An organized operation or activity that goes terribly wrong as a result of middle-management incompetence.
Coined by American and Allied soldiers during the Viet Nam Conflict. Majors and Lt Colonels in the Army and Air Force are the equivalent of middle management. Often, the acquisition of supplies and orders for troop movements were originated by these officers. The insignia for each of these ranks is a small round Oak Leaf Cluster (Majors have a gold cluster, Lt Colonels have a silver cluster). When an operation went wrong, it was often blamed on incompetent middle management giving stupid or contradictory orders. Hence, cluster fuck. The Online Slang Dictionary