Under the National Incident Management System (NIMS), use of acronyms is supposed to be avoided, because they vary between agencies and can be unclear. Instead, people are told to just speak plainly.
FEMA still has a ways to go on that. These are from FEMA documents:
"... After-Action Report (AAR) for the Top Officials (TOPOFF) 4 Full-Scale Exercise (FSE) ... composed at the After-Action Conference (AAC) ...
"TOPOFF 4 (T4) - The T4 FSE used a radiological dispersal device (RDD) scenario based on National Planning Scenario (NPS) ... As observed in T3 ... departments and agencies (D/As) ...
Now let's look at the glossary. Exercise-related terms include:
TTX = Table-Top Exercise
ENDEX = End of Exercise
EXPLAN = Exercise Plan
EVALPLAN = Evaluation Plan
Perhaps those are to train the:
CMHT = Consequence Management Home Team [not to be confused with the:]
CMRT = Consequence Management Response Team
who, I suppose, battle the:
UA = Universal Adversary [??]
using:
TTP = Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures
Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) provide centralized places for agencies can coordinate and communicate. So the TOPOFF and the:
SL = Senior Leadership
SLG = Senior Leadership Group
...work in one of these:
AOC = Agency Operations Center
JOC = Joint Operations Center (FBI)
LEO VVC = Law Enforcement Online Virtual Command Center
NICC = National Infrastructure Coordinating Center
REOC = Regional Emergency Operations Center (EPA)
RRCC = Regional Response Coordination Center (FEMA)
SEOC = State Emergency Operations Center
SIOC = Strategic Information and Operations Center (FBI)
Yikes! Well, maybe they stay in touch via the:
NICCL = National Incident Communications Conference Line
In those centers, they issue:
COSIN = Control Staff Instructions
...and coordinate with the:
AcTIC = Arizona Counter-Terr0rism Information Center
ARPANSA = Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency
GFP = Guam Fire Department
I dunno... Do you think they respect our:
CRCL = Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
If they have an acronym for it, I guess so.
But wait, there's more! The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released a publication that's just a list of acronyms and abbreviations.
CAPTCHA = Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart
BTNS = better-than-nothing security
ITF = interrogator talks first
SMT = scar, mark and tattoo
(Wait, what?)
"Glad they cleared that up":
email = electronic mail
FY = fiscal year
FBI = Federal Bureau of Investigation
IRS = Internal Revenue Service
ID = identification
MS = Microsoft
PC = personal computer
U.S. = United States
ATM = asynchronous transfer mode [vs. an:]
ATM = automated teller machine
D = Detonation
[Sounds like a kids' book. "A is for Apple, B is for bin Laden..."]
MIKEY = Multimedia Internet KEYing
HERF = hazards of electromagnetic radiation to fuel
HERO = hazards of electromagnetic radiation to ordnance
HERP = hazards of electromagnetic radiation to personnel
(Hmmm... Puts being a superhero in a different light, especially if one works with "hazards of electromagnetic radiation to personnel emergency services".)
Next installment: Number Soup
