Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) the son, or more usu. daughter, of a commissioned officer.

1931		letter in D.O. Smith Cradle of Valor (1988) 205: The latter is an Army brat [...] and his uncle is an Admiral in the Navy .
1939		Sribners CV 7/1: Drum was what the Army affectionately calls ‘an army brat.’ He was born at Fort Brady in northern Michigan.
1942		R.E. Dupuy To the Colors 36: Not having been an ‘army brat,’ as the children of officers and men are known at West Point, there was much for him to find out.
1963		T.R. Fehrenbach TThis Kind of War 38: Tall, slow-talking, he was an Army brat, born in old Fort Dupont, in Delaware.
1964		J. Pearl Stockade 164: Sixteen years old, Canadian Army brat, falling madly in love with every second leftenant who came to see her father.
1977		Amer. Oxonian LXIV 59: Bill was an Army brat, born 27 October 1912 in Zamboanga, PI, where his father, Colonel WM Connor […] was serving.
1995		Soldiers ‘Army Brats’ Apr. 50:4 n.p.: That makes [Shaquille] O’Neal perhaps the most famous ‘Army brat’ – the irreverent term that for generations has been used to refer to the sons and daughters of active-duty soldiers.
2002		Shepherd College (WV) 🌐 An Army Brat, born and bred, Patty spent the first 12 years of her life traveling with her family.

1. poker, chuck-a-luck, find the lady n. or any other gambling game played outside the casino in army camps and similar establishments .

1890		J.P. Quinn Fools of Fortune 275: Chuck-a-luck [...] is sometimes designated as ‘the old army game’.
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 9: You didn’t think this game [i.e. poker] was a game o’ muggins [...] This was the real old army game.
1946		in W.C. Fields By Himself (1974) 9: It’s the old army game [...] Find the little pea.
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 105: It’s the old Army Game, son. Pea under the shell ... now you see it now you don’t.

2. trickery, deceit, passing responsibility onto others.

1941		J.M. Cain Mildred Pierce (1985) 501: It’s nothing but the do-re-mi – the old army game.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak 107: Old army game – a swindle or trick.

(US) obscene language.

1864

J.W. Haley Rebel Yell and The Yankee Hurrah (1985) 201: The teamsters make more noise than all the rest of the army. Their command of ‘army Latin’ is absolutely astounding.

(US milit.) prunes.

1916		Friend Teleg. (NE) 4 Aug. 2/2: [heading] latest from camp in texas [...] army strawberries.
1923		El Paso Herald (TX) 31 Jan. 8/1: [headline] ‘Graveyard Stew,’ ‘Army Strawberries’ and ‘Two Cackles and a Grunt’ Seldom Heard as Waiters Discard Their Slang.
1930		Tribune (Scranton, PA) 7 Mar. 12/3: [He] made a detour on the mess line when strawberries (prunes) were being ladled out.
1941		S.F. Chronicle 1 June H5/7: The draftees assigned to Camp Claiborne, in Louisiana, got out a glossary of slang terms to describe everyday things in army life [...] The Louisiana lads call prunes ‘army strawberries’ [...].
1944		P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: strawberries ... prunes.

(US gay) oral sex followed by beating up the fellator, presumably to prove one’s ‘masculinity’.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.