This page provides a quick reference for some of the military acronyms & terms you may hear in the interviews.
AIT – Advanced Individual Training (multiple locations)
ASVAB (pronounced AZ-vab) – Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery
CO – commanding officer
DFAC (pronounced DEE-fack) – dining facility
EOD – explosive ordnance disposal
FO – forward observer
IED – improvised explosive device
Klicks – kilometers
MACV (pronounced MAC-vee) – Military Assistance Command Vietnam
MOS – military occupational specialty
MRE – meal ready to eat
NCO – non-commissioned officer
NTC – National Training Center (located at Fort Irwin in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California)
OCS – Officer Candidate School (various branches/locations)
PTSD – posttraumatic stress disorder
ROTC (sometimes pronounced ROT-see) – Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (various college and university locations). The U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force maintain their own ROTC programs. Graduates of Naval ROTC programs have the option to serve as officers in the Marine Corps. The Coast Guard has no ROTC program.
RPG – rocket-propelled grenade
stop-loss – involuntary extension of a service member’s active duty service under the enlistment contract in order to retain them beyond their initial end of term of service date and up to their contractually agreed end of active obligated service
TBS – The Basic School, where all new US Marine Corps officers receive their basic training (located at Camp Barrett, Quantico, Virginia)
XO – executive officer
For other terms and more information, you may find the following sites helpful:
Military.com: Glossary of Military Acronyms
Military.com: Glossary of Military Terms & Slang
Vet Friends: Military Lingo (with option to view terms used during specific conflicts)
Wikipedia: List of U.S. government and military acronyms
Wikipedia: NATO phonetic alphabet