Originally Posted by
Phil_R
> It's RAF not R.A.F.
Is it?
Why?
P
Jolly good question; possibly because of the military's habit of using TLAs and other abbrvs without any "."'s, which spilled over into common usage for people writing about the Service. Perhaps it's because it is common practice to abbrv organisation name without punctuation, eg (in descending order of importance) the RFU, the MOD, the UN. Whatever the reason, it's the way the Concise Oxford lists it and that's good enough for staff work.