Can anyone tell me where the affectionately derogatory term "dogface" comes from??

By Nathaniel Bridger (Nathaniel) on Unrecorded Date:

Well...assuming the term wasn't coined by the Immortal Combat Journalist, Ernie Pyle, it was certainly perpetuated by the "THIRD INFANTRY DIVISION THEME SONG"--The Third Inf. being Audie Murphy's outfir. Lyrics (Politically Incorrect) follow:

I Wouldn't Give A Bean
To Be A Fancy Pants Marine
I'd rather Be A Dogfaced Soldier, Like I Am.

I Wouldn't Trade My Old O.D.'s
For All The Navy's Dungarees
For I'm The Walking Pride Of Uncle Sam;

On All The Posters That I've seen
It Says The Army's Building Men
So They're Tearing Me Down, To Build Me Over Again

I'm Just A Dogface Soldier
With A Rifle On My Shoulder
And I Eat A Kraut For Breakfast Everyd-a-a-y---

So Feed Me Ammunition,
Keep Me In The Third Division,
..Your Dogfaced Soldier Boy's Gonna Be Okay!


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By Nancy LionStorm (349hvywpnscrew) on Unrecorded Date:

What a great song. I always figured that "Dog Face" referred to how a G.I. looks when he hasn't had a shave in a long time.

By Nathaniel Bridger (Nathaniel) on Unrecorded Date:

Further to the above...According to Major General Albert O. Connor, a former Third Division Commander, "The term 'dog face' is an old one in our Army, dating back to the Indian Wars."

Who'da thunk it??

By Nancy LionStorm (349hvywpnscrew) on Unrecorded Date:

Here's an interesting quote from page 149 in the WWII section of the book, "WAR SLANG: American Fighting Words and Phrases from the Civil War to the Gulf War" by Paul Dickson, 1994.
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dog / dogface / doggie. An infantryman; probably from the fact that infantrymen lead a dog's life, compared with soldiers in other branches of the Army. The military brass railed against these names, but the dogfaces themselves seem to have reveled in them. The expression occurs in many songs -- for example, "I'm Just a Dog Face Soldier" (words and music by Bert Gold and Ken Hart). Set to a jazzy marching tune, the lyrics announced:

I wouldn't give a bean
To be a fancy-pants marine,
I'd rather be a dog face soldier like I am.
I wouldn't change my B.V.D.'s
For all the navy's dungarees,
'Cause I'm the walking pride of Uncle Sam.

In "Dogfaces and Dog Soldiers" (1974) Jonathan E. Lighter writes:
"Th[is] tune quickly became a favorite march of U.S. army bands, and was even featured in the 1955 film biography of Lieut. Audie Murphy, America's most decorated soldier of World War II."
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Me again. It's interesting to note that instead of the words, "O.D.s" it uses "B.V.D.s". I wonder if O.D.s a might be a more modern term?

Looking further I find that on page 55 in the WWI section of WAR SLANG" an entry reads:
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dogs. Feet. (Marines.)
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Back to me again. Now I'm really intrigued so now I'll look in the "The Civil War, and More" section. It says:
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dog. A hardtack dish (see under the Civil War) described and explored in an article by W.J. Henderson in the September 1899 Scribner's Magazine:

The United States Navy allows 30 cents a day for the rations of each man, and it is the problem of the paymaster and cook to keep him alive and well on this allowance. It seems liberal, however, relatively at least, when compared with the merchant-service allowance of only 10 cents a day. The merchantman's cook has a simple menu card displaying only the composition known as "dog." "Dog" is most largely hard-tack, put to soak overnight until becomes sort of a pulp, mixed with molasses into a mush, and then fried. The man-of-war's man is saved from the necessity of eating "dog" some thirty days out of the month, but there are some analogies to it which must be achieved by the cook in order to eke out on this 30 cents a day.
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What prompted me to begin all of this is that right now I'm watching a movie called "Today We Live". It is a World War One romance, and what I find interesting is that this 1933 WWI movie has a US Army MP using the term 'dogface' when my reference source doesn't have it being used until WWII. So it looks like author, Paul Dickson, slipped up on this one! So long from your friendly 349th

- Heavy Weapons Crew