--- title: "Someone coined a term for the English spoken by military veterans" description: "The author who came up with the phrase said it was a \"language in which there were about ten nouns, five verbs, and one adjective.\"" date: "2021-06-24" modified: "2021-06-25" authors: - name: "Blake Stilwell" job_title: "Editor-In-Chief, Air Force Veteran" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/blake/" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/popular/someone-coined-a-term-for-the-english-spoken-by-military-veterans/" categories: - "Join the Military" - "Military Culture" tags: - "Military Culture" --- # Someone coined a term for the English spoken by military veterans ![]() Tom Wolfe's 1979 book "[The Right Stuff]()" documented the United States' postwar love affair with high-speed, high-powered aircraft, rocketry, and the test pilots who flew them. Wolfe used an interesting term to describe how military personnel and veterans speak English, "Army Creole." Army Creole, according to Wolfe, was a "language in which there were about ten nouns, five verbs, and one adjective." In the book, the word "f\*ck" is used for all of these. ![]() *Also, the movie is really good too. (Warner Bros.)* The original Army Creole as described by Wolfe was a manner of speech similar to actual creole. The term now refers to the military-veteran propensity toward including swear words as intensifiers and the sometimes [overwhelming use of acronyms](). Accoring to Wolfe, no one was more proficient in Army Creole than Mercury 7 astronaut Deke Slayton, who made people cringe whenever he got near a microphone, for fear he was "going to Army Creole the nationwide TV and scorch the brains of half the people of the U.S.A." ![]() *Slayton was actually very well-spoken in front of the mic. (NASA)* The unique name given to the dialect is not to be confused with [Seaspeak](), the official, universal language of mariners worldwide. Developed in 1983, shipping experts and linguists devised a communication system that defined the rules for speaking on the ship's radio. In 1988, the International Maritime Organization made seaspeak official. ### Don’t Miss the Best of We Are The Mighty #### • [The Civil War started and ended at the same guy’s house]() #### • [‘Starship Troopers’ is (finally) getting a reboot—here’s what could be different]() #### • [Why the US military always loses in a fight against zombies]() ## Author Blake Stilwell is We Are The Mighty's Editor-in-Chief, covering military news, entertainment, and history, along with veteran education, employment and entrepreneurship. He is a former U.S. Air Force combat cameraman with degrees in Graphic Design, Television and Film, International Relations, Public Relations, Business Management and Middle Eastern Affairs. After leaving the military, he began working in film and television production in New York and Los Angeles, work that included ABC News, NBC Olympics, and HBO Sports. He then spent two years in Washington with White House Communications, before joining the Near East Foundation. At NEF he served as an International Development Fellow, then Communications Officer, and finally, Media Officer for the Middle East and Africa. Based in the Palestinian Territory, he coordinated strategic communications between eight country offices, international media, and government and NGO partners. He began a career focused on writing and editing in 2015 with We Are The Mighty. He left in 2019 for Military.com, but returned as Editor-in-Chief in 2025. Blake’s work has been seen on CBS News, Fox News, CBC, The Chicago Tribune, Task & Purpose, Military Times, Recoil, Skillset, American History, and was shockingly even used in a Supreme Court argument. He is an avid traveler and small business owner in Ohio, where he spends most of his energy fixing up a very old house. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()