Military Alphabet: Difference between revisions
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Also called a spelling alphabet or a phonetic alphabet (not to be confused with the entirely different [[wikipedia:IPA|International Phonetic Alphabet]]), this is a system of assigning to each letter of the alphabet a word that begins with that letter. This way, if something has to be spelled over a radio, telephone, etc. there is much less chance of the wrong information being transmitted.
The military, police departments and radio operators all make frequent use of this. Phone-based customer service and technical support also use it, but with more informal construction (any word will do), for the same reasons. The most common alphabets (and one antiphonetic parody) are shown below, from A to Z.
{| class="wikitable"
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|Alpha||Able||Able/Affirm||Adam||Are ('R')
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|Bravo||Baker||Baker||Boy||Bdellium
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|Charlie||Charlie||Charlie||Charlie||Cue ('Q')
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|Delta||Dog||Dog||David||Djibouti
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|Echo||Easy||Easy||Edward||Ewe ('U')
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|Foxtrot||Fox||Fox||Frank||Faze (Phase)
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|Golf||George||George||George||Gnaw
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|Hotel||How||How||Henry||Heir (Air)
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|India||Item||Item/Interrogatory||Ida||Isle (Aisle)
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|Juliet||Jig||Jig/Johnny||John||Junta
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|Kilo||King||King||King||Knight (Night)
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|Lima||Love||Love||Lincoln||Llama
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|Mike||Mike||Mike||Mary||Mnemonic
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|November||Nan||Nab/Negat||Nora||Nguyen
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|Oscar||Oboe||Oboe||Ocean||Ours (Hours)
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|Papa||Peter||Peter/Prep||Paul||Pneumonia
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|Quebec||Queen||Queen||Queen||Quay (Key)
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|Romeo||Roger||Roger||Robert||Right (Write)
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|Sierra||Sugar||Sugar||Sam||See ('C')
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|Tango||Tare||Tare||Tom||Tsunami
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|Uniform||Uncle||Uncle||Union||Urn (Earn)
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|Victor||Victor||Victor||Victor||Vizard
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|Whiskey||William||William||William||Why ('Y')
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|X-Ray||X-Ray||X-Ray||X-Ray||Xerxes
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|Yankee||Yoke||Yoke||Young||You ('U')
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|Zulu||Zebra||Zebra||Zebra||Zhivago
|}
In addition, if the NATO system is being used, expect the digit 9 to be pronounced "niner" to distinguish it from the digit 5 "fife".
This is used almost exclusively in modern military shows. Non-military shows which use it will usually stick to A-E, since they are more recognizable. Exclusively military shows tend to use more of the letters.
Military units will sometimes use one of the letters as their designation (for example, 'Bravo Company'). Individual personnel may refer to themselves or others in the military alphabet over radios; "Echo-6-Charlie" would be someone whose pay-grade is E-6, with a last name beginning with the letter C. (Alternately, the number is code for a position
And that's without getting into the ones used in other languages...
For satirical purposes, an
{{examples}}
== [[Film|Fox Item Love Mike]] ==
* ''[[Flight of the Intruder (film)|Flight Of The Intruder]]'' uses this for a bit of a [[Genius Bonus]]: A character uses "Alpha Mike Foxtrot<ref>
* ''[[Hot Shots]]'' had a very funny parody of the phonetic alphabet.
{{quote|'''Jim 'Wash Out' Pfaffenbach''': Alpha Velveeta Knuckle Underwear, you are cleared for take-off. When you hit that nuclear weapons plant... drop a bomb for me!
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* George Clooney's character in ''[[The Men Who Stare at Goats]]''. "We're Oscar Mike. That's 'on the move' soldier." Approximately coincides with the popularity of ''[[Generation Kill]]'' and ''[[Modern Warfare]]'' 2.
* ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' is a fairly early example. The B-52 is assigned to targets Yankee-Golf-Tango-three-six-zero and November-Bravo-[[X Ray]]-one-zero-eight as part of the wing's [[Attack Pattern Alpha|Attack Plan R for Romeo]], or Robert (used by General Ripper in communication with his RAF exchange officer Mandrake, as per the British Royal Air Force's own pre-NATO phonetic alphabet).
* In ''[[The Incredibles]]'', Helen identifies her plane as "India Golf Niner Niner"
== [[Literature|Lima India Tango Echo Romeo Alpha Tango Uniform Romeo Echo]] ==
* ''[[Biggles]]'' uses the now less well known [[World War
* In ''[[Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall]]'', [[Spike Milligan]] mentions how the British in North Africa had to adapt to the American system when America joined the war, to much confusion.
** War games mentioned show the British dividing themselves into Ack Army and Beer Army.
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* In ''[[Rivers of London]]'' Inspector Nightingale has the unique callsign Zulu-One, representing his [[Who You Gonna Call?|unique position]] in the Met.
* [[Robert Westall]]'s short story ''[[Break of Dark|Blackham's Wimpy]]'' revolves around a bomber group, featuring planes S-Sugar, C-Charlie and L-Love, among ohers.
* In ''[[The Butterfly Kid]]'', Chester comes up with a military alphabet of his own for designating the [[Humongous Mecha]] he creates at the book's climactic battle, noting that he didn't care to use anyone else's "second-hand" phonetic alphabet.
* Used as a [[Parental Bonus]] in [[Richard Scarry]]'s books, for the name of the character Able Baker Charlie.
== [[Music|Mary Union Sam Ida Charlie]] ==
* One of The Bloodhound Gang's many [[Intercourse with You]] songs is named "Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo".
== [[Radio|Roger Able Dog Item Oboe]] ==
* ''[[Cabin Pressure]]'' has a scene in which Arthur is trying to learn the NATO alphabet (as used in real-life civil aviation) with [[The Ditz|predictable consequences.]]
{{quote|"The phonetic alphabet version of M is not 'muh'!"}}
== [[Television|Tare Easy Love Easy Victor Item Sugar Item Oboe Nan]] ==
* ''[[Archer]]'' 's inability to use this creates a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] in "Skytanic". Seriously, ''Mancy''?
* The actives in ''[[Dollhouse]]'' are all named from it.
** Well, the actives at the Los Angeles branch. The ones at the Washington DC branch are named after Greek gods, suggesting that each branch uses a different scheme.
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'''Stewie:''' I dunno, I just think you're supposed to say names and numbers. Nobody's corrected me so far.
''(explosion)''
'''Stewie:''' What the hell was that? ''(into radio)'' Help! Help! I mean...Charlie Tango Cash, Forty-seven Victor Charlie, [[Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman]].
'''Radio:''' [[Strange Minds Think Alike|Roger that. We're moving to your position.]] }}
* [[The Bill|Sun Hill's]] callsigns all use the combination Sierra-Oscar. Another police-related drama of the early 1980s, following a female police officer, was named [[Juliet Bravo]].
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== [[Video Games|Victor India Delta Echo Oscar Golf Alpha Mike Easy Sierra]] ==
* [[
* The ''[[Call of Duty]]'' series, specifically ''[[Modern Warfare]]'' and its sequels, are credited with popularizing a number of NATO alphabet phrases among American teenagers. Most notably, the use of "Tango" to mean "target", "Oscar Mike" for "on the move", and the title of one ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2'' mission, "Whiskey Hotel", to mean {{spoiler|White House}} (though this last one may or may not actually be used by the military).
* The flight simulator, Falcon 3.0, makes use of some real-life examples. After shooting down an enemy plane, you'll hear your wingman say "Alpha Mike Foxtrot" ("Adios, mother fucker"). Also, if you give your wingman an order that'll get him killed (e.g., telling him to descend more than his current altitude), he'll tell you "Kilo Mike Alpha" ("Kiss my ass").
* The phonetic jargon in ''[[Generation Kill]]'' was a plot point: as the reporter grows closer to the squad, they finally start telling him what some of the phrases mean. Like Whiskey Tango = White Trash. The phrase "Oscar Mike," meaning "''On'' the ''M''ove" has suddenly seen prevalence in military videogames since ''[[Generation Kill]]'' aired, notably the aforementioned ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2'' and ''Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising''.
* In ''[[Half-Life 2]]'' the Overwatch dispatcher uses phonetic codenames and
** In Half-Life: Opposing Force, one of the levels is named "Foxtrot Uniform", which is an [[Fun with Acronyms|acronym]] for "Fucked Up".
* ''[[Operation Flashpoint]]'' makes heavy use of the NATO phonetic alphabet. The topographical maps of the each of the game's islands are partitioned into squares with letters along the top and bottom and numbers down the sides. Combined these letters and numbers form map references and the letters are pronounced over the radio as their phonetic equivalents, so a squad leader might order his men to "Go to Delta Foxtrot Two Five", for example. The words are also often used as codenames to identify the various squads. "Alpha" through "Echo" are usually used to refer to infantry squads, "Yankee" usually refers to a tank platoon, the helicopter gunships are usually "November" and so on.
* Within ''[[The Bourne Series (novel)|The Bourne Identity]]'', Bourne was given the callname of Cain with an elaborate backstory involving the U.S. having changed the C from Charlie to Cain during the [[Vietnam War]] due to confusion with the designation of the Vietcong as "Charlie." Just as Cain replaced Charlie in the
* The downloadable platform game Blade Kitty has various [[Mooks]] cry out "Oscar Michael Golf" or "Sierra Oscar Lima" as you defeat them
* [[Mechwarrior]] 3 had nav point designations of Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog and Echo (the fourth game uses Greek letters).
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* The Viet Cong get their nickname "Charlie" from the phonetic alphabet (think "[[Apocalypse Now|Charlie don't surf]]"); they were referred to by US commanders as "Victor Charlie" until it was realised it was one syllable more than the original name, so they dropped the "Victor" to leave just "Charlie".
* Due to organizational inertia, the US Navy winds up using both its WWII alphabet and the NATO one in certian specific situations. For most purposes, the NATO alphabet is the standard, but for material conditions (i.e., which doors/valves to open/shut for batttlestations or chemical attack, etc.) the WWII alphabet is used, because it always has been. Leads to phrases such as, "At time 0000 Zulu, set material condition Zebra."
** Another common use of the old phonetic alphabet is 'R', for "I received that." Roger that.
* Most nations have a military alphabet in their native language, for example, Swedish has ''"Adam, Bertil, Caesar"'' and Turkish has ''"Aydin, Bekir, Cemal"'' as their first three letters. Nations that have converted to NATO alphabet, but still use non-NATO letters (eg: Å, Ä, Ö, Ü) have to convert these into standard (AA, AE, OE, Y).
* In an [[Your Mileage May Vary|amusing anecdote]], [[John F. Kennedy]] was talking with his wife and some friends when Kennedy mentioned to one of his friends that someone was a [[Country Matters|"Charlie Uncle Nan Tare"]]. Jacqueline Kennedy overheard and asked what that meant. Her question was left unanswered.
* The Cyrillic military alphabet used in Russia is notably different in that it mostly consists of given names (A is Anna, B is Boris, etc.). Only the letters that don't have common names starting with are other words: Ts is Tsaplya (crane), Sch is Schuka (pike fish) and the like.
** Some time before, another version was used in the Russian Navy, consisting of old pre-revolutionary names of Cyrillic letters: Az, Buki, Vedi and so on.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]
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