Korean War Air-Ground Glossary
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
- Pj-Pz -
PLA - People’s Liberation Army
Plat - Platoon
PLM - Production Line Maintenance System.
PLR - Periodic Logistics Report
PMB - Provisional Marine Brigade
PO-2 - Polikarpov: light night bomber biplane (Soviet).
POE - Port of Embarkation
POL - Petroleum, oil, and lubricants
POLECHARGE - Korean War plan for the capture of hill objectives on the JAMESTOWN line during Operation COMMANDO.
Police Action - President Harry S Truman used this phrase to describe the U.S. intervention in Korea.
POR - Periodic Operations Report
Pork Chop Hill, Battle of - Site of one of the last U.S. battles of the Korean War July 6-10, 1953.
Porpoising - Pitching up and down. See Compressibility.
POS - Position
Post-holing - Technique of cratering airfields or roads to reduce their usefulness or require extensive repairs. When the technique was used on airfields, reported Col. Bill Myers, the bombs were fused with various time delays. When “post-holing roads with 500-lb GP bombs it was found that a dive angle of 30 degrees with an air speed of 300 mph and release points of 800 feet produced the best results. For destruction of tunnels, skip bomb tactics were used.”
POW - Prisoner of War
Powdered eggs - “Powdered eggs and powdered milk were simply that,” remembered Lt. Col. William Cothern, USAF (Ret). “Easy to ship and store they were reconstituted to (scrambled eggs) and whole milk, although they were not considered ‘gourmet food’ by the troops.”
Powdered Milk - See Powdered eggs.
An 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing F-51 Mustang badly "pranged."
Prang - Pilot slang for crash or badly damaged. “I had three other guys let the torque get the best of them and prang on take off,” Colonel Joe Peterburs, former training officer for the 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing and the 12th Squadron in 1952. In September 1951, the Truckbuster ran a photograph of Capt. Alonzo Wagner, 39th FIS, standing behind a “practically non-existent elevator...ribs and little else.” Wagner said he thought the fighter “acted a little funny” when he came in for a landing. “It’s a good thing I didn’t realize how badly pranged that elevator was or I’d probably have bailed out.”
Pre-briefed Targets - “Targets that are of such a nature as to warrant assignment of a specific mission before take off are pre-briefed targets and generally include bridges, rail and road cuts, flak batteries, marshalling yards, etc. As the primary mission is the destruction of a particular target, the most direct route to that area should be taken, circumnavigating flak areas, which could cause disruption of the mission. The armament load will be determined by the particular type of mission, which in turn will have a direct bearing on the type of tactics employed. Upon completion of the assigned mission, the flight will return to base, providing all armament has been expended. If the flight has not expended all armament and has sufficient fuel, they will perform an armed reconnaissance of the area en route to the base.”
PRESSURE PUMP - On July 11, 1952, in the first raid of Operation PRESSURE PUMP, nearly every operational air unit in the Far East attacked thirty targets in Pyongyang, in the largest single strike of the war to that date.
PROC - Procedure
PROF - Profile
Project Rebirth - Established at FEAMCOM in January 1951 to provide Depot Inspection and Repair of “war-weary F-51 aircraft,” began functioning effectively in February 1951.
Project Spartan - A personnel-cutting purge instituted by FEAF in early 1953. Units already undermanned for the mission, reported severe consequences as a result of the cuts. “Our Personnel Services Section was confronted by every imaginable obstacle,” the 18th Wing reported in early 1953, “the most serious of which was the skimpy personnel authorization, especially after we were ‘Spartanized.’ We were able to develop a full, well-rounded program only because of the tenacity and caliber of the personnel we were fortunate enough to have assigned. These men, all of them, worked a 12- to 14-hour day, not once in a while, but every single day of the period covered by this history [six month]. They gave unstintingly of their time, their efforts, and their talents. All of us who reaped the fruits of their labors are, indeed, indebted to these few men.”
Project Spotlight - As a part of Project SPOTLIGHT, an RB-26 located five locomotives in one marshaling yard, and two B-26 light bombers destroyed four and damaged the fifth on 26 December 1952… Light bomber attacks against locomotives traveling at night continued in Operation SPOTLIGHT, which maintained locomotive kills at the same high level as in January.
PSP - Pierced Steel Plank, used to create temporary runways.
Psychological Warfare - Operations at tactical, operational and strategic levels. On the battlefield, tanks were painted to resemble tigers in an attempt to spread panic among the enemy troops. On the other side, CCF troops used bugles, whistles and loudspeakers to scare the Allied defenders. At the operational level, both sides made extensive use of pamphlets to undermine their opponent’s morale and encourage them to desert.
Pub - Publication
Punchbowl, Battles of - A peculiar terrain feature in eastern Korea along what would become the demarcation line when the Armistice was signed. The Punchbowl was an ancient volcanic crater some four to five miles in diameter rimmed by hills ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 feet.
Pusan - Located in southeastern Korea near the delta of the Naktong River, Pusan was and is South Korea’s second largest city.
PW - Prisoner of War
Pyongyang - Capital of North Korea.