Army/Air Force barbs

Two of my characters are ex-military, one was in the USN and the other in the USAF. Upon meeting, they trade jabs at each other's service branch as a form of flirting.

Having a bit of trouble coming up with any, though.

So, help?

EDIT: Title should be Navy/Air Force barbs

edited 7th May '12 7:12:13 AM by DoktorFylthe

Well, isn't it a tradition in the US to refer to the USAF as the 'Chair Force' or something along those lines? That's a good starting point.

From Yanks With Tanks:

Firstly, one is never "ex-military" unless one was discharged other than honorably.

Secondly, I'll assume that you live in the US. If not, there's still the internet. Just go find people who've been in the military and ask them what kinds of strange things they'd insult the people from other branches. I'm sure you'll be busy for days.

Considering that there are (I believe) military people on this very forum, isn't that just what he's doing?

I would've thought "Flyboy" would have been one. I'm not military or American though so don't go by me.

I don't know Navy barbs well. (I was Army so heh.) I know all too well about the Chair Force one. Also flyboys.

His former user name was "USAF" something, but I wasn't meaning anyone in particular - I just suspected that we did.

I was aware of Chair Force, though it seems too vitriolic for purpose. I'm looking for ideas for insults that are more snarky than mean.

So far I've got the male sailor telling his airman love interest that if he wants to avoid getting hit, all he needs to do is give her the right coordinates.

I don't follow you

This is really kind of off-topic, but USAF is the acronym for the United States Air Force, so it seemed like another reason he might be military. However, I wasn't referring to him specifically (I'm not meaning to say so now, in fact, except to clear things) or anyone else - I just figured that there might be some people on here who are military.

We also have The Military Thread over in OTC. Dunno how much that will help, but it's a start.

Kind of. Though it's already been noted, Writer's Block is not the place to go for this, OTC is.

No, but I will be joining right out of high school via ROTC.

Yes, but I felt that it was too presumptive.

Oh now I get it. No, I meant the term Flyboy was an insult to the Air Force

Trust me on this one (Airman of 2 years, most of which has been at a joint base)— every time barbs are exchanged, "chair force" comes up. It's not really that insulting when you consider even our most badass pilots go to war sitting down. They also like to say we're overly proud and think we're all sooo smart and suave, and due to the nature if most of our jobs, we're basically civilians. All of this is basically true. If your airman character is aircrew, you can have the seaman compliment her "coveralls", which they use to make fun of the USAF flight suit. As for barbs directed towards the navy, we like to point out their poor physical shape, excessive smoking and drinking, bright yellow PT gear, fat upper-enlisted people, tendancy to buy cars they can't afford and seldom get to drive, and the fact they have the Marines do everything difficult (though if we're riffing on the marines, we make the opposite argument— don't tell 'em!). Hope this helps!

Found a few on Wikipedias list of military slang. Just search for the word Derogatory and you'll skip all the ones that aren't insults. Some of these aren't navy/air force spesific.

Squiddly (A sailor), Air-dale (a pilot or aircrew), Belching Buzzard (the 101st Airborne Division), Boat chuck (any member of the navy).

Probably more.