On Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:43:53 -0700, Jim Lux
wrote:

The reason for the initials order is that there is an hidden comma.
Universal Time, Coordinated.

Funny, thing, though, that if one searches the literature of the time
for that particular sequence of words, it never occurs..

You are writing to one who read the literature - at that time. My
experience is not from arm chair history 101. UTC was arrived at as a
compromise between the French (naturally) and the "rest of the world"
(what else?). My bona fides are documented too: two diplomas from the
only Metrology school in the United States - at that time. Time in
service: with training in calibration and maintenance of the HP Cesium
Beam standard, and VLF subsystem - at that time. I also lived through
the great switch-over from cycles to hertz, and GMT to Zulu - at that
time (or slightly before... I wasn't looking at the clock that day).

I can flood this page with 250 references that employ the strict usage
of "Universal Time Coordinated" "Universal Time, Coordinated" or
"Universal Time (Coordinated)" and specifically 35 of them printed
before 1967. With google it takes more time to cut and paste than
actually find them. A short list includes:

Title 15 1971 Code of Federal Regulations By United States Office of
the Federal Register (1971)
"... the Universal Time Coordinated (UTC)
system' as recommended by the Bureau
International de l'Heure (bill).
The carrier offset currently is minus 300 ..."

Meteorological and Geoastrophysical Abstracts By American
Meteorological Society (1960)

International Aerospace Abstracts
By American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Technical
Information Service, United States National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, Institute of the Aerospace Sciences Technical
Information Service (1961)

Proceedings of the IEEE. By Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (1963)

Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports
By United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Scientific and Technical Information Division, United States National
Aeronautics and Space Administration. Scientific and Technical
Information Office, NASA Scientific and Technical Information
Facility, United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Scientific and Technical Information Branch, NASA Center for AeroSpace
Information, United States. National Aeronautics and Space
Administration. Office of Scientific and Technical Information (1963)

Navigation Dictionary By United States Naval Oceanographic Office
(1969)

New Scientist By EBSCO Publishing (1971)

Basic Electronic Instrument Handbook By Clyde F. Coombs (1972)

Newer titles:

UPI Style Book & Guide to Newswriting By Harold Martin, Bruce Cook

Dictionnaire des sciences et techniques du pétrole By Magdeleine
Moureau, Gerald Brace

Acronyms, Initialisms & Abbreviations Dictionary By Ellen T. Crowley

GPS Satellite Surveying By Alfred Leick

All of 10 minutes (give or take).

Familiar with any service acronyms like BFD?

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC