Terminal Lance #68 “Fuckin’ What?”

It is absolutely too common amongst Marines that they substitute… words… for some kind of generic filler such as “fuckin'” or “freakin'”. While I understand that not all NCO’s and below go through any kind of speech course, perhaps a general expansion of the vocabulary would fix this problem substantially. More often than not, Marines just can’t think of what to say fast enough, and at the risk of looking stupid in front of their peers, they substitute language for things like “fuckin'”. This isn’t necessarily exclusive to Marines, but can perhaps be considered a lower form of “SNCO Syndrome,” as depicted here.

While SNCO Syndrome really takes time to develop, one can say that it is this lack of proper vocabulary that ultimately results in acute SNCO Syndrome.

In all reality, I’m really just poking fun at one of the many humorous constants of the Marine Corps: poor language amongst Marines. I doubt it will ever go away, and it is partially what makes Marines so lovable. I think one of the many reasons that Marines in general are such great people is the absolute simplicity in which they operate. The word “fuck” can have so many different meanings, yet it really only means one thing. It’s truly fascinating to see one vulgar, 4-letter word turn into the cynosure of an entire vocabulary.

In site news, expect some prints to go on sale this week. I haven’t completely decided which one to print but I will figure it out soon enough and will let you all know via Facebook and Twitter, as well as the News section of the site when they’re available. All of the prints are autographed by me, the Creator, if you would like the signature customized just let me know before I ship it off.

Edit:

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I wanted to throw up a couple of things! First off, the inspiration actually for the strip about tattoos a couple of strips ago is my friend Alex Ailor. We were in the same section, he was my MRAP driver for a bit in Iraq as well. Here is a sexy picture of his back, the inspiration for the tattoo in the comic:

I’m almost 100% sure he got this during boot leave.

Secondly, I want to add this video that a Marine posted on the forum in response to this comic. It is so perfectly fitting, I thought it might add some realistic context to the strip, for those of you that have never had to endure an infantry mission brief.