Like any office or social group, military personnel are influenced by their leaders. I never encouraged profanity among my co-workers, and with reinforcement from one or two others I usually didn’t hear much of it. This would vary from workcenter to workcenter.

The amount of profanity used by an individual generally decreased in inverse proportion to their visibility. You don’t hear a lot of profanity when you’re in a meeting with the General and his staff, compared to when you’re taking a break with the guys.

Disparaging remarks about women are generally discouraged, as the military is subject to the same prohibitions on discrimination as everyone else.

Generally, the most profanity comes from the young troops, who, aside from hormonal influences, may expect the military environment to reflect what they’ve seen on the big screen. It seldom does.

Use of profanity simply varies from extreme to non-existent, just like anywhere else.

It reminds me of the saying “mouth like a sailor.” After a while, though, you don’t really notice it.

Gang members take pride in being the sum total of putative curse words, bad mofos. The military feel emotions so strongly that words do not describe things adequately, so the best they do is to use curse words all the time. That and the screaming and the praying, as well. Because the bond is so strong, normal social politeness is stripped away, the veneer of civilization in combat is stripped away. Combat buddies do not treat each other in a formal, polite manner. All of that is gone, melted away.

It’s hard for Hollywood to see beneath the language and the visuals, to the spirit and the soul. Their version of things is rather faded out and bland.