Alphabet Soup and National Security

1. Okay, so yesterday my newspaper assignment was to do a story on the local National Guard Armory.
   I'm interviewing the the officers--very congenial and accomodating folk, when, in answeringa question about the different types of support vehicles on the base, she mentions a 5-ton truck called, acronymically, a "M.I.T.T.E.N".
   So me, always the Carl Bernstein--or better, Jimmy Olsen-- say, with a chuckle, "that's cute.--what does it stand for?"
   There ensued a scene that I can only liken to the "I have a gub" sequence from "Take the Money and Run. combined with the duel scene from "The Court Jester."
   The sergeant attempted to illuminate me with, " lets see- Mobile...Intensive ...Transport....no, that's wrong...Mobile...Interactive...Tactical...no...Hey Sergeant
   Gibbs, C'm 'ere a second...what does M.I.T.T.E.N. stand for?? Sgt. Gibbs: Maintenance...Instrumental...Tractor...Transport...no, wait... Mobile...Inland...Territory...Trac...nah... Hey, Colonel Brooker, what does M.I.T.T.E.N. stand for?..
   Col. Brooker: Multi-use...Invasive...Telemetric...uh...Trans...uh...
   And so it went, to the point that there I was surrounded by upwards of a dozen stalwart, camouflage-clad soldiers , their zeal commensurate with their good intentions (I doubt I would have received an iota less intention had I been Osama bin Laden)-- the air was now filled with a veritable crescendo of words-- "transport"..."maintenance"..."intrench"..."televideo"..."motorized"..."multi-surfaced"...
   At last, the commander rushed to her office computer and googled in the aggravating acronym--she emerged triumphantly into the throng which I, being in the center was the deity of their supplications.--chanting their words like Trappist Monks,--and announced proudly to all assembled the correct meaning.
   "Ah, yeah, I THOUGHT that was it!"..."Oh, so, the second "T" really doesn't represent a word!"..."I'll be damn!"...
   Now I wouldn't say that we've reached a point in our alphabet-soup acronym culture, forgetting their original meanings, but do you realize that, in the event of a national crisis, our very fates may lay in the hands of the friendly tech-support guy on the shores of the Ganges?