Military Phonetic Alphabet

Radio-Telephone Operators (RTOs) use a Phonetic Alphabet to spell letters in place of just saying the letter itself. By using a word for each letter there is less chance that the person listening will confuse letters. For instance, letters that can easily be confused are "B" and "E". In addition to military use, the phonetic alphabet is used in radio communications around the world by ships, aircraft, and amateur radio operators.

RTO, Task Force Eagle Stabilization Force (SFOR), Balkans, November 2003
RTO, Task Force Eagle Stabilization Force (SFOR), Balkans, November 2003.

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Why Does the Military Use a Phonetic Alphabet?

The military relies on the phonetic alphabet to clarify communications. In a military situation, a message that isn't understood correctly can have critical consequences. When an RTO is monitoring a radio transmission in a combat environment, both the quality of the signal and the surrounding noise may make it hard to hear clearly. The phonetic alphabet minimizes the possibility of confusing "C Company" with "G Company" by using the easily distinguishable "Charlie Company" and "Golf Company" instead.

History and Current Military Phonetic Alphabet

Since radio became an important tool of military operations, the US armed forces have used several different phonetic alphabets. That's why World War II movies have characters saying "Able Baker Charlie" while present-day soldiers say "Alpha Bravo Charlie" for the same ABC. Here is a chart of the alphabets used by the U.S. and NATO, along with US Navy signal flags.

Letter	1913	1927	1938	World War II	1957-Present
A	Able	Affirmative	Afirm	Afirm (Able)	Alfa (AL FAH)
B	Boy	Baker	Baker	Baker	Bravo (BRAH VOH)
C	Cast	Cast	Cast	Charlie	Charlie (CHAR LEE)
D	Dog	Dog	Dog	Dog	Delta (DELL TAH)
E	Easy	Easy	Easy	Easy	Echo (ECK OH)
F	Fox	Fox	Fox	Fox	Foxtrot (FOKS TROT)
G	George	George	George	George	Golf (GOLF)
H	Have	Hypo	Hypo	How	Hotel (HOH TELL)
I	Item	Interrogatory	Int	Int (Item)	India (IN DEE AH)
J	Jig	Jig	Jig	Jig	Juliett (JEW LEE ETT)
K	King	King	King	King	Kilo (KEY LOH)
L	Love	Love	Love	Love	Lima (LEE MAH)
M	Mike	Mike	Mike	Mike	Mike (MIKE)
N	Nan	Negative	Negat	Negat (Nan)	November (NOVEMBER)
O	Oboe	Option	Option	Option (Oboe)	Oscar (OSS CAH)
P	Pup	Preparatory	Prep	Prep (Peter)	Papa (PAH PAH)
Q	Quack	Quack	Queen	Queen	Quebec (KEH BECK)
R	Rush	Roger	Roger	Roger	Romeo (ROW ME OH)
S	Sail	Sail	Sail	Sugar	Sierra (SEE AIR RAH)
T	Tare	Tare	Tare	Tare	Tango (TANG GO)
U	Unit	Unit	Unit	Uncle	Uniform (YOU NEE FORM)
V	Vice	Vice	Victor	Victor	Victor (VIK TAH)
W	Watch	William	William	William	Whiskey (WISS KEY)
X	X-ray	X-ray	X-ray	X-ray	X-ray (ECKS RAY)
Y	Yoke	Yoke	Yoke	Yoke	Yankee (YANG KEY)
Z	Zed	Zed	Zed	Zebra	Zulu (ZOO LOO)