check fire

Definition

Command to immediately cease firing weapons, often issued to prevent fratricide or civilian casualties. The phrase that turns chaos into silence faster than anything else in combat.

Example Usage

Check fire! Check fire! Friendlies in the target area!

Origin

Standard fire control terminology dating to organized military forces

Fun Fact

The only command more urgent than 'check fire' is 'incoming,' and both will make experienced troops react before conscious thought processes even engage.

Source: Fire control and safety procedures

Related Terms

Beginner

green zone

A secure area under friendly control, where the risk of attack is low enough that you might actually sleep through the night. Not to be confused with the heavily fortified government district in Baghdad, which took the name but added way more blast walls.

🎖️ Military / Defense

Beginner

Extraction Point

A designated location where personnel or equipment are retrieved, typically by helicopter or vehicle, after completing a mission. The planned exit strategy that hopefully involves less gunfire than the entrance.

🎖️ Military / Defense

Advanced

SIGINT

Signals Intelligence—the military's polite term for eavesdropping on enemy communications and intercepted transmissions. It's essentially high-tech spying where you intercept, decode, and analyze radio signals, emails, and other electronic chatter to figure out what your adversaries are planning. Turns out the NSA didn't invent mass surveillance; they just perfected it.

🎖️ Military / Defense

Beginner

jody

The mythical civilian back home who steals soldiers' girlfriends or wives while they're deployed. The boogeyman of every deployment, immortalized in countless cadence calls.

🎖️ Military / Defense

Intermediate

pogue

Derogatory term for non-combat support personnel, especially those in comfortable rear-echelon positions. Pronounced 'pō-g,' because spelling it POG (Person Other than Grunt) is too straightforward.

🎖️ Military / Defense

Intermediate

mechanized

The process of equipping military units with tanks, armored vehicles, and other machinery that makes them faster and more lethal than foot soldiers. It transformed warfare from guys walking around to guys driving around with bigger guns. Also applies to making any process more automated and less dependent on human muscle power.

🎖️ Military / Defense

Translate This Term

See “check fire” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator

Share This Term

Post on X Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn

Discover a Term

Beginner

jtwiw

just the way it was....