Military equivalent of pilot/controller glossary?

Every mission, campaign, etc, seems to throw all sorts of acronyms, lingo, abbreviations or whatever at me and -as a noob- I usually have no idea what they mean. As a general aviation pilot IRL, I usually have a pilot/controller glossary which I can reference if needed. Is there an equivalent for military speak?

For example (this may be easy for you), I was told that friendlies were “OM to the AO”. I think AO is area of operations? No idea what OM is. Would be nice to be able to look it up.

Much help appreciated. Thanks.

Oscar Mike= On the move?

Oscar Mike= On the move?

Sheesh, both are 3 syllables. Why not just say “on the move”. Lol. That’s what gets me.

Thanks for clarifying that one. Still looking for a glossary.

Brevity codes are available via internet search.

One of many.

https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/3-54-10/fm3-54-10.pdf

Brevity codes are available via internet search.

Will start a new search now that I know they are called brevity codes. Thanks.

This is a direct PDF link

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a404426.pdf

This is a direct PDF link

https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a404426.pdf

Thanks. Saved.

Will start a new search now that I know they are called brevity codes. Thanks.

LOL! I supplied a decent link

LOL! I supplied a decent link

...the things you take for granted. Haha. It’s tough being a noob.

The reason why there are so many acronyms is to reduce the chances of confusion and to reduce the transmission time. It's the same reason why police use the 10 codes (in the US anyway).

For example, WILCO is will comply. Roger means you understood it. Over is I'm done talking and expect a reply. Out means you're hanging up. So the oft said "over and out" makes no sense. Over means you're expecting a reply and out means you're not.

To make things more complicated, Army uses different acronyms. Things like PL for Present Location. ORP for operational rally point. Danger Close to mean you're within 600 meters of where you want the fire directed.

Fire for Effect means dump everything (after adjusting fire). Anyway, in the Army, we called them CEOI for Communication Electronics Operating Instructions (now called Signal Operating Instructions)

So if you need ground pounder acronyms, look up CEOI or SOI.

brevity is actually less important than clarity and readability. biggest slowdown over (especially poor quality radio is)

EYEBALL1, HAWG 1, say again?

when you say "oscar mike" you're only abbreviating the actual phrase by a little bit, but when there's 180 db gun / cannon fire coming through the set it helps a lot to have clear phrases that come through intact.

brevity is actually less important than clarity and readability. biggest slowdown over (especially poor quality radio is)

 

 

 

EYEBALL1, HAWG 1, say again?

 

 

when you say "oscar mike" you're only abbreviating the actual phrase by a little bit, but when there's 180 db gun / cannon fire coming through the set it helps a lot to have clear phrases that come through intact.

Makes sense. I’m usually nowhere near a 180 dB gun when I’m on radio in a Cessna 172. Likely why I haven’t considered that.

brevity is actually less important than clarity and readability. biggest slowdown over (especially poor quality radio is)

 

 

 

EYEBALL1, HAWG 1, say again?

 

 

when you say "oscar mike" you're only abbreviating the actual phrase by a little bit, but when there's 180 db gun / cannon fire coming through the set it helps a lot to have clear phrases that come through intact.

But it's the brevity code (and familiarity) that brings about more clarity. That's why we have AFFIRM and NEGATIVE. affirmATIVE can be mistaken for negaTIVE So they went out of their way to make sure words that are homonyms (or close to it) are avoided.

Another example, in the Army the word "repeat" is not used when asking someone to repeat. You say "say again" or "say again all after blah.." Why? Because the word REPEAT is reserved for when you're calling fire and you want them to repeat the last call for fire.

Will some random artillery guy fire for effect again after hearing the word REPEAT? LOL. Of course not. But it's to drill the CEOI into your brain.

What I used to tell people, simplicity matters when you've been sleep deprived for 80 hours and still have 16 hours to go in your patrol.

yes. it is the same design as your average fighter jet. you'll notice that the plane really likes to tell you in BIG, ALL CAPITAL LETTERS THAT SOMETHING IS WRONG/DESERVES YOUR ATTENTION!!

it's not because it expects your average fighter pilot to be stupid, it's because it expects you to be at 8G and blacked out of your mind, near comatose with stress, and very occupied with whatever's currently going on.

you build in the least inherent mistakes possible, to minimize everyone's chance of screwing something up that will get people killed.

The reason why there are so many acronyms is to reduce the chances of confusion and to reduce the transmission time. It's the same reason why police use the 10 codes (in the US anyway).

Possibly interesting side note: said police forces are using '10 codes' less and less as of late and are in fact actively discouraged from doing so by other agencies during events requiring joint efforts.

Apparently there are many different flavours of these codes leading to a lot of confusion and thus using clear language terms (possibly in standardised short format) is becoming ever more common in police service.

A similar problem obviously was encountered by NATO a long time ago which is why these 'brevity codes' many of us are getting familiar with are actually somewhat standardised throughout NATO today.