Code Words and Abbreviations
(Updated March 25 2007) This table lists 4,271 military abbreviations, acronyms, and code words. It will be useful for identifying ship types in the Ships file, for persons not familiar with the Navy’s codification system (such as BB for battleship or CVN for nuclear powered aircraft carrier.) Many of the seemingly innumerable acronyms used by the military (such as FYDP-Five Year Defense Plan, and JSOTF-Joint Special Operations Task Force), are here.
The table contains the code names for many of the military operations and places of World War II, e.g., OVERLORD, the invasion of Normandy. It also attempts to show the Navy and Marine Corps identifications of their aircraft squadrons by type, e.g., VT (including VT-8, the Navy's Torpedo Squadron 8, which had all of its planes lost on a single raid during the Battle of Midway), or VMF (as in VMF-14, Marine Fighter Squadron 214, Maj. "Pappy" Boyington's famous "Blacksheep.") But beware. Modern day Navy VT squadrons are training squadrons. In World War II training squadrons were identified as VN.
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A comprehensive dictionary of terms currently used by the U.S. military establishment is Joint Publication 1-02, (DoD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms), prepared by the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It can be found by Clicking here.
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