Pogue

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For the New York Times columnist, see David Pogue. For the Irish-English celtic punk band, see The Pogues.

Pogue (as in "rear-echelon pogue") is an offensive military slang term used by U.S. Marine Corps and other front line troops to describe non-infantry, non-combat soldiers, staff, and other rear-echelon or support units.^[1] A related term is the acronym REMF, or "rear-echelon mother fucker".

The term may be derived from a Tagalog word meaning "prostitute". Originally, the term was a sexual insult, as "pogue" was slang for a young male who submitted to sexual advances.^{[citation needed]} This lead to the related term "pogey bait", meaning candy or sweets. It has been used in the United States Navy and Marine Corps since before World War II, entering Army usage around the time of the Vietnam War.^[2]

Due to having lost contact with its linguistic source, the modern military vernacular has turned "pogue" into a retronym/backronym. "Pogue" is now described as the pronunciation of the acronym POG, or Person Other than Grunt.^[2]

This term has generally been replaced by the word Fobbit which refers to non-combat arms soldiers who never leave their Forward Operating Base.

Pogue is also a derogatory term for an Irish person. In the Irish language, pogue (spelt póg) means "kiss". Perhaps the most well-known phrase in Irish is "póg mo thóin", which means "kiss my ass." The term pogue is not usually considered very offensive.