G.I. is a noun used to describe the soldiers of the U.S. Army and airmen of the U.S. Army Air Forces — and occasionally for U.S. Marines and shorebound sailors — and also for general items of their equipment. The term G.I. has now used for a long time as an initialism of "Government Issue" or "General Issue", but it originally referred to "galvanized iron", as used by the logistics services of the Armed Forces of the United States. The letters "G.I." were used to denote equipment made from galvanized iron, such as metal trash cans, in U.S. Army inventories and supply records.