Military Abbreviations

[Jon Skagfeld]

Carman, Steve, et al:

Compiling such a list would be a formidable task for anyone who set out to do so. Military abbreviatioons span the three elements (sea, land, air) and in some cases, depending on the time frame, could mean different interpretations to different people in different elements.

Apart from most military books having a list of abbreviations attached for reference, military writing conventions dictate that the phrase is spelled out in full the first time it appears, with its abbreviation following in parentheses, i.e.:

"...upon the appearance of the Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE), the situation stabilized...", or,

"...the General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) is a crew-served weapon...".

I'm possibly one of the worst to include mil abbreviations in my posts, being forgetful that most MLUers wouldn't necessarily have had mil svc.

However, I'm sure that most MLUers would leap to your aid in answering an abbreviation query, probably overwhelming you with a cornucopia of info.