New retroacroetymythostupidnym

[Jonathan Lighter]

Those army guys again. What a way with words !  :

2003 _St. Petersburg Times Online_ (Mar. 23) .[http://www.sptimes.com/2003/03/23/Worldandnation/Infantrymen_thrive_in.shtml]
Supply guys bring them bullets and beans, medics patch them up, helicopter pilots haul Airborne assault troops and provide air support when they get on the ground. The infantrymen call them POGs (rhymes with rogues): People Other than Grunts...."We all want to leave our marks when we leave. Guys who just want to do their three and leave, they end up being POGs."
"Pogue" (rhymes with rogue) has been used in the Marine Corps since at least World War II.  It usu.referred to support personnel holding soft rear-area jobs, like clerk-typist, and well antedates the wide currency of "grunt," also seemingly of USMC origin.  I think it began to enter Army usage during the Vietnam War.
The earliest quasi-ex. of "POG" I can find is this:
1999 _Ft Gordon Ga?!?!!?_ (Usenet: us.military.army ) (June 3)  Ft. Gordon is on the S. Carolina border in Augusta, Ga. Home of the Masters
golf tournament....It's one of the most sought after assignments for pogues. (people other than grunts.)
Googe also reveals the explanation, "Personnel Other than Grunts."
JL


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