Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Charlie and Archie

This is topic Charlie and Archie in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=002518

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 09-22-2003, 10:22 AM:

There's a thread over in FHF called "Charlie." This doesn't really have anything to do with that thread. Just seeing the word "Charlie" made me wonder...

Why were the Vietnamese referred to as "Charlie" by the American troops?

Why was anti-aircraft fire referred to as "Archie" during the first World War? Do they still call it that?

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 09-22-2003, 11:56 AM:

quote:
Why were the Vietnamese referred to as "Charlie" by the American troops?

It wasn't the Vietnamese in general, but the Viet Cong guerillas. Abbreviate Viet Cong to 'V.C.' In the military phonetic alphabet the leters V.C. translate to 'Victor Charlie', drop the 'Victor' and voila! [Smile]

I am sure that the anti-aircraft being named 'Archie' has something to do with a play on the letter 'A' (however, the military phonetic for 'A' is 'Alpha' not 'Archie')... Today the common slang for Anti-Aircraft fire is 'triple-A' (AAA=Anti-Aircraft-Artillery) in WWII it was best known as 'Flak'...

-Aaron

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 09-22-2003, 12:23 PM:

Never heard the term "archie" in reference to AA fire before--a British term perhaps? The old term I remember for AA is "ack ack" but as Aaron noted "flak" was and is a common way to refer to AA. I tend to use "flak" to specifically refer to the airborne shrapnel leftover from exploded AA shells--nasty stuff to try to fly through.

Ack ack... Now everyone reading this thread will spend the rest of the day mentally replaying dialog from Mars Attacks... [evil]

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 09-22-2003, 01:58 PM:

...or the duck from the insurance commercials...