Note the USMC logo. The anchor chain is wrapped around the anchor. So, all marines are always fouled up. ;-) The use of the fouled up anchor as a symbol of the marines goes back to at least the late 1700's. The term SNFU or SNAFU (I have seen it both ways although the later is now the more common) may go back that far also. My father told me that he first encountered the term SNFU as "Situation Normal Fouled Up" when he joined the Navy in 1932. The other "F" word would not have been used in 1700 as at that time it was a device pulled by a farm horse to plant seeds. It didn't take on its current meaning until some time in the 1800's. Could it be related to "sowing wild oats"?
How far OT do we want to go with this? :-) [email protected] wrote:
one more view - 3 of my great uncles were marines - 1 in 1918, WW1 in France. The other 2 in the Pacific in WW2. All 3 agreed that the terms SNAFU and FUBAR were in general use by the enlisted Marines even before their time(s). Was the subject of several memorable conversations at family reunions where some of the "gentler" family members got offended and left the outdoor festivities to the "rougher" members - and us wide-eyed young boys. Was probably a similar saying in use in every military back to the Sumerian and pre-Confuscian days.
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