By For anyone that hasn’t served in the US military due to the use of acronyms it truly is a different language with different dialects depending on where you are stationed. General Thurman obviously isn’t fluent in the Korean dialect yet:
Gen. James Thurman, the new U.S. Forces Korea commander, is cracking down on acronyms. “Don’t assume I know everything” and “No acronyms” were on a list of top 10 instructions he sent out Thursday.
This order seeks to clamp down on rampant use of alphabet soup in the U.S. Army. Former U.S. President George W. Bush also confessed that he had difficult time grasping the acronyms during briefings by military leaders. “Many former U.S. presidents and secretaries couldn’t ask for explanations when they didn’t understand military acronyms during briefings in the time of crisis or wars because they wanted to avoid embarrassment,” a diplomatic expert said.
In the U.S. Forces in Korea, one mysterious acronym was GSMA, meaning nothing more than the Greater Seoul Metropolitan Area. But the term was dumped. The acronym AA can mean 12 different things, from air-to-air, to assembly area, attack assessment, and anti aircraft. If a message reads, “Build AA (Anti Aircraft) network in AA (Assembly Area) using AAA (Anti-Aircraft Artillery),” no layman would understand what it means.
Acronyms can create problems in the Korean Army as well. One military official said, “When operation officers make briefings using many technical acronyms during drills, I feel like I’m listening to a foreign language.” [Chosun Ilbo]
When I went to Afghanistan it took me about a month to get fluent in the Afghan dialect of US military speak because of all the different acronyms in use there.
She hasn’t seen...
4:01 am on July 23rd, 2011 1
Reminds me of the time when I was stationed at George AFB back in 1979 and I had to ground an F4 because we couldn’t find the part in supply and there was no next higher assembly. When it came time for me to input the data at the end of the shift, to back order the part, I didn’t know what three-letter code I should write for the reason for the discrepancy, so being the cocky E-3 that I was, I wrote AFU, thinking that in the morning, no one would catch it. The maintenance commander caught it. “Miller, you know you can’t write stuff like that,” he said grinning.
6:30 am on July 23rd, 2011 2
What’s Army life without acronyms? Something strange and foreign to all of us. LOL
7:16 am on July 23rd, 2011 3
#1, ha—that was cute Jeffery. I like it. I still get blank looks from friends and family when I talk of my Military Life. I believe the good General is feeling a bit insecure in his new environment. Good news is that he is man enough to admit it. My favorite and most often used was FUBAR. I have forgotten so many of them.
9:08 am on July 23rd, 2011 4
“FUBAR” was a popular acronym at my last job.
9:09 am on July 23rd, 2011 5
“When operation officers make briefings using many technical acronyms during drills, I feel like I’m listening to a foreign language.”
That’s why acronyms and abbreviations in the Canadian military are standardized. Besides, we don’t have you penchant for acronyms, maybe because we have two official languages. We don’t need to create more communication problems than we already have.
9:53 am on July 23rd, 2011 6
The best acronym that i like was SOSAFUP
9:57 am on July 23rd, 2011 7
What’s he going to call this new program?
Crackdown on Acronyms is far too wordy?
COA, anyone?
6:32 pm on July 23rd, 2011 8
acronym is necessary evil.
seems like he is telling USFK staff not to use acronyms when communicating with him? no getting around it general, you just will have to learn them. You ain’t going anywhere for next few years, Sir!
6:59 pm on July 23rd, 2011 9
5. Yeah but all you guys know each other on a first name basis. There’s Jacques, from Montreal and Pete from Vancouver. Why muddy the waters? You each had an oar. All you had to remember was to not accidentally cross into the UP in Michigan or North Dakota. I do realize there were at least 75 Canooks in the WWII military (including James Doohan) but after that, the peace dividend was hard to resist for the 5 of you, eh?
/blame Canada!
BTW: have you seen this? http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Teadrinker&defid=5737552
7:04 pm on July 23rd, 2011 10
‘Acronyms can create problems in the Korean Army as well.’ How does that work? The first hangul character of each word? Are the names of hangul characters usually one syllable? In English, we sometimes pronounce an acronym as a new word, sometimes we just say the letter names. How’s it done in Korean?
7:32 pm on July 23rd, 2011 11
If he’ed served a tour in Korea once in his career, even a year up in 2ID, he’d have a leg up…but, he didn’t, of course.
7:37 pm on July 23rd, 2011 12
#7,
That would be absurdly ironic.
7:46 pm on July 23rd, 2011 13
What is really annoying is having people from another service talk to someone else- either a person from another service or a civilian who isn’t affiliated with the military- in acronymese. I get embarrassed for the person who starts the exchange, especially when he or she looks at the other party(ies) as if they were supposed to understand what the hell he just babbled.
Sometimes I ambush people I work with and ask them innocently what particular acronyms stand for. Umm… I think it means… In my old unit…. ahhh…
A step in the right direction. So many of the taskers and OPORDs I have seen are unintelligible anyway- throw in some local acronyms-of-the-week and they become coded messages almost. Can’t count how many times I have had to contact the originators to ask them “What do you need from me?”
Bottom line up front and plain English are wonderful techniques in which to articulate ideas.
7:51 pm on July 23rd, 2011 14
#9,
We were fighting in WW2 long before you were, smartass.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Canada_during_World_War_II
And, yes, we also fought against the Japanese.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hong_Kong
7:52 pm on July 23rd, 2011 15
#10,
They use English acronyms…poor pronunciation and all.
8:17 pm on July 23rd, 2011 16
#14 Got a mouse in your pocket, or is that the “Royal We”?
8:20 pm on July 23rd, 2011 17
We were fighting in WW2 long before you were, smartass.
That’s the problem. I’m always amused by “we were fighting before, yadda yadda…” Finally, big brother had to step in and finish it for you.*
WWI & WWII
/I do like maple syrup. I’m glad we’re friends
8:26 pm on July 23rd, 2011 18
Maple syrup– and Molson’s!
8:33 pm on July 23rd, 2011 19
Teadrinker 14, it wasn’t a true world war until the USA engaged in the Pacific and European Theaters. The Japanese Empire prepared that with the attacks on Hawaii and the Philippines, 7 December 1941, and Nazi Germany accomplished it with a declaration of war, 11 December.
Many brave Canadians defended civilisation in those years of horror and glory.
9:15 pm on July 23rd, 2011 20
“eadrinker 14, it wasn’t a true world war until the USA engaged in the Pacific and European Theaters.”
9:22 pm on July 23rd, 2011 21
#17,
Always late in fighting the good ones and first in fighting the bad ones, aren’t you?
9:24 pm on July 23rd, 2011 22
Standardized acronyms? Like in FM 1-02 Operational Terms and Graphics?
9:25 pm on July 23rd, 2011 23
#18,
Molson? Dude…
Try some of this:
http://www.unibroue.com/
9:25 pm on July 23rd, 2011 24
A fun read… FM 1-02. Approved for public release distribution unlimited.
4:27 am on July 24th, 2011 25
i served under general thurman when he was a lieutenant colonel in Schweinfurt, Germany. As a commander he was fair but stern. USFK has one of the best the military has to offer.
4:37 am on July 24th, 2011 26
#19,
Something I’ve been holding on for a few hours just to see if anyone would catch on the nature of your error…Hawaii is East of the international date line. It was December 7 in Hawaii, but December 8 in Northeast Asia when Pearl Harbor was attacked. The attacks on Hong Kong and Pearl Harbor took place at roughly 8am local time, just a few hours apart from one another. So, really, 8am on December 7 in Hawaii and 8 am on December 8 in Hong Kong is just a couple of hours apart.
While I’m at it, one could also argue that the Axis was already losing Europe by December 1941. You see, they invaded Russia a few months before, which was a huge mistake.
“Almost from the beginning of Operation Typhoon the weather had deteriorated. Temperatures fell while there was a continued rainfall, turning the unpaved road network into mud and steadily slowing the German advance on Moscow to as little as 2 mi (3.2 km) a day. The supply situation rapidly deteriorated. ”
Read the rest to see how the Axis was already screwed by the time the US became officially involved.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Barbarossa
4:43 am on July 24th, 2011 27
…Not to say that the Allies didn’t need help. If Americans hadn’t become involved, it’s possible that the war in Europe would have lasted as long as…well…the war in Iraq.
4:59 am on July 24th, 2011 28
27. Boosh!
5:15 am on July 24th, 2011 29
Teadrinker,
For your information, “Iraq” is not a war… regardless of what hippie Canadian propaganda might say.
It is a open-ended broad-spectrum nation-building kinetic humanitarian intervention in the interests of insuring human rights and promoting regional stability.
You really should study history and world events more before commenting.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/ff/Bush_mission_accomplished.jpg
See?
7:58 am on July 24th, 2011 30
There’s human rights insurance?
9:05 am on July 24th, 2011 31
#29,
So, it’s not a war? Do you think you can get that trillion dollars back from your military? What kind of payment plan do you have in mind?
9:17 am on July 24th, 2011 32
“There’s human rights insurance?”
Of course, there is, Kangaji.
It’s part of Obamacare, I think.
The military is currently insuring human rights in a number of places.
Enrollment in the program is mandatory and all policyholders without human rights will supplied state-funded human rights along with a generous ration of Freedom and Democracy.
You didn’t think I… uh… hit the wrong key and wrote “insure” instead of “ensure”, did you?
9:45 am on July 24th, 2011 33
“Do you think you can get that trillion dollars back from your military? What kind of payment plan do you have in mind?”
Teadrinker…
Obviously you know less about economics than you do politics and current events.
The military has warehouses full of surplus $435 claw hammers, $640 toilet seats, and even $7,600 coffee makers.
Once they start selling that stuff off, that trillion dollars will be paid back quickly.
There will probably even be a surplus.
Stupid Canada invested in education and healthcare instead of putting their resources where the REAL money is… claw hammer futures.
That is a plan which is simply too big to fail.
9:12 pm on July 24th, 2011 34
#32,
Obamacare? If you mean that as ridicule because he was unable to man up and force universal healthcare to pass, then I’m with you. Making people buy health insurance from the same companies that are responsible for the mess…What kind of BS is that?
#33,
Don’t get your hopes up. They’ll probably put that stuff up on eBay with a starting bid of 99 cents.
10:21 pm on July 24th, 2011 35
Acronyms, WTF? 40 Yards, SOSAFUP, I don’t know that one, please translate. Seriously, whatever military moron first came up with this multiple acronym crap to BS civilians was really FUBAR. It really makes me want to ROTFLMAO. OMG, some of these acronyms are crazy.
10:45 pm on July 24th, 2011 36
Teadrinker,
Obama promised universal healthcare… but delivered the mandatory purchase of insurance under threat of force.
Not exactly the Hope or Change I was looking for.
While he signed the tragically-flawed law just to show he was “getting something done” and not look like he failed to pass “heath care”, there is more than enough blame to go around to all the usual suspects in government and industry.
As for military “surplus”, they will be lucky to get 99 cents. A lot of amazing stuff is simply sold by weight at scrap prices.
I bought lots of stuff from the government in the States… shocking.
Perhaps one of the best scores was in 1993. I got a (maybe never used) 27 inch laboratory video monitor for $25 at a government auction. It had RGB inputs and H/V sync inputs. It took me less than an hour to build a VGA to BNC cable. While those who had VGA were playing on their cute $500 fifteen inch monitors, I was tearing up Doom with a 27 inch monitor and 4 Bose speakers. When I left the states, a guy was HAPPY to buy it for $1000.
I can go on and on about government waste.
With USFK, I can go on and on about fraud and abuse.
11:34 pm on July 24th, 2011 37
My favorite is the military has a 3 letter acronym for multiple syllable words to describe a car. POV = Privately Owned Vehicles.
2:20 am on July 25th, 2011 38
You simply CAN’T qualify as a MUAO (Maximum Use of Acronyms Officer) unless you can come up with an acronym which contains another acronym- OCP= OEF Camouflage Pattern.
There had to be a bullet for an MSM in there!
3:55 am on July 25th, 2011 39
@38 Ahh yes – the infamous ‘nested’ acronym…hehe
4:14 am on July 25th, 2011 40
Teadrinker 26, you’re correct about dates.
It’s hard to say how the wars would have turned out without the US. Japan would probably have kept Korea and Taiwan, maybe Indochina. Might have been able to take and hold Indonesia. China? Who knows?
The Soviet Union probably would have expelled the Germans, but then what? Maybe they would have taken all of Europe, or maybe they’d have let the Nazis take the West. The UK could have fallen.
Or maybe Canada would have invaded Normandy all by itself.
8:25 am on July 25th, 2011 41
My favorite to put on the training calendar was the Platoon Exercise Not Involving Soldiers. The NCO’s and officers would walk through the next day’s trainging. And it fit, too, as it was also referred to as the Gathering of Pricks, with the end result being “sword fighting” over who could create the most obnoxious and painful training experience and still make it look relevant. The battlefield actually looked inviting and pleasant compared to some of these FTXs.
6:10 pm on July 25th, 2011 42
I was in the Signal Corps…here’s an acronym for you: DFCS.
It stands for DSCS FDMA Communications Subsystem.
Or Defense Satellite Communications System Frequency Division Multiple Access Communications Subsystem.