- ABMC
- American Battle Monuments Commission
- AFDIL
- Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory
- AFRSSIR
- Armed Forces Repository of Specimen Samples for the Identification of Remains
- ARVN
- Army of the Republic of Vietnam
- ASCLD / LAB
- American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors / Laboratory Accreditation Board
- ASGRO
- Armed Services Graves Registration Office
- AWOL
- absent without leave
- BNR
- body not recovered
- BTB
- believed to be
- CIL
- Central Identification Laboratory
- CILHI
- Central Identification Laboratory Hawaii
- DMZ
- demilitarized zone
- DNA
- deoxyribonucleic acid
- DOD
- Department of Defense
- DPAA
- Defense POW / MIA Accounting Agency
- DPMO
- Defense Prisoner of War / Missing Personnel Office
- EOD
- explosive ordnance disposal
- GAO
- Government Accountability Office
- IED
- improvised explosive device
- JCRC
- Joint Casualty Resolution Center
- JFA
- Joint Field Activity
- JPAC
- Joint POW / MIA Accounting Command
- JPRC
- Joint Personnel Recovery Center
- JTF-FA
- Joint Task Force-Full Accounting
- KIA
- killed in action
- LPDR
- Lao People’s Democratic Republic
- LSEL
- Life Sciences Equipment Laboratory
- MACV
- Military Assistance Command, Vietnam
- MIA
- missing in action
- mtDNA
- mitochondrial DNA
- NGS
- next generation sequencing
- NPR
- National Public Radio
- PACT
- Personnel Accounting Consolidation Task Force
- POW
- prisoner of war
- PSYOP
- psychological operations
- PTSD
- posttraumatic stress disorder
- REFNO
- reference number
- SEA
- Southeast Asia
- SOP
- standard operating procedure
- SRV
- Socialist Republic of Vietnam
- STR
- short tandem repeat
- USPACOM
- United States Pacific Command
- UXO
- unexploded ordnance
- VFW
- The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States
- VNO
- Vietnamese Office for Seeking Missing Persons (VNOSMP)
- WWI
- World War I
- WWII
- World War II
- Y-STR
- STR on the Y-chromosome