Recently, a reader I was assisting in her search for information regarding the WWII service of her grandmother’s cousin ran across a military abbreviation with which I was not familiar, EUS. I began an internet search for the meaning of EUS. I expected the usual overwhelming list of responses from Mr. Google, but my search returned very few results. I should have known, but didn’t think of it beforehand, that Fred Preller provides that information on his 384th Bomb Group website in a very nice table of MACR and AR abbreviations.
And by the way, MACR stands for Missing Air Crew Report and AR stands for Accident Report.
Common WWII Military Abbreviations
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
| ALW | Alive and well |
| ASN | Army Serial Number |
| DED | Missing and presumed (Declared) Dead, (Public Law 490) |
| DL | Dead List |
| DNB | Died, Non-Battle due to sickness or non-combat injury |
| DOW | Died Of Wounds |
| DOWRIA | Died Of Wounds Received In Action |
| EUS | Evacuated to the United States |
| EVD | Evaded (or escaped) |
| FOD | Finding Of Death (same as DED) |
| INT | Interned in neutral country |
| IO | Initial Only, referring to a name |
| KIA | Killed In Action |
| KILD | Killed In Line of Duty |
| KMAC | Killed, Mid Air Collision |
| LWA | Lightly Wounded In Action |
| MIA | Missing In Action |
| NMI | No Middle Initial, referring to a name |
| NOK | Next Of Kin |
| POW | Prisoner Of War |
| RMC | Returned to Military Control |
| RTD | Returned To Duty |
| SWA | Seriously Wounded in Action |
| WIA | Wounded In Action |
All of the above are from Fred’s list with the exception of KMAC, which I added as it pertains to the eight men aboard my dad’s B-17 who died in the mid-air collision on September 28, 1944.
In my search for the meaning of EUS, I did run across another very extensive list provided on the 416th Bomb Group’s website. (Scroll down to the MACR and AAR Crewmember Status table). You may not run into these abbreviations very often, but if there’s something you can’t find on Fred’s list, check the 416th’s. They actually present three different lists on the page:
- Descriptions for some common WWII Acronyms, Abbreviations and Codes used by the 416th BG during WWII
- MACR and AAR Crewmember Status
- Enlisted and Officer Rank
The 416th’s list notes that the primary sources of their abbreviations list come from:
- Fold 3 (scroll to the Abbreviations section on this page)
- Aviation Archaeology
Hopefully, between these resources, most abbreviations we WWII researchers run across will be included, but I know not all will. I’m still looking for the meaning of CPF!
Links to Abbreviation Tables
Fred Preller’s 384th Bomb Group Site’s MACR and AR Explainer Table
416th Bomb Group Site’s Lexicon
Aviation Archaeology Action Codes
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2019
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