Digger Slang - Modern Operations

Modern Operations

Australia's involvement in numerous United Nations peacekeeping operations, regional stabilisation operations such as Bougainville and Solomon Islands, as well as East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan, have created new opportunities for Diggers to work and interact closely with soldiers and civilians from other nations. In Iraq, a local man was known as a "smufti". Getting sick from eating local food was known as "intestinal jihad". The American combat rations allocated to Diggers on combat patrols, Meals Ready to Eat ("MRE") were known as "Meals Ready to Excrete". A Digger who did not patrol outside of the wire was a "Fobbit", derived from the NATO acronym FOB (Forward Operating Base). Rifles were known as "bang-sticks", "tools" or a "woody". A task which went wrong was known as a "cluster-fuck" and if no-one was to blame then it was due to the "Inshallah factor". The slang term for the Middle Eastern areas of operations was referred to as the “Sand pit”.

A lazy Digger was known as a "jackman", "jack", or "oxygen-thief". "Jack" is most commonly used as an adjective for a person or behaviour that places the individual performing the action's interests ahead of those of the team. The term “Quoinker” is used to describe someone who would suck up, befriend or attempt to please persons of higher rank. This expression would also be used by mates of a soldier as they received an award, accolade or just general praise for a job well done. This is done by the soldiers mates to remind the praised soldier that they are not getting the award for hard work but for “Quoinking”

Due to the institutionalised nature of military weapons training in Australia, a number of metaphors associated with rifle ranges were applied to operations. Combat was known as the "two way rifle range", returning fire to the enemy was known as "putting a few rounds down range", and coordinating Diggers for a large, long, boring or mundane job was known to be as exciting as a "brass party at Gallipoli" (brass parties painstakingly collect all of the expended ammunition cartridges off the ground at the completion of a rifle range practice). The boredom or repetitive mundane aspects of operations were described by the term "living the dream" or the American term "Groundhog Day".An item of equipment that is either of high quality or particularly useful may be described as "gucci." These items are almost invariably not standard issue.

Some slang has retained significant longevity and while finding its origins in previous conflicts are nevertheless still used by Diggers today. For example, medals were known as "gongs" or "tin". Common sense was known as "CDF" or "common dog fuck" and the morning of the last day in theatre of operations or exercise was known as a "wakey". The small metal spoon found in the Australian Defence Force's 24 hour combat ration pack, called a Field Ration Eating Device, was abbreviated to "FRED" (said to stand for Fucking Ridiculous Eating Device).

Some Digger slang entered mainstream Australian English vocabulary. Some examples of this were "zap", "waste" or "turn into pink mist", all originally taken from U.S. military slang, meaning "to kill". Similar influence of Digger stereotyping on mainstream vocabulary has been the retention of "returned-servicemen" or "vets" for what in many other countries are called veterans. The latter name became more common in the 1980s with the creation of the Department of Veterans Affairs by the federal government, but "returned-servicemen" still remains in popular usage through the Returned Servicemen League clubs.