Find out what any acronym, abbreviation, or initialism stands for

[Paparock]

Find out what any acronym, abbreviation, or initialism stands for

Try this site for meanings of acronyms>http://www.acronymfinder.com/

[scelli]

Originally Posted by Paparock

Find out what any acronym, abbreviation, or initialism stands for

Try this site for meanings of acronyms>http://www.acronymfinder.com/

Here are just a few sites that forum members may enjoy glancing through when they have a moment. There are many, many more and those below are just a very small sampling:

http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/dod_dictionary/

http://4mermarine.com/USMC/dictionary.html

http://www.acronymslist.com/cat/us-a...official).html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...nd_expressions

http://www.vietvet.org/usmcdict.htm

[air-on]

Thank you, Paparock and Scelli,
These links are very helpful - and fun! I grew up under a military dictatorship in Brazil. There is a conscription there, but I was not drafted due to a "contingent excess" (a poor translation of the expression used).
Nonetheless, I remember standing on a cue to make my "oath to the flag" and be officially considered "reserve", looking at a small desk with a "Volunteers" sign and resisting my inner desire to go up there and sign up - the nature of the political regime prevented me from doing it, and I thank G-d for my resisting it.
Israel is a totally different thing, and now it is my son's turn to join the IDF - upcoming December 21. He got the highest score (97), and can pursuit whatever career he wants, if he chooses to. Boy, am I proud of him!

[scelli]

Originally Posted by air-on

Israel is a totally different thing, and now it is my son's turn to join the IDF - upcoming December 21. He got the highest score (97), and can pursuit whatever career he wants, if he chooses to. Boy, am I proud of him!

Thanks for sharing that wonderful story about Brazil. Please keep us informed about your son's activities in the IDF, because you've every right to be proud of him!

Just an an aside, I saw the movie below movie a few months ago and was wondering if this was the time period in Brazil you've mentioned:

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0857355/

[air-on]

Originally Posted by scelli

I saw the movie below a few months ago and was wondering if this was the time period in Brazil you've mentioned:

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0857355/

Yes, Scelli, I was 18 in 1972, the year I dodged that army bullet. Another great (but sorrowful to the extreme for me to watch again)film is "Pra Frente, Brasil" (Forward, Brazil). Launched in 1982, (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0084529/ ) it portrays the same contrast between a people's daylight inebriation with soccer and world championship, while its political opposition (and next political generation) was tortured, executed, decimated in the cold nights.
In one chilly scene, a "foreign advisor" shows a military audience how to torture a poor soul. Before sticking a baton in the unfortunate's anus, to wreck his insides without leaving external signs, he smiles and says "-The problem with this technique is - some like it."
That regime would last until 1986, to be replaced with the right-wing, retrograde politicians that gave the military support and a varnish of legitimacy.
At 55, I thank G-d for having matured and getting able to figure things out a little better. Had Brazil gone left in the 60's, things would probably look much worse there today. As was the case in Chile, with Salvador Allende, also there there was the finger of the CIA - what drives me nuts is the realization that such external interference was not accompanied by policies that would secure the economical growth of the "interfered" economies, thus ensuring a cohesive hemispherical alliance. I have declared my love for the USA many times here in this forum, but its external policies are way too selfish, and many times ungrateful (see Obama and Hillary Clinton policies towards Israel - your staunchest ally and a technological dynamo!)
Brazil went from a hyperinflation (120% per month in 1986) to a lasting stability achieved by one centrist of vision, former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso (elected in 1994, I think). The current president, left-leaning Luis Inacio Lula, is on his second term and enjoys great popularity, but his pursuit of stability has left the greatest structural problems of Brazil untouched: education (above all), health, habitation... An old local saying unfortunately still goes: "Brazil is well, thank you. Now, regarding it's people...".
Mr. Lula's policies against unemployment, I was told last week, may be leading Brazil to the same kind of real estate credit bubble that crippled the US (and the world's) economy 3 years ago. Any Joe Six-Pack can buy a financing to a house. We all know where that leads, don't we?

Back to the film, one factoid about "Pra Frente Brasil". Famous, talented actor Carlos Zara, who plays the role of Barreto, an innocent man that is tortured, was brother of Ricardo Zarattini Filho, construction engineer and former (opposition) politician. Held as political prisoner and tortured, Zarattini was among those 15 men and women traded for kidnapped US ambassador Charles Burke Elbrick.

[scelli]

Originally Posted by air-on

I have declared my love for the USA many times here in this forum, but its external policies are way too selfish, and many times ungrateful (see Obama and Hillary Clinton policies towards Israel - your staunchest ally and a technological dynamo!)

You'll get no argument from me on that statement, but the problem goes much farther back then the current administration...much, much farther back. Frankly, I'm tired of the US trying to run everyone's affairs and have been tired of it for quite a long while. In fact, I've almost begun to lean towards an isolationist point of view.

Also got this movie below out of my local library:

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0912590/

Stopped watching the DVD after about a half hour as simply couldn't deal with what was done to that poor young girl by those animals...and all for money? May they rot in Hades. At first I thought the film was some sort of black comedy until finally realizing what was being depicted had actually occurred in Brazil.

Moving back on topic, here are a few more links for acronyms utilized by the US armed forces:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._Navy_acronyms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...nd_expressions

[air-on]

Ah, that infamous frog farm!
I have not seen Manda Bala, but the Frog Farm scandal... This guy, Jader Barbalho, was caught with zillions of reals without definite origin. To explain them, he comes forward with this lunatic project - a Frog Farm, financed with public (tax-payer's) money, in name of his wife... Maybe they were all albino frogs, because whitewashing seemed to be the main industrial activity...
If you can, watch Tropa de Elite. An honest anti-drug special police unit takes on the corrupt ones. Good movie.

Back to the subject (how easily we drift, isn't it?), thanks for the new links, now relating to the navy!

[oldvet53]

scelli, I agree with you. we have played policeman to the world for far too long, I remember on several of my tours in West Germany that the troops were protested and had to fight our way onto the Kasserna just to get to work. I served on the East German border at Fulda. I believe that the U.S.A. should close the bases in Europe I mean after 60+ years they should be strong enough to defend their own borders and we should only get involved if they get invaded. we should remain staunch allies with Isreal,England,Germany,Japan,South Korea and maybe France. the only reason I didn't include Canada is I feel they are just our northern neighbor and part of the family.

[scelli]

Originally Posted by oldvet53

scelli, I agree with you. we have played policeman to the world for far too long, I remember on several of my tours in West Germany that the troops were protested and had to fight our way onto the Kasserna just to get to work. I served on the East German border at Fulda. I believe that the U.S.A. should close the bases in Europe I mean after 60+ years they should be strong enough to defend their own borders and we should only get involved if they get invaded. we should remain staunch allies with Isreal,England,Germany,Japan,South Korea and maybe France. the only reason I didn't include Canada is I feel they are just our northern neighbor and part of the family.

You might enjoy perusing this particular thread below from a while ago about duty in Europe pulled by a few us back in the day:

http://www.israelmilitary.net/showthread.php?t=12128