List of United States Marine Corps Acronyms and Expressions - H

H

• H&S or Hide & Slide or "Huck & Suck" or Hate & Skate or HotDog & Soda Co. – Headquarters & Service/Supply Company, much like a Headquarters Battalion.

• hack – arrest.

• hajji – Arab or Middle Eastern person or object, from the Arabic term for one who has completed a pilgrimage to Mecca, or "hajj"

• half-bird – Lieutenant Colonel, as opposed to a full-bird. See also short colonel.

• half-mast – position of the ensign when hoisted to one flag/ensign height below the top, usually done in respect to a deceased person; also called "half-staff" amongst non-naval forces.

• hard charger or hard – term of endearment from a senior to a junior Marine when he or she completes a difficult task, so named for charging through the assignment; or general toughness.

• hashmark – service stripe worn on the uniform sleeve by enlisted men and women for completion of four years of honorable service in any of the U.S. Armed Services and Reserves.

• hat – drill instructor, so named for the distinctive campaign hat they wear; usually reserved for other or former drill instructor use. See also campaign cover, field hat, & smokey bear/brown.

• hatch – door; more specifically, the watertight cover over an opening between compartments or that leads to the ladder wells between decks of a ship.

• HBT – HerringBone Twill; the cotton material of Marine utilities from 1941 to the late 1950s.

• HDR – Humanitarian Daily Ration, a variation of the MRE used to feed a single malnourished person for one day with 2,300 calories.

• HE – High Explosive, used to describe various kinds of ordnance, or Heavy Equipment.

• head – bathroom or latrine, a nautical term from the days of sailing ships when the designated place to defecate and urinate was forward, at the bow or "head" of the ship.

• head shed – command post or other headquarters area where senior Marines gather.

• headgear – hats, helmets, caps, etc.

• HEAT – High-Explosive AntiTank, type of tank round.

• heavy hat – junior drill instructor who performs more discipline and punishment tasks than his peers. See also kill hat.

• hell hole – hatch mounted in the deck of many helicopters (such as the CH-53E Super Stallion) for rappeling and cargo lifting.

• helo – Helicopter. "Chopper" is an Army term.

• HEDP – High-Explosive Dual Purpose, type of armor piercing ammunition.

• high and right – losing one's temper or rationality; from the common error of a poor shooter to jerk the trigger and impact the upper right side of a target.

• high and tight – nickname for a common variant of the buzz cut, where the hair is clipped very close.

• high-speed – new, interesting, or cool; often used to sarcastically denote that the subject looks good, but performance is dubious.

• hillbilly armor – improvised vehicle armor.

• HIMARS – High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.

• HMMWV or humvee – High-Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle, common utility truck.

• Hollywood Marine – Marine graduated from Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, stemming from rivalry between the two recruit depots.

• homeslice – person, often a sarcastic overture to civilians from a drill instructor; from the terms homie and homeboy.

• homesteading – remaining at one duty station for an extended tour or consecutive tours.

• honcho or head honcho – person in charge, from the Japanese word for "boss', "hanchō"; also a nickname for Okinawan taxi drivers.

• hooch or hootch – tent, hut, or otherwise temporary or ramshackle dwelling. Also tied into the term Hooch maid, which referred to a woman in Vietnam who would clean the dwellings of soldiers, which were deemed "hooches."

• Hot-Shit – sarcastic reference to an overly arrogant person.

• horse-cock sandwich – any sandwich or meal created using an unknown or mystery meat.

• house mouse – recruit tasked with cleaning and performing domestic chores in drill instructor-only areas. See also DI hut.

• housewife – girlfriend; also sewing kit.

• HQMC – Headquarters Marine Corps.

• hump – carry or lift a load, originally an Australian term meaning "to carry one's swag,"; also a forced march carrying full equipment loads.

• hurry up and wait – expression denoting inefficient time management or planning, often when a senior rushes a unit into a situation too fast that subsequently makes them wait.

• huss – to give a helping hand, so named because the H-34 Choctaw helicopter's utility configuration was designated as the "HUS-1 Seahorse," leading to Vietnam-era Marines that needed a medical evacuation helicopter to ask for or to be "cut a huss".