Dictionary of Naval Abbreviations

Long and complex acronyms and abbreviations are a too-often-confusing fact of life for those in uniform. For anyone interested or working in the field of naval or defense matters, this book is also a valuable reference, especially for the neophyte puzzling over such tortured concoctions like PRELIMPERSACCT, NAVTRAEQUIPCENREPLANT, LANTSHIPRON and the like. And even things like HAIR, COLA and CLASSMATE have translations much different than those of us in "civvies" would ordinarily think. The only downside to this otherwise superb book is its age. Last updated in 1984, it lacks many of the newer and more heavily used acronyms that have come into use in a military, technological and world situation that has changed so much since the mid-1980s. Perhaps a perpetually available "latest and greatest" edition is impossible in today's fast-moving world, but it would be a tragedy if this work were not revised soon. If nothing else, the reviser or revisers would have the closest thing to job security imaginable these days.