It is possible that this may have been mentioned on these forums before but I bring it back as the state of the Armed Forces seems to be full of it more than ever. I certainly remember having to deal with plenty of it from small-minded jobsworths who wouldn't know which end of a weapon (any weapon) not to point at one's self ....... never mind military ethos! Does this sound familiar?
“Chicken!!!! refers to behaviour that makes military life worse than it need be: petty harassment of the weak by the strong; open scrimmage for power and authority and prestige; sadism thinly disguised as necessary discipline; a constant ‘paying off of old scores’; and insistence on the letter rather than the spirit of ordinances. Chicken!!!! is so called – instead of horse- or bull- or elephant !!!! – because it is small-minded and ignoble and takes the trivial seriously.”
Extract from 'Wartime: Understanding and Behaviour in the Second World War' by Paul Fussell (Oxford University Press, 1989)