AIR FORCE SLANG

Duffy's Gen, Volume 1, Issue VIII, 1 August 1945, Page 19

AIR FORCE SLANG

TO JUDGE from the vast amour’; of fan-mail I receive, this feature n Air •pQ-r.ce' S?ang n is frost popular.*; '‘.Both letters last month used plenty of slang when referring to re. yany cor re sppnge ntgMgs jgd • - for a-h-nr ti cl Blß'ii n g a teetotaller, comments?) I hardly feel equal to the task, hut, for the sake of science, 1 imbibed

several bottles of ;, the real thing 11 , and, - still suffering slightly from the-after-effects , I ar-sitting down to write these lines* '. 1

First-, ;I looked -up Hebster dictionary, which says, under-the. heading of: SOOP: fixture of water, methylated spirits., hoot polish (black' preferable) and Sil vol (if no a-WilabTe, use Brasso) drunk on Norf Island. n A. touch of lubricating oil is sometimes added as flavour—ing. Annual' product 1939? 200 gins, . 19UU 2500 gins •,(.estd-. ; ). • See also under POISON. 11 - .... The dictionary, of course, mentions only the' main in-

gradients • of ‘this famous drink. All brewers have their secret recipes, carefully hidden from their best friends. The most you can ..get out of them is an occasional ■. buckshee ?T bottle - /just been made,, boy. 1 Don’t- drink it at once. Let it * work for a 1 ’ week or so - and then... if Here, follows the familiar ,wink' which rakes your mind wander

'to-that dreamland-,paradise 'where all soop-drinkers dwell, to be . rudely awakened by one . of the worse hangovers, known to alcoholics..

‘ I could -mention. some interesting case-histories — the h pake ha—Fa or i*!, who 'per for a .wild haka in the middle of the dance floor, the house-and-estate agent who stood on his barrack-box* to get the leverage to open it, and many others. In one tent they still point proudly to the foot-marks. where one of the inmates was dragged to bed one night. But / generally, after 28 days 1 Commando Course, in Swanson, personnel stand up to the strain well#. Sore sing of Alexander, and some of Hercules, but nobody has yet recorded the deeds of valour of those daring heroes of the Battle of the SOOP* 19U5« ”Sip up,Soaks.’ 51