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
- Ra-Ri -
R&R - Rest and Recuperation or “rape and rampage” as it was sometimes known. Selected by their units, participants were flown to Japan on Air Force transports for five days temporary duty in Japan. On arrival they were paid, issued uniforms, fed and provided with a billet in a Special Services hotel or on one of the many military bases in Japan. Then they were left alone to “rest and recuperate.”
R&R - Rearming and Refueling ramp. An R&R Operation meant “a situation whereby a sufficient number of personnel and equipment are sent to a forward strip to refuel and to rearm the tactical planes and to brief and debrief the pilots. The aircraft operate from the strip during the day but return to home base over night,” an 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing directive explained. An R&R operation required four officers and 28 Airmen from the fighter group, plus 5 airmen for napalm mixing, 3 Airmen for refueling operations, 4 mechanics, 4 cooks and 2 medical corpsmen.
R/C - Rate of Climb
RAAF - Royal Australian Air Force
Rad - Radio
RAD - Radial; Radio
RAF - Royal Air Force
RAN - Royal Australian Navy
Rashin - A port city 17 miles from the Soviet frontier on Korea’s eastern coast, the town of Rashin is connected to the Soviet port of Vladivostok, which is less than 110 miles away by both rail and road.
Rat Killer - On November 12, 1951, General Ridgway ordered the U.S. Eighth Army to cease offensive operations and begin “Operation Ratkiller,” an active defense of the Main Line of Resistance. In January 1952, the Army announced the results of Operation Ratkiller,” its campaign to eliminate guerrillas and bandits in the Chiri-san mountains.
Rated Officer - Air Force officer having earned his wings as a pilot.
Razon - A 1,000-pound, radio-guided bomb
RB-26 - Douglas “Invader”: twin-engine reconnaissance plane (USA)
RCC - Rescue Control Center
RCS - Reports Control Symbol
RCT - Regimental Combat Team
RDF - Radio Direction Finding--name first used for what became Radar.
Rec - Recoilless
Recce areas - areas or sectors.
Recd - Received
Recce - See Armed reconnaissance. The 67th reported, “due to difficulties encountered in seeking camouflaged targets while carrying external tanks on low altitude reconnaissance missions, Squadron Operations gained the prerogative to recce without tanks on routes within 260 miles of the base.”
Recoilless Rifles - Developed in the closing days of World War II by the U.S. military as infantry antitank weapons, three 57-mm recoilless rifles were authorized in the weapons platoon of each rifle company, and a 75-mm recoilless rifle platoon was authorized in the weapons company of the infantry battalion.
Recon - Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance - Process of seeking out of information about enemy positions and dispositions.
RED COW - Operation Red Cow was conducted from 8-25 October 1952 during which Mosquito controllers directed the efforts of fighter-bomber sorties against 24 troop and artillery targets close to the MLR and the neutral zone.
Five Red Scarfers from How Flight, 67th Squadron return from a mission in April 1952. (L-R) 2nd Lt. Joel O. (“Mutt”) Rives, 1st Lt. Don (“Lucky”) Drage, Capt. Shirley (“Wash”) Tubbs, 1st Lt. Wilfred (“Flak”) Stapley and 1st Lt. (“Mutt”) McShane. Rives and McShane were “Mutt” and “Jeff” from the cartoon characters and their differences in height. Lt. Rives was KIA on 27 April 1952.
Red Scarfers - Knickname of the 67th Fighter-Bomber Squadron as a result of their wearing red scarfs with their working uniforms.
REF - Reference
Regt - Regiment
REM - Remote
REMCO - Rear Echelon Maintenance Combined Operations
Rep - Representative
Res - Research
RESCAP - Rescue Combat Air Patrol. An aircraft patrol stationed over a combat search and rescue objective area whose mission is to intercept and destroy hostile aircraft. Its primary mission is to protect the search and rescue task forces during recovery operations.
Rev - Review
RF - Radio Frequency
Ridgway, Gen. Matthew Bunker - Named to command the Eighth U.S. Army in December 1950, General Ridgway was chosen to replace General of the Army Douglas MacArthur in May 1951.
RIPPER - Korean War (March 7 - April 4, 1951) offensive designed around the strategy of continuing to destroy enemy soldiers and equipment while minimizing United Nation losses. Taking and holding new ground was not one of Ripper’s goals. Ripper’s objective was to establish the Idaho Line beginning on the Han River eight miles east of Seoul and being anchored at Hapyong-dong on the east coast. Operation Ripper drove CCF back to the 38th Parallel and retook Seoul. Fifth Air Force flew close air support missions to support the operation.