Posted on Dec 3, 2013
What's your favorite military "nickname" or "call sign"?
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It's no secret, we're big on nicknames in the military, and there's some really great ones out there... so, what's your favorite? It could be a nickname that you had, or someone you know, from a move or tv show; it could be a nickname for a rank, base/location, career field, position/title, weapon system, piece of gear, personnel, or just about anything else under the sun. Perhaps it was a nickname for a mascot, civilian personnel, military family member, or something altogether different that has to do w/ the military, military life, or life from the military perspective. Well, this should be an absolute blast folks; so, feel free to share any related info, facts, photos, links, historical context, or just plain entertaining sea stories. The idea here is simple, to share fun and interesting info and to learn a thing or two in the process; now let's get this thing started, so pull up a keyboard, and... see you all in the discussion threads!
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Edited 12 y ago
Posted 12 y ago
Responses: 325
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For about the first 10 years or so I was Wilky or Wilk, then for a few years it was Silky Wilk and the last few at ACU-5 I was Wookie.
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Col (Join to see)
PO1 W, great nickname, still thinking that Wookie definitely takes the cake... thanks for sharing!
http://starwars.com/watch/episode_4_let_the_wookiee_win.html
http://teamcoco.com/video/conan-highlight-chewbacca-cat-costume
C-3PO and R2-D2 learn an important lesson in how to play holographic chess against Chewbacca.
CONAN Highlight: Get out of crappy costume parties with the help of cutting-edge Air Force technology and a trio of kitties.
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Lt Col (Join to see)
I've had more than one "naming" ceremony....
I can do the rest of my life without ever drinking Jeremiah Weed again, but that probably won't be the case.
RUSTIC!
I can do the rest of my life without ever drinking Jeremiah Weed again, but that probably won't be the case.
RUSTIC!
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When I was in Afghanistan we had a lot of "special bearded units" who had ridiculously evil call signs like "Soul Reaper" and "Skull Crusher." Platoon Sergeant and I adopted the call signs of Care Bear and Peanut just to be difficult.
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Col (Join to see)
Haha That's great, too funny, very good stuff there CPT C... um, I mean "Care Bear!" Indeed, we've got to keep our sense of humor. Good one, thanks for sharing. lol
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MAJ (Join to see)
CPL Jolley, you did not want to be a Taliban member when Blue Section unleashed the Care Bear Stare.
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SSG William Jones
You must have had connections with the 160th SOAR at Fort Campbell.
LTC William Smith
LTC William Smith
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I know that 1P40A was the worst; that's "One Panther Four Zero Alpha." Terrible. "Warhorse 53" sounded the coolest, but "Big Dog 6" was the best.
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My call sign is Gravedigger or Grim Reaper. Goes with the Mortuary Affairs MOS, some get it; some don't.
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My first two years in the Army I was called "elevator" because I went up and down in rank so many times that it just fit.
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As an Air Intercept Controller, my call sign was "Bounty Hunter' during the Vietnam conflict.
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Oh boy, mine all depend on when and where you may have heard of me. While I was a student at the Naval Academy Prep School in NETC Newport, RI from 94-95, everyone called me Crazy Ray. The name had even spread to the Naval War College where I'd have random Marine Colonels, Navy Captains, a few Generals, and Admirals walk right up to me and say "Do you know Crazy Ray?" followed by "Everyone knows Crazy Ray." Let's just say I some how ended up in a few interesting situations while I was over there.<br><br>Then from 99 on while on Work Ups for the 15th MEU, one of the Marines in my platoon called me The Ferndog, after that it caught on and some how spread through out the MEU, and to the various ports we visited. There were a lot of crazy adventures there too, and luckily the statute of limitations expired on those events as well.<br>
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Col (Join to see)
Cpl Fernandez, thanks for sharing! When I saw your nickname "Crazy Ray" it made me think of the old Ray Johnson commercials... "You can call me Ray, or you can call me Jay..." It's great hearing these stories, and these two have "classic" written all over them... thanks for sharing brother!
The famous "You can call me Ray" guy in a commercial for Natural Light beer from 1978.
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Cpl Ray Fernandez
That was funny Sir, I also remembered the story of a Sailor that was in a different Marine unit while I was on the MEU. The two of us became good friends in Thailand after we both discovered that we had less of an interest in getting drunk and babysitting the Marines and Sailors in our units, and had a bigger interest in improving international relations one or so local ladies at a time. In Thailand we took a bus to the other side of the island of Phuket to get a legitimate Thai Massage. One massage girl who didn't speak English told my massage girl that she wanted to have my kid, and my sailor friend fell in love with his massage woman. I had to carry him out of the building because he kept running back in to talk to her (this place was legitimate and didn't do anything shady that we knew of). After we spent a few months training in the Persian Gulf in Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman; we finally started sailing back towards California. On the way back we stopped in Georgetown, Malaysia. We had a Cabby that drove me, another Marine in my platoon, and the Doc to various places to meet women. The first place we went to none of the women would talk to the Doc since he was black. I had a good time with a woman there, and after that the cabby took us to another place. This place the girls initially left the Doc alone and the Cabby asked the girls why on behalf of the Doc. Well they said he was "too beau coup". So the Cabby earning his money said to the girl that she should go take a look at what he had and then decide if she could handle it. While that was going on I left with another girl, and the other Marine in our group met a woman. So I finally went back to rejoin the guys, and the Doc had a smile on his face, and the other Marine was kind of whinny and said it was about time I got back. Well after that we went to eat and then went back to the ship. Without seeing any of the Marines or sailors in his unit the whole time, the guys in his unit were chanting his new nickname "Too Beau Coup". We still don't know how they found out but if you ask me Doc "Too Beau Coup" had a bad deal with the preview deal, either he was too big and rejected which meant he didn't get any, or he was average and his reputation would be damaged.
We had one last adventure in Hong Kong before we returned to Hawaii and then San Diego. This time we got rid of the Marine from my unit who was a bit whinny. We had a local friend that told us where to go to continue our goal of improving international relations. We went to the club early and there were only 3 women at the club. We had the local with us so there were 3 of us. Instead of going after each individual woman we decided to go after the most average looking of the three and took turns dancing with her, while the other two continued dancing alone.
The girl and I danced (when I say dancing it usually looks like someone who may need medical attention, but in this case it worked for me). When I let Doc "Too Beau Coup" have his turn he had already been drinking and so he had the meanest scariest face I'd ever seen on a sailor that hadn't been through BUD/S. So she kept her eyes on me mostly out of fear thinking that she should stay close in case I needed to stop an attack. Well the more she looked at me the more mad he got. So the next time it was my turn to dance, he started throwing his stuff in the ground and getting angry. I had the local take over for me for a bit while I tried to get Doc "Too Beau Coup" calmed down. Well I took him outside and he fell to the ground after throwing his stuff down and then he was yelling and shouting drawing the bad kind of attention to us. As I was helping him up, I noticed a local police man on a radio walking towards us. So in that second I decided that it wasn't the best idea to stick around and answer questions.
So here I am a Mexican, with an African American Sailor over his shoulder running away from a local Hong Kong policeman who was radioing for back up. Some how even though I'm not the best runner, I managed to outrun the cop, and his back up where I finally reached a pedestrian crossing that was near the boat launch that would have taken us back to our ship. I stopped in the middle of the overpass to catch my breath. The ledge was about 30 inches wide, and while I was trying to recover, the Doc was climbing the ledge, so I jumped up and pulled him down thinking he might be suicidal. I was scared at that point more than at any point during the whole experience. So I had him in a headlock and was going to take him back to the ship to get checked out.
As I finally made it to the ship side of the pedestrian walkway, he started laughing, and I was even more scared at that point. He tells me he's fine. Still scared I told him we're going back to the ship. Then he used E-3 Seaman to LCpl logic. He told me if I take him back, neither of us would be allowed back off the ship. So then he tells me we should just go back to the club.
We made it back to the club in a few minutes, which was odd we were a lot closer than my running route took us with all the zig zags and turns I used to lose the cops. We walk into the club and the music stopped, everyone looked at us and then cheered. The place was packed and there were a lot more women than there were men. The same girl that kept looking at me and was scared of the Doc, was now all over him and she introduced me to the best looking woman in there and so we all ended up happy. The next few days in port we kept going back there, we had a pretty good relationship with the club owner who gave us a place to crash, and took messages for us.
We had one last adventure in Hong Kong before we returned to Hawaii and then San Diego. This time we got rid of the Marine from my unit who was a bit whinny. We had a local friend that told us where to go to continue our goal of improving international relations. We went to the club early and there were only 3 women at the club. We had the local with us so there were 3 of us. Instead of going after each individual woman we decided to go after the most average looking of the three and took turns dancing with her, while the other two continued dancing alone.
The girl and I danced (when I say dancing it usually looks like someone who may need medical attention, but in this case it worked for me). When I let Doc "Too Beau Coup" have his turn he had already been drinking and so he had the meanest scariest face I'd ever seen on a sailor that hadn't been through BUD/S. So she kept her eyes on me mostly out of fear thinking that she should stay close in case I needed to stop an attack. Well the more she looked at me the more mad he got. So the next time it was my turn to dance, he started throwing his stuff in the ground and getting angry. I had the local take over for me for a bit while I tried to get Doc "Too Beau Coup" calmed down. Well I took him outside and he fell to the ground after throwing his stuff down and then he was yelling and shouting drawing the bad kind of attention to us. As I was helping him up, I noticed a local police man on a radio walking towards us. So in that second I decided that it wasn't the best idea to stick around and answer questions.
So here I am a Mexican, with an African American Sailor over his shoulder running away from a local Hong Kong policeman who was radioing for back up. Some how even though I'm not the best runner, I managed to outrun the cop, and his back up where I finally reached a pedestrian crossing that was near the boat launch that would have taken us back to our ship. I stopped in the middle of the overpass to catch my breath. The ledge was about 30 inches wide, and while I was trying to recover, the Doc was climbing the ledge, so I jumped up and pulled him down thinking he might be suicidal. I was scared at that point more than at any point during the whole experience. So I had him in a headlock and was going to take him back to the ship to get checked out.
As I finally made it to the ship side of the pedestrian walkway, he started laughing, and I was even more scared at that point. He tells me he's fine. Still scared I told him we're going back to the ship. Then he used E-3 Seaman to LCpl logic. He told me if I take him back, neither of us would be allowed back off the ship. So then he tells me we should just go back to the club.
We made it back to the club in a few minutes, which was odd we were a lot closer than my running route took us with all the zig zags and turns I used to lose the cops. We walk into the club and the music stopped, everyone looked at us and then cheered. The place was packed and there were a lot more women than there were men. The same girl that kept looking at me and was scared of the Doc, was now all over him and she introduced me to the best looking woman in there and so we all ended up happy. The next few days in port we kept going back there, we had a pretty good relationship with the club owner who gave us a place to crash, and took messages for us.
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Col (Join to see)
Cpl Fernandez, great story, thanks for sharing... in a word: legendary! haha Takes me back a bit; similar stuff, different time/location(s)! You the man Cpl 'Crazy Ray' Fernandez! lol
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