I know the wiki origin puts SNAFU as appearing during WWII as the first in a long line of military slang, BUT, years ago I recollect reading in an electronics magazine, likely 'Wireless World' from...
etymology - Researching the real origin of SNAFU - English Language ...
Roughly when did the word "snafu" enter the colloquial vernacular? It was a military term, but at some point it came into fairly common use among the general population.
6 According to vocabulary.com snafu, the old possibly offensive military term, is nowadays used to refer to any kind of problem: Snafu was originally a World War II-era military acronym standing for "situation normal: all fucked up." These days, a snafu is any mistake or problem. The original, military meaning of snafu is obscene.
2 Personally, I like the acronym explanation as provided by acronymfinder: Total Inability To Support Usual Performance. It aligns nicely with one of the other classic expressions - SNAFU. It is reasonable the true origin was military and the acronym invented to ( ~ politely) fit on some form.
The two entries for acronym from the Sixth and Seventh Collegiates seem to refer narrowly to lowercase common nouns—such as radar (" r adio d etecting and r anging"), snafu (" s ituation n ormal: a ll f ouled u p"), and sonar (" s ound n avigation r anging")—that originated as abbreviations built from a longer phrase composed of other ...
The word snafu, for example, was originally an obscene U.S. Army reference (situation normal -- all f'ed up"), and fad is purportedly originally an acronym for "for a day". Some terms, such as AWOL, seem to be stuck in between-- they are almost used as words, but equally almost always capitalized.