NAILS: A type of warhead attached to a 2.75-inch, spin-stabilized, folding-fin, aerial rocket. Called flechettes, this round was used against personnel targets. It was usually launched from helicopter gunships. The number of nails in a round escapes me, but it is around several hundred.
NAM: Vietnam
NAPALM/NAPE: An incendiary used in Vietnam by French and Americans both as defoliant and antipersonnel weapon. Consisted of a flammable organic solvent, usually gasoline, gelled by soap. Delivered by bombs or flamethrower, napalm clung to the surfaces it touched, holding the burning solvent in place on the target.
NAV: Navigator or radar navigator in an aircraft.
NCO: Noncommissioned officer. The Sergeant and Petty Officer grades.
NDP: Night defensive position.
NET: Radio frequency setting, from "network."
NEW SOCIALIST MAN: Orwellian concept adopted by the Communists. The ideal collectivized citizen.
NEWBIE: Any person with less time in Vietnam than the speaker.
NEXT: The man who said he was the next to rotated home.
NGFS: Naval GunFire Support (with 5" to 16" shells).
NGO: Non-governmental organizaton.
NICKEL: The number five.
NIPA PALM: Very sharp-edged palms that grew in very dense concentrations. Edges much like sawgrass. Nasty stuff.
NKP: Nhakon Phanom Air Base, Thailand. Major comm and electronic warfare base.
NLF: National Liberation Front, officially the National Front for the Liberation of the South. The Viet Cong…….
NO SWEAT: Can do...easily done or accomplished.
NON LA: Conical hat, part of traditional Vietnamese costume.
NOOKDAU: Ice.
NOVEMBER: Military phonetic for the letter 'N'.
NPD: Night perimeter defense.
NSA: Naval Support Activity.
NSD: Naval Supply Depot, aka: NAVSUPDEP.
NUC, NOUC, or NOOK: Water.
NUMBER ONE: Good.
NUMBER TEN: Bad.
NUMBER TEN-THOUSAND: VERY bad.
NUNG: Tribespeople of Chinese origin, from the highlands of North Vietnam. Some who moved South worked with the U.S. Special Forces.
NUOC MAM: Fermented fish sauce, called "armpit sauce" by many. You have not smelled "stink" until you have smelled this stuff………..
NVA: North Vietnamese Army, or referring to a soldier in same.
