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Glossary of Acronyms

1MC — An announcing circuit heard by the entire ship

2MC — An announcing circuit heard in the engine room

4MC — An announcing circuit used exclusively to announce serious casualties

7MC — An announcing circuit for communications between the EOOW and the OOD.

AC — Alternating Current

ASR — Submarine Rescue Ship

BCLU — Battery Charging Line Up

BRI — Bearing Repeater Indicator

BST Buoy — “Beast” Buoys, an emergency communications beacon

CAMS — Computerized Atmospheric Monitoring System

CNO — Chief of Naval Operations, the highest ranking officer in the Navy

CO — Commanding Officer

COD — Carrier Onboard Delivery

CODC — Commanding Officer’s Display Console

COW — Chief of the Watch

DC — Damage Control or Direct Current

DCA — Damage Control Assistant, the junior officer in charge of the boat’s damage control gear and Auxiliary Division.

DOD — Department of Defense

DR — Dead Reckoning, an estimate of position based on course, speed, and time

DSRV — Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle

EAB — Emergency Air Breathing, a system of breathing masks that plug into fixed manifolds throughout the ship.

E Club — Enlisted Club

EDO — Engineering Duty Officer

EOOW — Engineering Officer of the Watch, the highest-ranking watchstander, and the only commissioned officer, in the engine room of a nuclear submarine.

ESM — Electronic Support Measures

ET — Electronics Technician, an enlisted rating

EWS — Engineering Watch Supervisor, the senior enlisted man in an operating engine room.

Fitrep — Fitness Report

GPS — Global Positioning System

Hipac — High Pressure Air Compressor

JO — Junior Officer, an officer on his first sea tour

LET — Logistics Escape Trunk

MBT — Main Ballast Tank

MCC — Missile Control Central

Medevac — Medical Evacuation

MM1 — Machinist’s Mate, First Class

MS1 — Mess Specialist First Class, a head cook

NATO — North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Nav ET — Navigation Electronic Technician, enlisted men in charge of the ship’s numerous electronic systems for navigation.

Navsea — Naval Sea Systems Command

Navsea-08 — The title given both to the office in charge of Naval Nuclear Power, and the admiral at its head.

NIS — Naval Investigative Service

NOAA — National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NTM — Notice to Mariners

ODAS — Ocean Data Acquisition System

O-5 — An officer’s rank: A commander in the navy, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force, Army, or Marine Corps

O-6 — An Officer’s rank: a captain in the Navy, a Colonel in the Air Force, Army, or Marine Corps

OOD — Officer of the Deck, the top watch officer on a submarine at sea.

OS — Officers’ Study

PD — Periscope Depth

POTUS — President of the United States

PRC — People’s Republic of China, the Communist Nation of China

PSI — Pounds per Square Inch, a unit of pressure

QM1 — Quartermaster First Class

RM1 — Radioman, First Class

ROC — Republic of China, Taiwan

ROTC — Reserve Officer Training Corps, a source of commissioned officers consisting of training units at colleges and universities

RPM — Revolutions per Minute

S1-C — One of a series of prototype nuclear power plants used for testing and training naval operators. S1-C was located in Windsor, Connecticut.

SAS — Sealed Authentication System, used to validated launch coded for nuclear weapons

SGWL — Steam Generator Water Level, pronounced “Squiggle.”

SOA — Speed of Advance

SRDRS — Submarine Rescue Diving and Recompression System

SSN — A nuclear-powered attack submarine

SSBN — A nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine

Subpac — Commander of the Submarine Forces of the Pacific

TDU — Trash Disposal Unit

TEU — Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit, a measure of a cargo unit on a container ship.

TMA — Target Motion Analysis

USNA — United States Naval Academy

USNS — United States Naval Ship, a non-commissioned ship that is property of the US Navy.

USS — United States Ship, a designation given to commissioned ships in the United States Navy

VA — Veteran’s Administration

VHF — Very High Frequency

X1J — A phone circuit connecting the captain to the officer of the deck.

XO — Executive Officer, the second-highest raking officer onboard