWKEYE: Command and control and surveillance aircraft. Turboprop rather than jet, and unarmed. Smaller version of an AWACS, in practical terms, but carrier-based.
ELF: Extremely low frequency, a method of communicating with submarines at sea. Signals are transmitted via a miles-long antenna and are the only way of reaching a deeply submerged submarine.
ENVELOPE: What you’re supposed to fly inside of if you want to take all the fun out of naval aviation.
EWs: Electronic warfare technicians, the enlisted sailors that man the gear that detects, analyzes, and displays electromagnetic signals. Highly classified stuff.
F/A-18 HORNETS: The inadequate, fuel-hungry intended replacement for the aging but still kick-your-ass-potent Tomcat. Flown by Marines and Navy.
FAMILYGRAM: Short messages from submarine sailors’ families to their deployed sailors. Often the only contact with the outside world that a submarine sailor on deployment has.
FF/FFG: Abbreviation for a fast frigate (no, there aren’t slow frigates) and a guided-missile fast frigate.
FLAG OFFICER: In the Navy and Coast Guard, an admiral. In the other services, a general.
FLAG PASSAGEWAY: The portion of the aircraft carrier that houses the admiral’s staff working spaces. Includes the flag mess and the admiral’s cabin. Normally separated from the rest of the ship by heavy plastic curtains, and designated by blue tile on the deck instead of white.
FLIGHT QUARTERS: A condition set on board a ship preparing to launch or recover aircraft. All unnecessary persons are required to stay inside the skin of the ship and remain clear of the flight deck area.
FLIGHT SUIT: The highest form of navy couture. The perfect choice of apparel for any occasion — indeed, the only uniform an aviator ought to be required to own.
FOD: Stands for foreign object damage, but the term is used to indicate any loose gear that could cause damage to an aircraft. During flight operations, aircraft generate a tremendous amount of air flowing across the deck. Loose objects — including people and nuts and bolts — can be sucked into the intake and discharged through the outlet of the jet engine. FOD damages the jet’s impellers and doesn’t do much for the people sucked in, either. FOD walkdown is conducted at least once a day on board an aircraft carrier. Everyone not otherwise engaged stands shoulder to shoulder on the flight deck and slowly walks from one end of the flight deck to the other, searching for FOD.
FOX: Tactical shorthand for a missile firing. Fox one indicates a heat-seeking missile, fox two an infrared missile, and fox three a radar-guided missile.
GCI: Ground control intercept, a procedure used in the Soviet air forces. Primary control for vectoring the aircraft in on enemy targets and other fighters is vested in a guy on the ground, rather than in the cockpit where it belongs.