CAP has official grade abbreviations

what abour retired and current US armed forces officers? can they join CAP at an advanced rank?

what abour retired and current US armed forces officers? can they join CAP at an advanced rank?

Yes.  It's all in CAPR 35-5

thank you sir.

So, just a question of curiosity:

Why would someone not want to be a CAP Officer?  What advantages are there for not being one, or what disadvantages exist in being one that somebody would opt out of the officer choice?

Why would someone not want to be a CAP Officer?  What advantages are there for not being one, or what disadvantages exist in being one that somebody would opt out of the officer choice?

Because they can.  What benefit is there in being CAP officer?  The pay is the same...

The pay is the same...

   haha.  that made me laugh.  very true, though.

Im payed with learning!!! 

Im payed with learning!!! 

Aww...the innocence of youth
If only I knew then what I know now.

Just as a point of information, NHQ Public Affairs is urging public affairs folks to use for all PA purposes the military grade abbreviations in the AP Style book, which are different from CAP's "official" abbreviations.  Check the Volunteer for the differences...

Just as a point of information, NHQ Public Affairs is urging public affairs folks to use for all PA purposes the military grade abbreviations in the AP Style book, which are different from CAP's "official" abbreviations.  Check the Volunteer for the differences...

So just like on a lot of CAP forms, 1st LT is 1LT?

Oh, no, we have to talk about common sense again.

Internally, on official paper correspondence, the grade abbreviations, as defined in the CAP reg, should be used whenever practical. Conputer generated forms may not comply because somebody got lazy and didn't think about the difference between data stored in a computer, and the paper form. Computer data storage uses the shortest practical abbreviation to minimize the number of bits and bytes in a program, and in data storage.

Externally, it may be necessary to adhere to an external set of rules that provides some better consistency among the different abbreviations.

Bottom line - it's a situational thing. Do your best to follow the reg when you can, but maintain some flexibility when the situation doesn't allow strict compliance.

Oh, no, we have to talk about common sense again.

Internally, on official paper correspondence, the grade abbreviations, as defined in the CAP reg, should be used whenever practical. Conputer generated forms may not comply because somebody got lazy and didn't think about the difference between data stored in a computer, and the paper form. Computer data storage uses the shortest practical abbreviation to minimize the number of bits and bytes in a program, and in data storage.

Externally, it may be necessary to adhere to an external set of rules that provides some better consistency among the different abbreviations.

Bottom line - it's a situational thing. Do your best to follow the reg when you can, but maintain some flexibility when the situation doesn't allow strict compliance.

Concur!

It's called communications.  You adjust the deliver of your message to the conditions and the listener.  Outside communications needs to conform to the standards of the receiver.  The media uses APA as their standard so we should use that as well.

What is stupid is that we don't just change our regulation to APA as well.

A couple of points:

In the Navy and Marines, an E-4 is a petty officer/NCO.  No question.

In the Army, a Specialist E-4 is NOT an NCO, but an E-4 Corporal is.  An NCO assigned to supervise others, such as an E-4 in an E-5 slot pending promotion, would be laterally appointed a corporal to give him UCMJ authority as an NCO.  Be careful when looking at the DD-214's.  Most Army E-4's are Specialists.

Secondly, ALL military branches use the AP stylebook in public affairs releases and publications.  In the Army, Air Force, and I think the Navy and Marines, this is established by regulation.  I'm pretty sure CAP regulations also provide for use of stylebook abbreviations as well.  If the regs are silent on it, I would follow the Air Force model and use stylebook.

When I was a PAO in the Army I had to deal with the occasional Abbreviation Nazi who would draft a formal and intimidating memorandum that I ws NOT following the appropriate regulation in rank abbreviations.  (The Army uses all 3-character rank abbreviations until you get to the general officer ranks due to the fact that there are only 3-characters allowed in the SIDPERS system).  I always liked sending them a copy of the PA reg. that provided for stylebook abbreviations in the newsmagazine.  I'd have those letters to amuse me about once or twice a year.

And just for the record - media is the plural of medium.

And just for the record - media is the plural of medium.

Wait, so all these years I should have been referring to "media of communication" instead of "mediums of communication"? WoW.

Dude. That's, like, gramatically paradigm shifting.

And just for the record - media is the plural of medium.

Wait, so all these years I should have been referring to "media of communication" instead of "mediums of communication"? WoW.

Dude. That's, like, gramatically paradigm shifting.

 

Oh, no, we have to talk about common sense again.

Internally, on official paper correspondence, the grade abbreviations, as defined in the CAP reg, should be used whenever practical. Conputer generated forms may not comply because somebody got lazy and didn't think about the difference between data stored in a computer, and the paper form. Computer data storage uses the shortest practical abbreviation to minimize the number of bits and bytes in a program, and in data storage.

Externally, it may be necessary to adhere to an external set of rules that provides some better consistency among the different abbreviations.

Bottom line - it's a situational thing. Do your best to follow the reg when you can, but maintain some flexibility when the situation doesn't allow strict compliance.

Concur!

It's called communications.  You adjust the deliver of your message to the conditions and the listener.  Outside communications needs to conform to the standards of the receiver.  The media uses APA as their standard so we should use that as well.

What is stupid is that we don't just change our regulation to APA as well.

Just to further confuse things, AP style and APA style are not the same. AP is the documentation and notation style used by the Associated Press. APA is the style manual published by the American Psychological Association for use in a great deal of scientific research literature.

Oh, no, we have to talk about common sense again.

Internally, on official paper correspondence, the grade abbreviations, as defined in the CAP reg, should be used whenever practical. Conputer generated forms may not comply because somebody got lazy and didn't think about the difference between data stored in a computer, and the paper form. Computer data storage uses the shortest practical abbreviation to minimize the number of bits and bytes in a program, and in data storage.

Externally, it may be necessary to adhere to an external set of rules that provides some better consistency among the different abbreviations.

Bottom line - it's a situational thing. Do your best to follow the reg when you can, but maintain some flexibility when the situation doesn't allow strict compliance.

Concur!

It's called communications.  You adjust the deliver of your message to the conditions and the listener.  Outside communications needs to conform to the standards of the receiver.  The media uses APA as their standard so we should use that as well.

What is stupid is that we don't just change our regulation to APA as well.

Just to further confuse things, AP style and APA style are not the same. AP is the documentation and notation style used by the Associated Press. APA is the style manual published by the American Psychological Association for use in a great deal of scientific research literature.

MLA is much better than APA.

And Air University has its own style and author guide.

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/style/styleguide.pdf

Mike

MLA is much better than APA.

...and Chicago Manual of Style better than both of those.