H&E: High explosive.
H&I: Harassment and interdiction. Artillery bombardments used to deny the enemy terrain which they might find beneficial to their campaign; general rather than specific, confirmed military targets; random artillery fire.
HAI VAN PASS: A particularly treacherous pass through the mountians south of Phu Bai, just before coming into Da Nang.
HALO: High-altitude, low-opening jumping for insertion of troops behind enemy lines. The jump is begun from 15,000 feet, with an average free-fall time of approximately seventeen minutes.
HAM N'CHOKERS: See HAM N'MOTHERFUCKERS.
HAM N'MOTHERFUCKERS: C-Ration 'Ham and Lima Beans,' a well hated meal among soldiers.
HAMLET: A small rural village.
HAMMER AND ANVIL: An infantry tactic of surrounding an enemy base area, then sending in other units to drive the enemy out of hiding.
HAND FRAG: A fragmentation grenade thrown by a soldier.
HANOI HILTON: Nickname American prisoners of war used to describe the Hoa Loa Prison in Hanoi.
HARDSTAND: A pierced steel plate (PSP) platform over sand .
HAWSERS: Heavy line used in mooring a ship; often 4 or 6 inches in diameter or more. These lines are *never* referred to as "rope."
HE: High explosive.
HEART: A Purple Heart award for a wound; the wound itself
HEAT TABS: Fuel pellets used for heating C-Rations.
HEAT: High Explosive, Anti Tank.
HEAVY: LRRPs usually operated in teams of 5 or 6 guys. On occasion, when it was *known* the team was going to be in deep shit, they were assigned 10. This was commonly called a heavy team. It was more difficult to hide, but the additional M-60 machine gun and other firepower made the inconvenience worth the trouble.
HERCULES: Nickname for a C-130 cargo plane.
HES: Hamlet Evaluation System. A computerized system whereby CORDS personnel at MACV HQ "tracked" the progress of the pacification programs in hamlets throughout South VietNam. Input for the program was supplied by the American District Senior Advisor in each district "in country."
HH-53: Workhorse giant helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky and nicknamed the "Jolly Green Giant". It was characterized by two huge rotars, one in front and one in back. The helicopter opened in the rear to allow troops, vehicles, and equipment to enter or exit.
HHC: Headquarters and headquarters company higher-higher: the honchos; the command
HIGHWAY ONE: This was the route from the north into Saigon. Gens Seamans & De Puy with the Big Red One from Dian went up this route to clear it in 1966 so that the rice harvest could get into the city.
HILLSBORO: An AF "command and control" aircraft.
HM: Navy hospital corpsman; a medic. Short for "hospitalman".
HMONG: A dominant Laotian hill tribe, around sixty percent of whom opposed the North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao, in alliance with the Americans and Royal Lao government. After 1975 the Communists stepped up repression against the Hmong, who refused to be collectivized. Massive numbers of Hmong have been killed or driven into Thailand.
HO CHI MINH SLIPPERS: Sandals made from tires. The soles are made from the tread and the straps from inner tubes.
HOA HOA: A Buddhist sect of two million in the western Mekong Delta, founded in the 1930s. Since the assassination of the founder and prophet, Huynh Phu So, by Ho Chi Minh's forces, the Hoa Hao have been fiercely anti-Communist.
HOI-CHANH: Vietnamese Communist soldiers and cadre who rallied to the South Vietnamese government under the Chiêu H?i amnesty program.
HONEY-DIPPERS: People responsible for burning human excrement.
HOOCH/HOOTCH: A hut or simple dwelling, either military or civilian. Also, the term had several meanings--house, weed, booze.
HOOCHGIRL: Vietnamese woman employed by American military as maid or laundress.
HOOK: A radio; a radio handset.
HOOTCH: House or living quarters or a native hut.
HORN: Radio as in "Get the CO on the horn..."
HOSE (DOWN): Massive automatic weapons fire, as from a minigun, Spooky or other high firepower gunship. Basecamp perimeters suspected of being infiltrated by sappers would be 'hosed down' by gunships and 'mad minutes'.
HOT AREA: Area under fire
HOT HOIST: Extraction of a soldier by helicopter, using its hoist due to the triple canopy,
HOT LZ: A landing zone under enemy fire
HOT TOC: Hair cut.
HOT: Dangerous, such as Hot LZ (where aircraft are receiving enemy fire) Also see Red.
HOTEL: Military phonetic for the letter 'H'.
HOWITZER: A short cannon used to fire shells at medium velocity and with relatively high trajectories.
HQ: Headquarters.
HUE: First built by Emperor Gia Long early in the nineteenth century, Hue was the imperial capital of Vietnam between 1802 and 1945. It is located on Highway 1 about 420 miles south of Hanoi and 670 miles north of Saigon and was an independent municipality under the Republic of Vietnam (RVN). For the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese, Hue was a city with tremendous historical significance. Being the former imperial capital of a united Vietnam, the center of Vietnamese cultural and religious life, and the capital of Thua Thien Province, Hue became an important symbol in the struggle for dominance of Indochina. It was also a difficult city to defend.
HUEY: Nickname for the Bell UH-series "utility" helicopters. The Bell UH-1 helicopter is one of aviation's true success stories. Thousands of the aircraft have been made in a number of variations, serving a multitude of roles. Called the "Iroquois" by the United States Army, the aircraft is much better know by its nickname of "Huey," derived from its initial designation of HU-1. In its multitude of roles in Vietnam, the Huey became a familiar sight on the television screens of America. Hardly a night passed without the evening news showing Hueys in dustoff, slick or other missions.
HUMP: March or hike carrying a rucksack; to perform any arduous task.
HUN: An F-100 aircraft.
