This article is classified "Real"
When it comes to making acronyms, no-one does it, or rather, overdoes it,
like the US Navy. Allow me to explain. If it is an object, a place, or a
title, it has been acronymized or abbreviated. Take the biggest Navy base
in Virginia, for instance. Its full name is Naval Operating Base, Norfolk
Virginia, but the Navy calls it NOB NorVa. The Navy likes to use three
letter contractions in its abbreviations and uses them whenever it can.
Destroyer Squadron becomes Desron. Cruiser, Destroyer Group becomes
CruDesGru. There are some exceptions, of course. Lant is always used
for Atlantic. That's right, kill the first two and last two letters.
Makes sense to me.
Rank and titles are bad too. For instance, right after the Pearl Harbor
bombing, the title of the commander-in-chief, US forces, was changed to
Cominch from (now get this) CinCUS (i.e. SINK US). Commander or Command is
Com, but the officer rank of Commander is Cdr., Commodore is Commo, Captain
is Capt., Admiral is Adm., Lieutenant Junior Grade is Lt(jg). My rank, when
I was in the Navy, was Machinist Mate second class (or petty officer second
class), Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist. The acronym for that is simply
MM2(SW). I have even been called that [1]. By the way, don't be impressed
with the Surface Warfare part. All it means is that I know enough about
every part of my ship to be dangerous to her.
The Navy has so many acronyms and abbreviations that they have compiled a
complete listing of every one used, and it is updated quarterly. This
publication is called "Dictionary of Naval Abbreviations", Naval Stock
Number (NSN) COMM 0509-LP-042-0708 [2]. I will end this article by
including the acronym that most Naval officers hate and most enlisted
sailors use: FTN [3].
[1] For instance: "Hey, MM2!"
[2] Thanks to Philadelphia Naval Base, Publications Command, Customer
Service Dept. (PhilaNOB, PubCom, CusServDep) for the exact name and
stock number of the Publication.
[3] TN = The Navy.