[Milsurplus] Army Departmental Abbreviations

[Sheldon Daitch]

You are correct on the difference between "G" and "J."

Shamelessly ripped from Wikepedia:

The following are designations used in the United States Armed Forces 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Armed_Forces>:

    * The G-1 is the chief of staff for personnel.
    * The G-2 is the intelligence staff officer.
    * The G-3 is the chief of staff for plans, operations, and training;
      sometimes called the Operations Officer.
    * The G-4 is the logistics officer.
    * The G-5 is the civil affairs or public affairs officer.
    * The G-6 is the command, control, communications, and computer
      systems staff officer, and is frequently the Chief Information
      Officer (CIO) of the component.
    * The G-7 is the joint operations
      <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_warfare> staff officer. Very
      few organizations have a G-7 office; most of the offices are J-7,
      at the Department of Defense
      <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Defense> level.
    * The G-8 is the resource management officer.

The Navy uses "N" rather than "G". "J" is the designation at the DoD 
level. At lower command levels (air group 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Air_group&action=edit>, 
squadron <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squadron>, regiment 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regiment>, battalion 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battalion>), the "G" designations are 
replaced by "S" designations. It should be noted, however, that the 
Goldwater-Nichols Act 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldwater-Nichols_Act> of 1986 
specifically prohibits the Joint Staff (which is part of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff) from acting as a general staff: "The Joint Staff shall 
not operate or be organized as an overall Armed Forces General Staff and 
shall have no executive authority. The Joint Staff may be organized and 
may operate along conventional staff lines." (10 U.S.C. section 155(e).)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Staff

73
Sheldon

Richard Arland, W3OSS wrote:

> OK, I'm a feathermerchant. I'll admit it!
>
> Not being Regular Army, I am wondering about the various abbreviations 
> for
> Intelligence, Communications, Logistics, Operations, etc.
>
> G-2 I believe is Intelligence.
>
> J-6 was Commo when I was working with SOTFE back in the early '80s.
>
> Is G-6 the same thing but used for just Army units not something like 
> SOTFE
> which was a joint command (hence the "J").
>
> OR....am I all wrong in my thinking?
>
> Help would be appreciated.
>
> 73 Rich Arland, W3OSS
> MSgt, USAF, Ret.
>