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> “Earlier today, the Milestone Decision Authority, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, Dr. William A. LaPlante, approved the Milestone

> “Earlier today, the Milestone Decision Authority, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, Dr. William A. LaPlante, approved the Milestone C / Full Rate Production (MSC/FRP) of the F-35 Lightning II aircraft with the signing of an Acquisition Decision Memorandum (ADM) after a meeting with the Defense Acquisition Board (DAB).” The language could very well be from some dark humor novel making fun of three letter acronyms. Definitely reminds me parts of Catch-22.

loloquwowndueo 3y ago
Hey at least they expand the acronyms!
- gerdesj 3y ago
  That is normal and the acronym comes second: Boaty McBoat Face (BMcBF) Now I can use BMcBF and you have all the information you need to work out what I'm on about. I'm pretty sure that "Usage and abusage" encourages that format. The only slightly controversial aspect of my example is M vs Mc. Mc is already an abbreviation, so should it be repeated intact? For me, Mc is complicated enough as a contraction and abbreviation to warrant deployment in full, as I have done.
  - dylan604 3y ago
    > That is normal sadly, as time goes by, this is becoming less of a norm. people just spit out acronyms because they are so used to, but fail to take a second that someone less familiar might actually be reading it. in previous discussions, this receives some support as "it's targeted a like minded readers" or "they're not professional writers" or "it's just a blog" blah blah. for tweets, i'm surprised we still you vowels. for longer form posts, it would be nice to still be readable.
    - gerdesj 3y ago
      Well, you and I will stick to what we know and see how it goes! The world has a nasty habit of changing around us. I note that, sadly: grammar, punctuation and basic prose construction seem to be wandering off into the mist and getting lost.
pjscott 3y ago
The Department of Defense (DoD) is, amusingly, Just Like That (JLT).
deleted 3y ago
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FredPret 3y ago
DHN MFO TLA? * dark humor novel making fun of three letter acronyms
longdustytrail 3y ago
I see where you’re coming from. But it’s a fascinating window into the nitty gritty of managing a 20+ year, $1 trillion+ government construction project. Some of those silly seeming acronyms, like MSC for “milestone C”, probably are included because people who actually work on and around this project have naturally adopted them. I bet there are senior level employees in and outside the government who's whole career has been spent on this one project. To those people, MSC and ADM are like k8s and MVC
Perceval 3y ago
I once worked at the Pentagon, and my co-workers noted that I wasn't really a Pentagon employee until I could string together a sequence of no less than five acronyms back-to-back in a sentence and still have it make sense. My five were "JS J5 GCP VEO IPR."
hagbard_c 3y ago
At least in the Dutch army even the Dutch word for 'acronym' has its own acronym: afko which is short for afkorting which means acronym.

loloquwowndueo 3y ago

Hey at least they expand the acronyms!

gerdesj 3y ago
That is normal and the acronym comes second: Boaty McBoat Face (BMcBF) Now I can use BMcBF and you have all the information you need to work out what I'm on about. I'm pretty sure that "Usage and abusage" encourages that format. The only slightly controversial aspect of my example is M vs Mc. Mc is already an abbreviation, so should it be repeated intact? For me, Mc is complicated enough as a contraction and abbreviation to warrant deployment in full, as I have done.
- dylan604 3y ago
  > That is normal sadly, as time goes by, this is becoming less of a norm. people just spit out acronyms because they are so used to, but fail to take a second that someone less familiar might actually be reading it. in previous discussions, this receives some support as "it's targeted a like minded readers" or "they're not professional writers" or "it's just a blog" blah blah. for tweets, i'm surprised we still you vowels. for longer form posts, it would be nice to still be readable.
  - gerdesj 3y ago
    Well, you and I will stick to what we know and see how it goes! The world has a nasty habit of changing around us. I note that, sadly: grammar, punctuation and basic prose construction seem to be wandering off into the mist and getting lost.

pjscott 3y ago

The Department of Defense (DoD) is, amusingly, Just Like That (JLT).

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

FredPret 3y ago

DHN MFO TLA? * dark humor novel making fun of three letter acronyms

longdustytrail 3y ago

I see where you’re coming from. But it’s a fascinating window into the nitty gritty of managing a 20+ year, $1 trillion+ government construction project. Some of those silly seeming acronyms, like MSC for “milestone C”, probably are included because people who actually work on and around this project have naturally adopted them. I bet there are senior level employees in and outside the government who's whole career has been spent on this one project. To those people, MSC and ADM are like k8s and MVC

Perceval 3y ago

I once worked at the Pentagon, and my co-workers noted that I wasn't really a Pentagon employee until I could string together a sequence of no less than five acronyms back-to-back in a sentence and still have it make sense. My five were "JS J5 GCP VEO IPR."

hagbard_c 3y ago

At least in the Dutch army even the Dutch word for 'acronym' has its own acronym: afko which is short for afkorting which means acronym.