List of United States Marine Corps Acronyms and Expressions - T

T

• TAD – Temporary Assigned Duty, a duty where the Marine or Sailor is detached from his or her unit temporarily and serves elsewhere; comparable to the Army term TDY.

• TBS – The Basic School, the six month combat training school for new Marine officers.

• terminal lance – Marine nearing the end of his enlistment at the rank of lance corporal and unlikely to get promoted; also a webcomic of the same name. See also battalion lance corporal. Also referred to as Lance Colonel.

• The Rock – Okinawa.

• thousand-yard stare – unfocused gaze of a battle-weary servicemember.

• thump gun – grenade launcher, from the distinctive noise made when firing. See also blooper and gerbil launcher.

• tie-ties – straps or strings used to tie items to another line, such as laundry or rifle targets.

• tight-jawed – angry, so named from the human tendency to clench the jaw when angered.

• tip of the spear – term for a unit or subunit that enters enemy territory first.

• T/O&E – Table of Operations and Equipment, a list authorizing a unit personnel of a particular rank and MOS, as well as organic equipment; often seen separately as T/O and T/E.

• toilet bowl – Marksman Weapons Qualification Badge, so named for the concentric rings in the design which resemble water swirling down a toilet bowl, and in allusion to its being the lowest level of weapons qualification. See also pizza box.

• top – informal nickname for a Master Sergeant, inappropriate to use without permission.

• topside – ship's upper deck.

• tore up – broken, messy, unserviceable.

• TRAM – Tractor, Rubber-tired, Articulated steering, Multi-purpose.

• T-rat – Tray ration, nickname for Unitized Group Ration, a ration heated and served to a group of servicemembers.

• trooper – soldier, considered an insult to refer to a Marine unless plural.

• two-block – hoist a flag or pennant to the peak, truck, or yardarm of a staff; or a tie with the knot positioned exactly in the gap of a collar of a buttoned shirt.

• two digit midget— an enlisted Marine with 99 or fewer days remaining on his or her enlistment.