USTRANSCOM reviews popular acronyms

Army Lt. Gen. Kathleen M. Gainey, deputy commander U. S. Transportation Command, has often expressed a disdain for the use of military acronyms, those confusing compacted phrases and titles.

It is with this in mind that we present another installment of our popular series of acronym explanations.

For this episode of Acronyms Spoken Here, or ASH, we’re taking the easy way out.  Just like your favorite TV shows that compile a bunch of outtakes from past episodes and repackage them as an All New Episode,  we at USTRANSCOM Public Affairs present—the All New, never before read (in this sequence at least), review of acronyms published in the Transporter and the Command Post newspaper over the past few years.

AIT is a suite of technologies that enables capture of source data, thereby enhancing the ability to identify, track, document, and control material, maintenance processes, deploying and redeploying forces, equipment, personnel, and sustainment cargo. This suite includes Linear Bar Codes, Two-dimensional Symbols, Optical Memory Cards, Satellite-Tracking Systems, Contact Memory Buttons, and RFID tags..

RFID, or Radio Frequency Identification tags, which have been around since the 1980s, are small devices that are affixed to objects such as cargo pallets, containers, or individual items and which store information.

A Roll-On/Roll-Off, or RO/RO, ship is specifically designed to carry wheeled and tracked vehicles as all or most of its cargo. Vehicles are driven or towed on and off the ship by means of either the ship's own ramps or shore-based ramps.

JLOTS, not to be confused with the Italian ice cream, that’s gelato.  Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore is a unified commander’s joint employment of Army and Navy LOTS assets to deploy and sustain a force.

TRAC2ES, no, it's not track-tooze or track-too-ess. It’s really quite simple. The general consensus around TRANSCOM  is that it’s pronounced tray-sez.  That’s with a silent “2.”  Huh?  Don’t worry about it, for in the wonderful world of “acronymia” you can make stuff up, really. This proves it.

It’s because some people remember there was a TRACES before this one, making this TRACES, TRACES 2, but that would be too easy and not confusing at all, unlike this sentence.  No one we talked with could explain the juxtaposition of the “2.”  Please refer to the above paragraph for the making stuff up bit.

And finally, presented in their entirety, due to an unbelievably popular reader demand, we present TAD and POLAD.

For all the Army and Air Force people out there, we have an acronym used by the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard.  It is TAD.

No, it doesn’t mean a small amount, a smidgen, a bit or a pinch.  TAD stands for temporary assigned duty and is the equivalent of TDY, or temporary duty.

If TAD is used in conjunction with our next subject, POLAD, it might be confused with an advertisement for a small amphibious Warsaw native.  TADPOLAD, get it? 

Moving on, these terms could be used together since the POLAD is a staff officer also known as the Political Advisor or foreign policy advisor.

This position is currently held at USTRANSCOM by Ambassador Dennise Mathieu. She provides advice on the foreign policy implications of USTRANSCOM’s global operations and enhances information sharing, planning and coordination with the Department of State by serving as a focal point for contact with State and embassy staffs.

In the future, you can learn about the USTRANSCOM POLAD going TAD (TDY) to the CENTCOM DDOC to meet with ARCENT, AFCENT, USMRCEN, USNAVCENT and SOCCENT representatives. .

That’s it for all you acronym-hungry, lovers of the abbreviated word.  We have to save something for out next All New, Never-Before-Read Acronym article.  Suggestions are welcome, ooh that’s SAW, another one.  It never stops.

-USTRANSCOM-