SD3: Sound suppression system on the H&K MP5 weapon.
SDV: Swimmer Delivery Vehicle. SEALs use a variety of them.
Seahawk SH-60: Navy chopper for ASW and SAR. Top speed 180 knots, ceiling 13,800 feet, range 503 miles. Arms: 2 Mark 46 torpedoes.
SEAL Headgear: Boonie hat, wool balaclava, green scarf, watch cap, bandanna roll.
Second in Command: Also 2IC for short in SEAL talk.
SERE: Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape training.
Shipped for Six: Enlisted for six more years in the Navy.
Shit City: Coronado SEALs’ name for Norfolk.
Show Colors: In combat, put U.S. flag or other identification on back for easy identification by friendly air or ground units.
Sierra Charlie: SEAL talk for everything on schedule.
Simunition: Canadian product for training that uses paint balls instead of lead for bullets.
Sixteen-Man Platoon: Basic SEAL combat force. Up from 14 men a few years ago.
Sked: Seal Talk for schedule.
Sonobouy: Small underwater device that detects sounds and transmits them by radio to plane or ship.
Space Blanket: Green foil blanket to keep troops warm. Vacuum-packed and folded to a cigarette-sized package.
Sprayers and Prayers: Not the SEAL way. These men spray bullets all over the place hoping for hits. SEALs do more aimed firing for sure kills.
SS-19: Russian ICBM missile.
STABO: Use harness and lines under a chopper for men to get down to the ground.
STAR: Surface-to-air recovery operation.
Starflash Round: Shotgun round that shoots out sparkling fireballs that ricochet wildly around a room, confusing and terrifying the occupants. Nonlethal.
Stasi: Old-time East German secret police.
STICK: British terminology. Two 4-man SAS teams, 8 men.
Stokes: A kind of Navy stretcher. Open coffin shaped of wire mesh and white canvas for emergency patient transport.
STOL: Short TakeOff and Landing. Aircraft with high-lift wings and vectored-thrust engines to produce extremely short takeoffs and landings.
Sub gun: Submachine gun, often the suppressed H&K MP5.
Suits: Civilians, usually government officials, wearing suits.
Sweat: The more SEALs sweat in peacetime, the less they bleed in war.
Sykes-Fairbairn: A commando fighting knife.
Syrette: Small syringe for field administration often filled with morphine. Can be self-administered.
Tango: SEAL talk for a terrorist.
TDY: Temporary duty assigned outside of normal job designation.
Terr: Another term for terrorist. Shorthand SEAL talk.
Tetrahedral Reflectors: Show up on multimode radar like tiny suns.
Thermal Imager: Device to detect warmth, such as a human body, at night or through light cover.
Thermal Tape: ID tape for night vision goggle user to see. Use on friendlies.
TNAZ: Trinitroaze Tidine. Explosive to replace C-4, 15 percent stronger and 20 percent lighter.
TO&E: Table showing organization and equipment of a military unit.
Top SEAL Tribute: “You sweet motherfucker, don’t you never die!”
Train: Used for contact in smoke, no light, fog, etc. Men directly behind each other. Right hand on weapon, left hand on shoulder of man ahead. Squeeze shoulder to signal.
Trident: SEALs’ emblem. An eagle with talons clutching a Revolutionary War pistol, and Neptune’s trident superimposed on the Navy’s traditional anchor.
TRW: A camera’s digital record that is sent by SATCOM.
TT33: Tokarev, a Russian Pistol.
UAZ: A Soviet one-ton truck.
UBA Mark XV: Underwater life support with computer to regulate the rebreather’s gas mixture.
UGS: Unmanned Ground Sensors. Can be used to explode booby traps and Claymore mines.
UNODIR: UNless Otherwise DIRected. The unit will start the operation unless they are told not to.
VBSS: Orders to Visit, Board, Search, and Seize.
Wadi: A gully or ravine, usually in a desert.
White Shirt: Man responsible for safety on carrier deck as he leads around civilians and personnel unfamiliar with the flight deck.
WIA: Wounded In Action.
Zodiac: Also called an IBS, Inflatable Boat Small, 15x6 feet, weighs 265 pounds. The “rubber duck” can carry 8 fully equipped SEALs. Can do 18 knots with a range of 65 nautical miles.
Zulu: Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Used in all formal military communications.