[liotier]

Ten years of USian crusades have let military slang creep into mainstream language. I'm French and even I can spell those offhand - Continental US, Operational Detachment Alpha, Concept of Operations...

[freehunter]

I'm American, I read the wartime news every day, and I work with a few people who have been deployed overseas and I have never heard any of the terms you just outlined.

So... it varies.

[roel_v]

Thanks. Concept of Operations, I think I can deduce from the context what it means - but what's an 'Operational Detachment Alpha'?

[Arjuna]

"[...] what's an 'Operational Detachment Alpha'?"

It is a military element of the United States Army Special Forces [1].

[1] Section on ODA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Forces_%28United_State...