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, along with US Navy signal flags.

Letter	1913	1927	1938	World War II	1957-Present
A	Able	Affirmative	Afirm	Afirm (Able)	Alfa
B	Boy	Baker	Baker	Baker	Bravo
C	Cast	Cast	Cast	Charlie	Charlie
D	Dog	Dog	Dog	Dog	Delta
E	Easy	Easy	Easy	Easy	Echo
F	Fox	Fox	Fox	Fox	Foxtrot
G	George	George	George	George	Golf
H	Have	Hypo	Hypo	How	Hotel
I	Item	Interrogatory	Int	Int (Item)	India
J	Jig	Jig	Jig	Jig	Juliett
K	King	King	King	King	Kilo
L	Love	Love	Love	Love	Lima
M	Mike	Mike	Mike	Mike	Mike
N	Nan	Negative	Negat	Negat (Nan)	November
O	Oboe	Option	Option	Option (Oboe)	Oscar
P	Pup	Preparatory	Prep	Prep (Peter)	Papa
Q	Quack	Quack	Queen	Queen	Quebec
R	Rush	Roger	Roger	Roger	Romeo
S	Sail	Sail	Sail	Sugar	Sierra
T	Tare	Tare	Tare	Tare	Tango
U	Unit	Unit	Unit	Uncle	Uniform
V	Vice	Vice	Victor	Victor	Victor
W	Watch	William	William	William	Whiskey
X	X-ray	X-ray	X-ray	X-ray	X-ray
Y	Yoke	Yoke	Yoke	Yoke	Yankee
Z	Zed	Zed	Zed	Zebra	Zulu

Source: Phonetic Alphabet and Signal Flags

Phonetic Numbers

There is a similar military phonetic system for numbers:

Figure	Pronounced
0	Zeero
1	Wun
2	Too
3	Tree or Thr-ree
4	Fower
5	Fife
6	Siks
7	Seven
8	Ate
9	Niner

If a decimal point is included in the number, say: DAY-SEE-MAL. You may be trained to say "FIGURES" before starting a string of numbers.

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.