I MEF First Marine Expeditionary Force
AAV Amphibious Assault Vehicle; also LVT for Landing Vehicle, Tracked; carries eighteen to twenty Marines from ship to shore; serves as ground troop transport. Armament: .50-cal machine gun and 40-mm automatic grenade launcher
ABM Anti-Ballistic Missile
AGM Air-to-Ground Missile
AK-47 7.62-mm automatic rifle of Soviet design; now made in Russia, China, and North Korea, and formerly in most Soviet-bloc countries
Amn Al Khass Iraq's internal intelligence and security service; also known as SSS, Special Security Services
APC Armored Personnel Carrier
APU Auxiliary Power Unit
ASP Ammunition Supply Point
ATGM Anti-Tank Guided Missile
AWACS Airborne Warning and Control System (U.S. Air Force)
BMP A Soviet-made, tracked, infantry fighting vehicle; carries up to eight troops and is normally armed with a 73-mm or a 30-mm cannon and ATGMs
Bn Battalion
CAAT Combined Anti-Armor Team; consists of several Humvees equipped with TOW and Javelin ATGMs, .50-cal machine guns and grenade launchers
CAS Close Air Support
Cas-evac Casualty Evacuation
CENTCOM Central Command (Also USCENTCOM). U.S. Central Command, one of nine U.S. unified military commands; headquartered at McDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Florida. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, CENTCOM maintained a forward headquarters in Doha, Qatar.
CG Commanding General
CO Commanding Officer
CP Command Post
DASC Direct Air Support Center; provides a direct communications link between Marine air and ground units
EGBU-28 Enhanced Guided Bomb Unit; more accurate version of the "bunker buster" that uses GPS for guidance. See also GBU.
EOD Explosive Ordnance Disposal
EP-3 Lockheed EP-3E Aries II aircraft, designed specifically for Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) collection. The aircraft operates with a five-person flight crew and as many as twenty intelligence specialists.
EPW Enemy Prisoner of War
FAC Forward Air Controller; provides direction and control for aircraft firing or dropping ordnance in support of ground troops
FARP Forward Arming and Refueling Point
FO Forward Observer; provides fire direction and control for artillery or mortars
Frag Order Fragmentary Order; an abbreviated operations order that a commander uses to inform troops of information they need to carry out an assigned mission
G-3 Operations and training function for a military command of brigade or higher. See also S-3.
GBU Guided Bomb Unit; e.g., GBU-15, an unpowered, glide weapon used to destroy high-value enemy targets; the GBU-37 "bunker buster" is a five-thousand-pound laser-guided conventional explosive with a forty-four-hundred-pound penetrating warhead. The operator illuminates a target with a laser designator and then the munition is guided to a spot of laser energy reflected from the target.
GOSP Gas-Oil Separation Plant
GPS Global Positioning System
Gunny Slang for Marine gunnery sergeant
HARM High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile; an air-to-ground missile, specifically the AGM-88 HARM
HEAT High Explosive Anti-Tank; armor-piercing, anti-tank ammunition
HET (U.S. Marines) Human Exploitation Team; helps collect and interpret intelligence
HET (U.S. Army) Heavy Equipment Transporter
HMLA Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron; flies AH-1J Cobras and armed UH-1N "Hueys"
HMM Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron; flies CH-46 "Sea Knight" helicopters
HUMINT Human intelligence, as contrasted with electronic, satellite, or other intelligence gathering
Humvee: High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle
HVT High Value Target
ICM Improved Conventional Munitions
ID In the context of a military unit, Infantry Division; also an abbreviation for identification
IFB Interruptible Feedback Line; allows a television producer, director, talent, and others to communicate with one another during a program, usually through an earpiece
IFF Identification Friend or Foe
JDAM Joint Direct Attack Munition; an unpowered, GPS-guided, one-thousand- to two-thousand-pound glide bomb
Jihaz Haneen Clandestine Baath intelligence and security organization
JSTARS Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System; a high resolution radar and command and control suite mounted in a modified Boeing 707 airframe
LAR Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion; Marine unit equipped with LAVs for rapid ground reconnaissance forward and on the flanks of a larger force
LAV Light Armored Vehicle; LAV-25, wheeled light armored vehicle employed by Marine LAR battalion; carries six troops. Armament: 25-mm chain gun
LVT Landing Vehicle, Tracked. See also AAV.
LVTC Landing Vehicle, Tracked, Command. An LVT equipped with communications equipment and configured so that a commander can use an LVTC-7 as his command. Armament: turret-mounted .50-caliber machine gun
LZ Landing Zone
MAG Marine Air Group
MAW Marine Aircraft Wing. The 3rd MAW served as the Air Combat element of I MEF.
MAWTS Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron
MEU Marine Expeditionary Unit; the smallest air-ground task force, consisting of a reinforced infantry battalion, a composite helicopter squadron, and a logistics support element
MIA Missing in Action
MOPP Mission-Oriented Protective Posture; designation for the protective suit, mask, and other equipment worn to shield troops from nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. See also NBC suit.
MP Military Police
MPS Maritime Prepositioning Ship; large "roll-on roll-off" vessels full of military equipment, weapons, and ammunition; strategically placed to expedite the deployment of U.S. military units
MRE Meal, Ready-to-Eat
Mukhabarat The foreign intelligence service in Saddam Hussein's Iraq
NBC suit Nuclear, biological, and chemical protective gear
NCO Noncommissioned officer in the military services
NOK Next of Kin
NVG Night-Vision Goggles
OGA Other Government Agency; euphemism for CIA or other intelligence service personnel operating in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places
Overwatch A base of fire from heavy weapons in support of a maneuver
PAO Public Affairs Officer
PAX (also "Packs") U.S. military abbreviation for passengers, usually in an aircraft
PFC Private First Class
POW Prisoner of War
QRF Quick Reaction Force
RAP Rocket-Assisted Projectiles
RCT Regimental Combat Team
Rein Reinforced
ROE Rules of Engagement
RPG Rocket-Propelled Grenade
RPV Remotely Piloted Vehicle; radio-controlled aircraft used to conduct reconnaissance and/or intelligence collection. See also UAV.
S-1 Staff officer who performs administrative record-keeping and personnel function for a battalion or regiment
S-2 Staff officer who performs intelligence and counter-intelligence function for a battalion or regiment
S-3 Staff officer who performs operations, plans, and training functions for a battalion or regiment
S-4 Staff officer who performs logistics, maintenance, and supply function for a battalion or regiment
SAD Special Activities Division
SAM Surface-to-Air Missile
SAW Squad Automatic Weapon, 5.56 mm; carried by one member of each Marine infantry fire team
SERE Survival, Escape, Resistance, and Evasion; plan followed in the event a pilot or other armed forces member is down or lost behind enemy lines
Sharqi Iraqi sandstorm
Sit Rep situation report
SOP Standard Operating Procedure
TAA Tactical Assembly Area
TF Task Force
TOC Tactical Operations Center
TOT Time on Target
TOW Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided anti-tank missile
TRAP Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Pilot
UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicle; reconnaissance aircraft operated by remote radio control and or GPS
UN United Nations
UNSCOM UN Special Commission; the organization appointed by the UN to search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
V Corps U.S. Army forward-deployed headquarters for two divisions, a corps support command, and nine separate brigades totaling approximately forty-one thousand soldiers
VMU-2 Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron Two; operated RPVs over the battlefield for the Regimental Combat Teams. See also UAV.
WIA Wounded in Action
WMD Weapons of Mass Destruction
XO Executive Officer