{{short description|Military slang}} {{use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{use American English|date=May 2025}} {{about|the noun|information about the Celtic punk band|The Pogues|the surname|Pogue (surname)}} thumb|250px|right|U.S. military support personnel, like these Army culinary specialists, may be referred to by some combat personnel as pogues. '''Pogue''' or '''POG''' ({{IPAc-en|p|oʊ|g}} ''{{Respell|POHG}}'') is American pejorative military slang for non-combat or non-infantry personnel.
==History== "Pogue" may have entered the American military lexicon during the Civil War through "póg," the Irish language word for "kiss." In this telling, the word "pogue" was popularized by deployed Irish-American sailors who were envious of onshore personnel who still enjoyed the affections of their sweethearts.<ref name="mil">{{cite web |last=Grove |first=David |date=2020-02-05 |title=The Fascinating Beginning of the Term 'POG' |url=https://www.military.com/off-duty/2020/02/05/fascinating-beginning-term-pog.html |website=Military.com |access-date=2025-05-17}}</ref>
By World War I, "pogue" was used by U.S. Marines to refer to a male homosexual.{{sfn|Elting|Cragg|Deal|1984|p=234}} In World War II, its definition shifted to Marines thought to be soft or unfit for duty.{{sfn|Dickson|2000|p=199}} By the time of the Vietnam War, "pogue" referred to rear echelon support personnel.{{sfn|Dickson|2000|p=184}} Paul Dickson's ''War Slang'' humorously defined "pogue" during Operation Desert Storm as "anyone who arrived in the Gulf after you."{{sfn|Dickson|2000|p=321}}
In the modern Marine Corps and Army, the oft-used acronym "POG"—standing for "Person Other than Grunt," with "grunt" being slang for an infantryman—may have originated as a backronym for "pogue."<ref name="mil" />{{sfn|Dickson|2000|p=274}} Some have argued that "pogue" and "POG" are of disparate origins and meanings.<ref name="mil" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Caltrider |first=Mac |date=2022-09-22 |title=POG or Pogue? It's Time To Settle the Age-Old Debate {{!}} Coffee or Die |url=https://www.coffeeordie.com/article/pog-or-pogue |access-date=2025-10-07 |website=Coffee or Die |language=en}}</ref> Though the term is usually considered condescending and derisive, opinions vary about its level of offensiveness.<ref>{{cite web |last=Dodds |first=Sean |date=2019-05-02 |title=5 Reasons Why 'POG' Is Not a Slur |url=https://www.military.com/off-duty/2019/05/02/5-reasons-why-pog-not-slur.html |website=Military.com |access-date=2025-05-17}}</ref>
==In media== In Gustav Hasford's 1979 semi-autobiographical novel ''The Short-Timers'', he illustrates the Marine infantryman's contempt for pogues: "Sergeant Gerheim is disgusted by the fact that I am to be a combat correspondent and not a grunt. He calls me a poge [''sic''], an office pinky. He says that shitbirds get all the slack."<ref>{{cite book |last=Hasford |first=Gustav |date=1979 |title=The Short-Timers |url=https://archive.org/details/shorttimers00gust/page/24/mode/2up/ |location=New York |publisher=Bantam |page=25 |isbn=0-553-23945-7 |access-date=2025-05-17}}</ref> In Stanley Kubrick's 1987 film ''Full Metal Jacket'', an adaptation of Hasford's novel, Sergeant Joker is chastised for wearing a peace button by a character listed in the credits as "Poge <!-- [sic] -->Colonel."<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Colombani |editor-first=Elsa |title=A Critical Companion to Stanley Kubrick |last=Abrahms |first=Jerold J. |date=2020 |chapter=The Philosophy of War in Dr. Strangelove |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Critical_Companion_to_Stanley_Kubrick/32QGEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA120&printsec=frontcover |location=Lanham, Maryland |publisher=Lexington |page=120 |isbn=978-1-7936-1376-9 |access-date=2025-05-17}}</ref>
==Related terms== {{See also|Echelon formation#Rear echelon}} A closely related U.S. Army term is "REMF," standing for "Rear Echelon Motherfucker,"{{sfn|Elting|Cragg|Deal|1984|p=259}}{{sfn|Dickson|2000|p=286}} which gained popularity during the Vietnam War.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dalzell |first=Tom |date=2014 |title=Vietnam War Slang: A Dictionary of Historical Principles |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Vietnam_War_Slang/HRsWBAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA128&printsec=frontcover |location=London |publisher=Routledge |page=128 |isbn=978-0-415-83940-2 |access-date=2025-05-17}}</ref> Another term is "fobbit," a mixture of "forward operating base" and "hobbit,"<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Ricks |first=Thomas E. |date=2009-02-16 |title=Freaking out the FOBBITs of Afghanistan |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/02/16/freaking-out-the-fobbits-of-afghanistan/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180629211151/https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/02/16/freaking-out-the-fobbits-of-afghanistan/ |archive-date=2018-06-29 |magazine=Foreign Policy |access-date=2025-05-17}}</ref> originated during the Iraq War, lampooning support personnel who rarely leave the safety of the "Shire."<ref>{{cite news |last=Basbanes |first=Nicholas |date=2012-09-17 |title=Review: David Abrams' 'Fobbit' is an impressive Iraq war satire |url=https://www.latimes.com/books/la-et-jc-fobbit-david-abrams-book-20120917-story.html |work=The Los Angeles Times |access-date=2025-05-17}}</ref>
== See also == * FNG syndrome
== References == {{Reflist}}
* {{cite book |last1=Elting |first1=John R. |last2=Cragg |first2=Dan |last3=Deal |first3=Ernest L. |date=1984 |title=A Dictionary of Soldier Talk |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofsold00john/ |location=New York |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |isbn=0-684-17862-1 |access-date=2025-05-17}}
* {{cite book |last=Dickson |first=Paul |date=2000 |title=War Slang: American Fighting Words and Phrases from the Civil War to the War in Iraq |url=https://archive.org/details/warslangamerican0000dick/ |location=New York |publisher=Bristol Park |edition=2 |isbn=978-0-88486-407-3 |access-date=2025-05-17}}
== External links == *{{Wiktionary-inline}}
Category:Military slang and jargon Category:Pejorative terms for people