I think they were called grinders or hoagies or heroes before submarines...
My biggest culture shock was going from NY to CA and in boot camp (think we had Christmas Liberty??) but my whole company was basically from SoCal & Arizona (sponsored by the LA Rams) they were getting ready to go on liberty and hunt some (what us easterners knew as a ‘rooster’ or male thing) and I wondered what I had gotten myself into but ‘they’ explained that is what we call cat was to them.
(Or something like that)
I went from Groton to SD, and then Everywhere LOL
Ca was nice then, by the 90’s it was craptacular so I went to Tx
When I got to Ca there were more honky tonks and cowboys in Ca than Tx LOL, when I left Ca it was a wasteland of condos