Book on Vietnam War Slang

[Dave Wilton]

I'm a former US Army chemical officer and I concur. The effects sound like a
nerve agent, and being "drenched" with that would invariably be lethal.
Plus, no nerve agents were used in Vietnam. Riot control agents and
defoliants like Agent Orange, but not nerve agents.

Of course, it could be some other kind of chemical other than a weapon. But
I would point out that McCammon's "Blue World is a fantasy novel. I suspect
the term was simply invented by McCammon, but I don't the wider context in
which the quote is used in the novel.



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Dave Hause
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2014 10:24 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Book on Vietnam War Slang

Over the years, the Army gave me way more education on chemical warfare than
I ever looked for and NO chemical warfare gives this effect without also
being lethal.  The description of the effects would be typical of nerve
agents, most of which are rapidly lethal in barely-visible-droplet
quantities.  To the best of my historical reading and experience, we didn't
use any nerve agents in Viet Nam. "Drenching" quantities would contaminate a
pretty large area.
Dave Hause, dwhause at cablemo.net
Waynesville, MO
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan Lighter" <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2014 8:02 AM
Subject: Re: Book on Vietnam War Slang

Never heard of it. Who is "we"?

I'd like to know what "chemical agent" used in Vietnam actually had that
effect.


On Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 9:06 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject:      Book on Vietnam War Slang
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> For those interested in war slang, here's the title of a recently 
> published=
>  book: _Vietnam War Slang_, by slang researcher Tom Dalzell and 
> published b= y Routledge.  I believe it's the most comprehensive 
> compilation of  materia= l on the topic thus far.=20
>
> I'll cite just one item of interest (selected at random):
> "HOWDY DOODY (nn.)  -- an unspecified chemical agent. US.
> I've found out that those other men were drenched by a chemical spray 
> we called Howdy Doody -- because it made you stiffen up and jerk=20 
> like you were hanging on strings.--- [source of quote]: Robert R.
> McCammon,
> Blue World, p. 81, 1991."
>
> Gerald Cohen=
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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