Korean War Air-Ground Glossary
Letters: A-Al ♦ Am-Az ♦ B-Bi ♦ Bi-Bz ♦ C-Cl♦ Co-Cz ♦ D ♦ E ♦ F-Fl ♦ Fm-Fz ♦ G ♦ Ha-Hf ♦ Hg-Hz ♦ I ♦ J ♦ K ♦ L ♦ M-Me ♦ Mf-Mz ♦ N ♦ O ♦ Pa-Pi ♦ Pj-Pz ♦ Q ♦ Ra-Ri ♦ Rj-Rz ♦ Sa-Sh ♦ Si-Sz ♦ Ta-Tg ♦ Th-Tz ♦ U ♦ V ♦ W ♦ X ♦ Y ♦ Z
Note: the Korean-War Air-Ground Glossary is under construction. New pages and images are being added daily. Find terms or phrases more easily by using the Google Search Engine above. Click on the Truckbusters From Dogpatch web site button.We welcome your suggestions for new slang or terms from the Korean War. Use the Contact link above to submit your term.
The Korean War Air Combat Glossary includes military terms, slang and definitions used by the Korean War veterans to whom Truckbusters From Dogpatch is dedicated.
To help establish additional military and air force history resources about the so-called "Forgotten War," the Glossary also includes biographical information, Korean War stories and photographs of many leaders of the 18th Fighter-Wing, Fifth Air Force and other senior military leaders whose decisions affected the missions and operations of the 18th Wing, 18th Fighter-Bomber Group and the Wing's associated squadrons. The Glossary includes many photographs and video of 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing Korean War air combat operations when they were flying the P-51 Mustang and the F-86 Sabrejet aircraft.
The list includes the names and where known, biographical information about those pilots and Airmen who lost their lives during 37 months of Korean War combat. The information is far from complete and will certainly be expanded through the efforts of the 18th Fighter Bomber Wing Association and others.
The names of Two Squadron, South African Air Force (SAAF) fliers are also included.
Information on American pilots is drawn from the files of the 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing Association, family records and recollections, and, where possible, from unit history reports. Sadly, even the unit histories were often incomplete or hasty in recording the status or circumstances of a pilot and his loss to the unit. When the unit history does mention the pilot, however briefly, that notation is included.
Excerpted from over 3,500 terms and definitions found in Truckbusters From Dogpatch
Letters: A-Al ♦ Am-Az ♦ B-Bi ♦ Bi-Bz ♦ C-Cl♦ Co-Cz ♦ D ♦ E ♦ F-Fl ♦ Fm-Fz ♦ G ♦ Ha-Hf ♦ Hg-Hz ♦ I ♦ J ♦ K ♦ L ♦ M-Me ♦ Mf-Mz ♦ N ♦ O ♦ Pa-Pi ♦ Pj-Pz ♦ Q ♦ Ra-Ri ♦ Rj-Rz ♦ Sa-Sh ♦ Si-Sz ♦ Ta-Tg ♦ Th-Tz ♦ U ♦ V ♦ W ♦ X ♦ Y ♦ Z
- G -
g - The force (acceleration) of gravity, normally 1g on earth. Zero g (0g) is weightlessness, as experienced by orbiting astronauts. G can be expressed in positive (+) and negative (-) values. During a normal loop a pilot experiences positive g, tending to force him down in his seat. In an outside loop, with the pilot’s head on the outside of the vertical circle, negative g forces him up against his straps.
G.I. - Government Issue, “but in a broad sense meaning service personnel.”
G/A -
Go AroundG/S - Groundspeed. The speed an aircraft makes over the ground, a product of its airspeed and wind speed. Also, Glide Slope.
G-2 - Intelligence section of divisional or higher staff.
G-3 - Operations and training section of divisional or higher staff.
Gaggle - Pilot slang for a “loose formation of attacking aircraft.” Also, referred to a 16-ship formation—four flights, one from each 18th squadron—a “gaggle” or “wing gaggle.”
Gang - River in the Korean language.
Gardiner-Atkinson, Lt. Alan “Shadow” - 2nd Squadron pilot SAAF, who on 2 May 1952, flew the 8,000th combat sortie for the “Flying Cheetahs.” Lieutenant Gardiner-Atkinson, 27, of Melville, Johannesburg, “smiled as he climbed down from his cockpit to learn that he had had the honor of bringing the Squadron’s total to 8,000 strikes. He had just led a flight of four Mustangs through a barrage of heavy flak in a raid on vital Communist rail supply lines near MIG Alley, deep behind enemy lines.” (USAFHRA. Truckbuster. Bi-weekly newspaper of the 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing. May 16, 1952.)
GCA - Ground-controlled approach. A landing approach in which a ground controller provides verbal guidance to a pilot using precision navigation aids that monitor the aircraft’s approach path. See Shooting GCS’s.
GCI - Ground Controlled Intercept
GED - General Educational Development
GEN - General
GHQ - General Headquarters
Glide Bombing - See Skip Bombing.
GLO - Ground Liaison Officer
Globemaster - C-124; four engine strategic transport aircraft introduced into USAF service during the Korean War. Also known as an “aluminum overcast.”
GMT - Greenwich Mean Time
GO - General Orders
Golf balls - Pilot slang for “flak” or anti-aircraft fire. “There was a hell of a fire-fight going on down there,” Capt. Jack Hawley, of Bridgeport, Mich., said, “and they weren’t all firing at each other. Some of them were firing at us. Golf balls were going by us from all angles. I think that’s when rigor mortis of my trigger finger set in.”
Goony bird - See C-47/R4D.
Great Debate - Also known as the “MacArthur Hearings,” the so-called Great Debate on the Korean War began in May 1951 with Congressional hearings before the 26-man joint Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees.
Ground pounders - Pilot slang for non-rated (not aviators), staff officers.
Group - In the Air Force, two-four squadron combat organization, normally commanded by a colonel, in the U.S. Army a group is a command structure controlling several battalion sized elements and is subordinate to a brigade.
Group - See Formations.
GS - General Staff
GS - Glideslope—the vertical guidance component of an instrument landing system that establishes a safe glide path (usually three degrees) to a runway. Also Ground Speed.
Gun camera - The F-51D could be equipped with a gun camera mounted in the leading edge of the left wing. The camera was loaded and adjusted from the left wheel well. A small door covered the camera when the landing gear was down. A three-position switch on the front switch panel controlled guns and camera. With the switch flicked up to GUNS, CAMERA & SIGHT, the guns fired and the camera operated with the pilot pressed the trigger on the stick. If the switch were pushed down to CAMERA & SIGHT, the pilots could take photographs without firing the guns. Both guns and camera were heated electrically to enable their operation even at high altitude.
Gunnery - The common error in air-to-ground gunnery “is allowing the burst of fire to travel from the first point of fire, through the target and beyond. The most destructive fire is that which is held on the desired target for the length of the time actual firing is accomplished. There are occasions when a dispersed fire is desired, however, most targets are stationary and by “walking” your rounds through your target only a small percentage of them are effective. Here again a steep angle of attack is desired, with the subsequent break-away for evasive action. Depending on the nature of the target, the number of passes will be made to be most effective, that is if it is a heavily defended area a second pass should not be made whereas close support attacks can be pressed.”
GW - Gross Weight