List of United States Marine Corps Acronyms and Expressions - F

F

• Fallen Angel – Marine Officer who failed out of flight school and is now in another MOS.

• FAP – Fleet Assistance Program, a program designed to assign Marines to extra duties outside of his or her normal chain of command.

• FARP – Forward Area Refueling/Rearming Point or Forward Arming Refueling Point, a space on the battlefield designated for the re-arming and re-fueling of aircraft.

• fart sack – sleeping bag; linen a mattress is inserted into.

• fast-mover – fast-moving fixed-wing aircraft; term popular during the Vietnam War but fallen into disuse as jets replaced propeller as the dominant aircraft.

• fat-body – overweight recruit or servicemember.

• FEBA – Forward Edge of the Battle Area, the line of departure where a unit enters enemy territory.

• Fiddler's Green – imaginary afterlife; paradise.

• field 10 – a physically unattractive female servicemember who becomes an object of desire for male servicemembers after extended time in a field or combat environment away from civilian women.

• field day – day or portion of day set aside for top-to-bottom cleaning of an area; also as a verb for the act of conducting a field day.

• field expediency – improvisation, to make do with what's available.

• field hat – campaign cover, a broad-brimmed felt hat, originally with one straight crease down the middle, then with a Montana peak, worn on expeditionary missions from 1912 to 1942, and then again authorized in 1961 for wear at recruit depots by drill instructors and rifle ranges by marksmanship instructors. See also campaign cover, hat, & smokey bear/brown.

• field meet – organized sporting competition, often involving athletics and/or soldierly skills.

• field music – drummer, trumpeter, bugler, fifer; mostly an antiquated term.

• field scarf – khaki uniform necktie.

• field-strip – to disassemble a piece of ordnance or weapon to the major part groups for routine cleaning or lubricating; to strip cigarette butts to their filters before throwing away. Also to remove unwanted items from an MRE in order to save space.

• fifty-cal or fitty-cal – M2 Browning machine gun, from its .50 caliber ammunition. See also Ma Deuce.

• fighting hole – a defensive position dug into the ground; can be dug for one Marine, a pair, or a weapon crew; formerly known as a "foxhole".

• Final Duty Station – A reference to a Marine's final posting, i.e., Heaven, referencing the last verse of the Marine's Hymn.

• final protective line – the perimeter at which the enemy has begun to overrun friendly troops, signals the commencement of final protective fire in desperate self-defense.

• fire for effect – indicates that the adjustment/ranging of indirect fire is satisfactory and the actual effecting rounds should be fired; also a euphemism for the execution of a plan.

• fire watch – sentry on duty specifically guarding a person, place, object, or area in a non-combat area (such as a barracks); considered under arms but usually unarmed. See also duty & OOD.

• fire watch medal – pejorative for National Defense Service Medal, so named because even recruits rate it despite firewatch being their most important duty.

• first shirt – company or battery First Sergeant.

• fitness report or fitrep – report written on Marines (sergeant and above) detailing proficiency and conduct and fitness for command, reviewed for promotion.

• five-jump chump – a servicemember who has only performed the minimum five paratrooper jumps to receive the Basic Parachute Insignia, as opposed to the Navy and Marine Corps Parachutist Insignia, which requires additional jumps.

• flak jacket – antiquated term for ballistic vest or body armor.

• float – deployment aboard ship.

• FMC - Refers to equipment such as aircraft that need no repairs and are fully capable of their intended mission.

• FMF or fleet – Fleet Marine Force, the operational forces of the Corps, as opposed to reserve or supporting establishment.

• FMTU – Foreign Military Training Unit.

• FNG – Fucking New Guy, derogatory term for a Marine recently graduated recruit training and new to a unit.

• Fobbie or Fobbit – A marine who rarely sees combat; pejorative term for marines stuck inside a forward operating base.

• fore-and-aft cap – soft green garrison cap worn with the service uniform. See also piss cover/cutter.

• form ID-10T or ID-ten-tango – prank fool's errand where an unsuspecting Marine is asked to find the fake item, not knowing it is an orthograph for "idiot".

• Fortitudine – former motto of the Corps in the 19th century (replaced by Semper Fidelis), from the Latin word for "fortitude"; also the name of the Marine Corps History Division's quarterly magazine.

• Four Fingers of Death – nickname for the ill famed frankfurter MRE

• foxhole – fighting hole as termed by the Army and Marines of the past, no longer appropriate for Marine use.

• FRAGO – FRAGmentary Order, an addendum to published operational orders.

• frock – to be authorized to wear the next higher grade before promotion, confers authority but not pay grade.

• FUBAR – Fucked/Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition/Repair. See also SNAFU.

• FUBIJAR – Fuck yoU Buddy, I'm Just A Reservist.

• full-bird – Colonel, as opposed to a half-bird, light-colonel, or short-bird / short colonel, Lieutenant Colonel; so named because his or her rank insignia is a silver eagle.