Army Team Seeks To Simplify Language

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan., Aug. 15 (UPI) — U.S. Army terminologists at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., say they’re working to simplify military language by doing away with unnecessary acronyms and abbreviations.

Carlos Soto, a terminologist with the Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate Joint Multinational Doctrine Division, said his team is looking to do away with some of the nearly 1,100 acronyms and approximately 2,000 operational terms in Field Manual 1-02, the manual of operational terms and graphics for the Army and Marine Corps, the Stars and Stripes reported Monday.

“There is no reason for the U.S. Army to create a word if the English language suffices,” Soto said.

“It is important that we reduce the use of acronyms to facilitate understanding of doctrine,” Soto said. “Acronyms do facilitate remembering terms and phrases but don’t benefit when used sporadically in a document, or [when] excessively creating acronyms for the sake of creating them.”

Soto said his team is also doing away with unnecessarily long phrases such as “Designated Area for Recovery,” “Individual Soldier Guidance” and “Personnel Recovery Focal Groups.”

He said the team wants the phrases kept out of Army manuals “because [they combine] two terms that each have clear definitions, and when combined you can derive a definition without further adding to an already large Army dictionary.”