Hugh's News & Commentary

Acronyms for the Military Services

In order to help those of you who are not military to understand abbreviations and acronyms that are used specifically by the branches of service, I thought I should give you a glossary of the terms of the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines.

Even though I deal with these sort of things constantly I find myself checking to make sure I am correct. I want to thank several of our active duty military chaplains who have checked out my take on these abbreviations and acronyms for accuracy. Among them were Chaplains Jerry Jones, Ken Godfrey, Timothy Moore.

Let me be quick to state that Chaplains should never be called by their rank. We prefer to be called Chaplain. Although rank is important for promotions and places of leadership and influence, we hope we will never lose the call of God to be chaplains and men and women who minister to the spiritual needs of the troops.

It was General George Marshall who said that the spiritual life of the soldier was far more important that his physical fitness and equipment. He believed "that unless the soldier's soul sustains him, he cannot be relied upon in battle."

Air Force

USAF -- Air Force Active Duty
USAFR -- Air Force Reserve
ANG -- Air National Guard
AFB -- Air Force Base
2nd Lt-- 2nd Lieutenant
1st Lt -- First Lieutenant
Maj -- Major
Lt Col -- Lieutenant Colonel
Col -- Colonel
Brig Gen -- Brigadier General (one star)
Maj Gen -- Major General (two stars)
Lt General -- Lieutenant General (three stars)
General -- General (four stars)

Army

USA -- Army Active Duty (the active duty part is understood)
ARNG -- Army National Guard
CH -- Chaplain (There is not an official acronym for chaplain. We use CH within our own branch, but typically when writing outside the chaplain world, we spell out the word chaplain
2LT -- Second Lieutenant
1Lt -- First Lieutenant
CPT -- Captain
MAJ -- Major
LTC -- Lieutenant Colonel
COL -- Colonel
BG -- Brigadier General (one star)
MG -- Major General (two stars)
LTG -- Lieutenant General (three stars)
GEN -- General (four stars)

Sometimes it is difficult to get folks to understand that a 1Lt outranks a 2Lt ... so we ask, what is the difference between an Private 2nd class and a 2nd Lt? A Private 2nd class has been promoted once already. (As a PV 2 does outrank a PV1...only in the Army do we such things!!)

UMT -- Unite Ministry Team is also sometimes referred to as RST Religious Support Team when working in a Joint Environment across USA, USAF, USN, USMC, and USCG (Coast Guard)  and USCG (Coast Guard)

Marines – officer ranks are the same as the Army and Air Force

MEF -- Marine Expeditionary Force

Navy

USN -- Navy Active Duty
USNR -- Navy Reserve
CHC -- Chaplain Corps
Ensign -- Ensign -- same as 2nd Lieutenant
LTJG -- Lieutenant Junior Grade -- same as 1st Lieutenant
LT -- Lieutenant -- same as Captain
LCDR -- Lieutenant Commander -- same as Major
CDR -- Commander -- same as Lieutenant Colonel
CAPT -- Captain -- same as Colonel
RDML -- Rear Admiral Lower Half (one star)
RADM -- Rear Admiral Upper Half (two stars)
VADM -- Vice Admiral (three stars)
ADM -- Admiral (four stars)
NAS -- Naval Air Station