Military Alphabet
Do you remember playing Chinese telephone? The game where everyone sits in a line and one person creates a message that is to be passed from person to person until it reaches the one at the end who has to repeat whatever it is they hear. Think of radio communication as Chinese telephone but on much larger scale. Imagine instead, being in the military and there is word of a cease fire in a war torn area. Now imagine the mayhem if during the transmission of a message regarding this cease fire, the word “bond” is relayed over the radio (or the passed along the Chinese telephone line), and the person on the receiving end hears “bomb” instead.
Fortunately, unlike the game of Chinese telephone, the military requires that you repeat unclear words or instructions and provide confirmation to prevent these errors. The military and other radio-telephone operators (RTOs) (such as ship captains and commercial pilots) use a phonetic or spelling alphabet alphabet to identify letters in messages so that there is no doubt as to what word was said once it is spelled phonetically. For example, using the military alphabet, the word “bomb” would be “ Bravo Oscar Mike Bravo” while “bond” would be “Bravo Oscar November Delta, thereby eliminating any confusion.
The current military alphabet was adopted by international agreement in 1957 and has undergone numerous changes since its recorded use 1913. The following table shows the changes of the military alphabet over the years as well as the correct pronunciation for each word.
| Letter | World War II | 1938 | 1927 | 1913 | 1957-Present | Pronunciation |
| A | Afirm (Able) | Afirm | Affirmative | Able | Alfa (Alpha) | AL-FAH |
| B | Baker | Baker | Baker | Boy | Bravo | BRAH-VOH |
| C | Charlie | Cast | Cast | Cast | Charlie | CHAR-LEE |
| D | Dog | Dog | Dog | Dog | Delta | DEL-TAL |
| E | Easy | Easy | Easy | Easy | Echo | ECK-OH |
| F | Fox | Fox | Fox | Fox | Foxtrot | FOKS-TROT |
| G | George | George | George | George | Golf | GOLF |
| H | How | Hypo | Hypo | Have | Hotel | HOH-TEL |
| I | Int (Item) | Int | Interrogatory | 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 | Negat (Nan) | Negat | Negative | Nan | November | NO-VEM-BER |
| O | Option (Oboe) | Option | Option | Oboe | Oscar | OSS-CAH |
| P | Prep (Peter) | Prep | Preparatory | Pup | Papa | PAH-PAH |
| Q | Queen | Queen | Quack | Quack | Quebec | KEH-BECK |
| R | Roger | Roger | Roger | Rush | Romeo | ROW-ME-PJ |
| S | Sugar | Sail | Sail | Sail | Sierra | SEE-AIR-RAH |
| T | Tare | Tare | Tare | Tare | Tango | TANG- GO |
| U | Uncle | Unit | Unit | Unit | Uniform | YOU-NEE-FORM |
| V | Victor | Victor | Vice | Vice | Victor | VIK-TAH |
| W | William | William | William | Watch | 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 | Zebra | Zed | Zed | Zed | Zulu | ZOO-LOO |