Capitalization, Titles
Q. When referring to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in saying “the Corps of Engineers” and “the Corps,” how should the shortened forms be capitalized? Should “the Corps of Engineers” be in initial caps and “the corps” be in lowercase?
A. The Chicago Manual of Style includes the following examples among the forty or so examples listed at paragraph 8.120:
Army Corps of Engineers; the corps
United States (or U.S.) Army; the army
United States Coast Guard; the Coast Guard or the coast guard
United States Marine Corps; the Marine Corps; the U.S. Marines; a marine
United States Navy; the navy
United States Signal Corps; the Signal Corps or the signal corps
The terms “army” and “navy” when used alone are considered to be generic, whereas, for example, the “Army Corps of Engineers” (or “Corps of Engineers”) and the “Marine Corps” are more specialized by virtue of being unique subbranches within the U.S. armed forces. “Coast Guard” and “Signal Corps,” on the same principle, are often capitalized, but they may be lowercased if used alone. “Corps” becomes generic when used by itself.
