Found this file while cleaning up some old folders. Before THE OTHER SIDE became THE OTHER SIDE, it was going to be titled GRUNTS. But then another book came out called GRUNTS, so we needed a new title. It took a long time to come up with one. Me and Cameron Stewart and our editors all threw out ideas. Here are some of the ones that were suggested:
ORDNANCE
OUR TIME OF DYING
BROTHERS IN DARKNESS
US DAMNED
US WRETCHED
THE DEEP GREEN
BEYOND ALL RECOGNITION
MOTHER CARBINE
FIRE FOR EFFECT
TAKING FIRE
BLOOD MAKES THE GRASS GROW
IN EACH OTHER’S BLOOD
SHELL SHOCK
ONCE UPON A TIME IN VIETNAM
LAY DOWN FIRE
I CORPS ‘68
MAGGOTS
THROUGH HELL
ALL HELL
FIELDS OF FIRE
BLACK RIFLES
FATIGUES
THE LUCKY GRUNTS
JUST A GRUNT
LAST GRUNTS
BORN GRUNTS
HELL SUCKS
DEEP SERIOUS
BEYOND THE WIRE
AMONG THE LOST
JUNGLE ROT
DECOMPOSING
LITTERS
CORPS
BOONIE RAT
BODY COUNT
PRAYING FOR WAR
ENEMY GRUNTS
INTO THE FIRE
EXPECTANTS
BEATEN ZONE
SNUFFIES
expectants -- casualties who are expected to die
double veteran -- Having sex with a woman and then killing her made one a double veteran.
beaten zone -- area where the majority of bullets will strike when a machine gun is laid-in to cover a part of a defensive perimeter or part of an ambush zone.
SNUFFY: was/is the term Marines use in the same way Army calls themselves grunts. This term's footnoted in one of the major books on Khe Sahn and was in common use in I Corps (1/67-7/68).
It has triple meaning to Marines: 1. to snuff is the mission, 2. we don't grunt under our loads, and 3. a wry reference to the historical willingness of Marine leaders to expend their lives for what may seem like small gains (arising from the fact that this small service just doesn't have the logistical ability to throw much ordnance on an objective beforehand).
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