.50-Caliber: A standard crew-served machine gun that fires .50-caliber rounds, often mounted on the top of a vehicle
AC-130 Gunship: Military fixed-wing aircraft used for close air support and force protection
ACR: Armored cavalry regiment
AK-47: A Russian-made assault rifle used by the many Iraqis, including the police, insurgents, and militias
Apache Helicopter: The U.S. Army’s principal attack helicopter, flies in all weather, day and night
AWOL: Absent Without Leave
Battalion: A military unit of around five hundred to fifteen hundred men, usually consisting of between two and six companies, and typically commanded by a lieutenant colonel
Bradley Fighting Vehicle: An armored personnel carrier used to transport GIs and provide both medium and long-range firing capability for the infantry
CASH: Combat Support Hospital
CID: Criminal Investigation Division; police who investigate crimes inside the military
CO: Conscientious objector, someone who no longer believes in war because of religious, moral, or ethical reasons
CO: Commanding Officer
Company: A military unit, typically consisting of seventy-five to two hundred soldiers. Most companies are formed of three to five platoons
CPATT: Civilian Police Assistance Training Team, part of the U.S. occupation charged with training Iraqi police
DD214: U.S. military discharge certificate
Desertion: To abandon the military without permission
Division: A unit of the military typically consisting of between ten and twenty thousand troops
Flexi-cuffs: Plastic restraints used by soldiers to handcuff detainees
FOB: Forward Operating Base
Hillbilly Armor: Iraq war slang for homemade armor for soft-skinned Humvees
Humvee: Four-wheel-drive jeep used to patrol streets and transport troops, an acronyn for “High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle”
IED: Improvised explosive device
JAG: Judge Advocate General, the judicial arm of the U.S. military
Kalashnikov: An AK-47
KBR: Kellogg, Brown, and Root—a large civilian contractor operating in Iraq, subsidiary of Halliburton
KIA: Killed in action
M-16: A military issue assault rifle
M-60: A machine gun used by American forces
Mark 19: A belt-fed grenade launcher
MedEvac: Medical evacuation, from Iraq usually to Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany
Medic: A trained soldier who is responsible for providing first aid and frontline trauma care
Mortar: Fires shells at a much lower velocity and higher ballistic arc than other ordnance; their shells explode on impact with target
MP: Military police
MRE: Meal Ready to Eat, dehydrated food for troops in a combat zone
NCO: Noncommissioned officer, e.g., a sergeant
Peshmerga: Kurdish militia
Platoon: A military unit typically composed of two to four sections or squads and containing about thirty to fifty soldiers
PTSD: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
R&R: Rest and recreation, a short vacation soldiers are sometimes allowed to take during a deployment
RPG: Rocket-propelled grenade
SAPI Plates: Small arms protective inserts, ceramic armor plates used in vests to repel fragmentation and small arms fire
SMAW: A Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon, a type of rocket launcher
TBI: Traumatic brain injury, physical brain damage
TRICARE: The military’s health care plan
UCMJ: Uniformed Code of Military Justice, military law