active duty: Lowercase on all references. Hyphenate as an adjective (an active-duty soldier), but not as a noun (he served on active duty).
airborne: Uppercase only when used as part of an official unit designation (101st Airborne Division) or when used as part of a school name (the Airborne School). The abbreviation is Abn.
activate, inactivate: Army units do not deactivate or reactivate; they inactivate or activate.
airborne infantry, parachute infantry: These designations have not been official for many years; do not use them.
airmen: Do not capitalize
ampersand (&): Do not use in text unless part of a title.
armed forces: Capitalize only as a proper name (Armed Forces Day), not as a noun (the armed forces) or adjective (an armed-forces member).
Army Aviation Support Facility: Is the Ruth Army Aviation Maintenance Facility in honor of CW4 William R. Ruth. Located at Weide Army Airfield, Edgewood Arsenal of Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.
Army regulation: Lowercase regulation when used alone, uppercase if followed by the number, and use as AR on second reference with number.
ATAG – Army: Maryland Army National Guard land component commander OR army commander
ATAG – Air: Assistant adjutant general – air
byline: Capitalize “By” in the byline e.g.: By Maryland National Guard Public Affairs Office.
Camp Fretterd Military Reservation:
CFMR: Camp Fretterd Military Reservation is not technically in Reisterstown, Md. It is near Reisterstown, Md. – north of it. It is acceptable to use Reisterstown as it’s city location.
casualty: If used to refer to simulated injuries inflicted during a training exercise, use in quotes on first reference. The same rule applies to “dead,” “shot,” “wounded,” “destroyed,” etc. If they didn’t actually occur, they belong in quotes on first reference.
citizen-soldier: hyphenate and do not capitalize
country names: On first reference, the name of every foreign city will be followed by the spelled-out name of the nation in which it is located (e.g., Worms, Germany).
cross-training: Hyphenate.
downlink (and uplink): When meant to describe the transmission of data to or from a satellite, use “transmit.”
Edgewood: MDNG units are on the Edgewood Arsenal of Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. On first reference write Edgewood Arsenal of Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. afterwards Edgewood is fine.
fort: It is always spelled out; never use “Ft.” When listing a series of posts, use “Fort” before each applicable installation (e.g., Fort Belvoir, Va.; Fort Bragg, N.C.).
headline capitalization: Use sentence case and capitalize only proper nouns
Humvee: When referring to a high-mobility, multipurpose wheeled vehicle (HMMWV), Humvee is acceptable on first reference; the word is capitalized. It is not necessary to spell out the entire term or use the abbreviation. However, the abbreviation can be used in keywords.
keywords: Do not put creator’s name, unit, vision ID; release or classification status in the keywords/tags.
lower 3rd titles: Abbreviations are acceptable if space is a concern, must be consistent throughout video
Marines, marine: Uppercase when referring to the branch of service (the Marine Corps, a Marine helicopter), but lowercase when referring to individual service members (soldier, sailor, marine).
military equipment: Hyphenate all designations except those of American tracked armored vehicles (e.g., Russian T-72, M-16 and F-15, but M1A1 and M113).
military rank: Always refer to soldiers by rank, not pay grade (e.g., sergeant or Sgt., not E-5).
National Guard: Can stand alone in uppercase as “Guard” on second reference. Use “National Guard members” instead of “Guardsmen” or “Guard soldiers.”
noncommissioned officer
on duty/off duty: Same usage as “active duty”; hyphenate only as adjectives (on-duty responsibilities; off-duty activities, but “He plays in a band when he’s off duty;” “When she’s on duty, she’s totally focused.”).
overwatch: This is a tactical term and should only be used in the tactical sense (e.g., “the M1A1s were in an overwatch position” is OK; “the personnel office has overwatch authority on transfers” is not).
phonetic alphabet: Unless it is part of a direct quote, do not use spelled-out versions of phonetic pronunciations (e.g., Charlie Company, Alpha Battery, etc). Use C Co., Battery A, etc.
ranger: Uppercase only when used as part of an official unit designation (75th Ranger Regiment) or when used as part of a school name (the Ranger School).
SEL: Senior enlisted leader of the Maryland National Guard is the enlisted advisor for the TAG
soldier: Do not capitalize (nor family or airmen). Follow The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual as its general guide. We recommend it for regular reference. Exceptions to that work, as well as some Army-specific terminology not covered there, are presented in the following style guide.
ship names: The names of commercial and naval vessels of any size or nationality will always be italicized (USS Theodore Roosevelt, USNS Comfort), though the prefixes USS (for a United States Navy vessel) or USNS (for an auxiliary/MTMC-type vessel) will always be plain text.
slant marks [/]: “And” is preferable in all cases (“PX and commissary,” instead of PX/commissary).
special forces: Uppercase only when part of an official unit designation (7th Special Forces Group; but “he is special forces qualified”).
state abbreviations: Use AP style in text, but two-letter post-office style in addresses used in text. In text, state abbreviation is always followed by a comma (e.g., in Seattle, Wash., the…) except use a semicolon in a series.
TAG: The adjutant general’s title should be written NAME, the adjutant general of Maryland, …
Brevet Rank: Use RANK (MD) NAME only when TAG is not in Maryland e.g. Maj. Gen. (MD)
titles (magazine): Do not italicize or put quotes around the names of magazines.
titles (job): Uppercase a person’s job title only if it immediately precedes the name.
unit designations: Use full unit designation on first reference (3rd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment). Shorten on subsequent references (3rd Bn., 2nd Inf. Regt.). Avoid “3rd of the 2nd” or “3-2” or “3/2.” It is A Co., Battery B, and A Troop. You can use parenthetical designations [e.g., (Separate), (Mechanized), etc.] even though they are not official.
unit designation punctuation: Set off each designation element with commas, whether element is spelled out or abbreviated (the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry, was…)
vehicles:Humvee or high-mobility, multipurpose wheeled vehicle, never HMWWV or Hummer.
verb tense: Use past tense for quotes (“Jones said,” not “Jones says”). Use present tense for captions (“trains with,” not “trained with”).
video captions: all videos should include a caption containing the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, why/how) written in AP Style
vision ID: Changed slightly. Instead of an A (Army branch of service) it’s Z (National Guard).
Warfield Air National Guard Base: Is located in Middle River, Md.​

Reference: DoD Captioning Style Guide 11 JUL 16