History Main / MilitaryAlphabet

* TANGO VICTOR TANGO ROMEO OSCAR PAPA ECHO SIERRA

For satirical purposes, an [[http://www.andrewpatton.com/alphabet.html anti phonetic alphabet]] can be used, for example [[Franchise/ThePinkPanther Inspector Clouseau's]] "J as in jalapeno". Another set, named "Fanatic Alphabet", can be found [[http://takkirauta.blogspot.fi/2012/02/fanatic-alphabet.html here.]]

* Ham Radio operators are taught to use phonetic pronunciation for letters and numbers when signal conditions [[RadioVoice make it difficult to listen clearly]], especially important when giving their callsigns (which are always alphanumeric combinations such as W1AW). Newer operations are commonly taught the NATO alphabet as the standard, but one will encounter all sorts of variations on the radio. Using the phonetic alphabet when it ''isn't'' necessary for clear communication, such as when the signal conditions are ideal, can result in one being judged as a "Lid".

* ''Webcomic/Waterworks'': The green antagonists have this as their ThemeNaming, either directly like Juliet and Foxtrot, or by wordplay like (Lima) Bean and Pvt. (Echo) Chambers.

* George Clooney's character in ''Film/TheMenWhoStareAtGoats''. "We're Oscar Mike. That's 'on the move' soldier." Approximately coincides with the popularity of ''GenerationKill'' and ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare 2''.

* The phonetic jargon in ''Series/GenerationKill'' 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 ''GenerationKill'' aired, notably the aforementioned ''Modern Warfare 2'' and ''Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising''.

* In an example of ShownTheirWork, the announcer in ''VideoGame/Battlefield1'' uses the British military alphabet that was used during WorldWarOne by the Royal Navy ("Apple" for "A", as an example).

* In an example of ShownTheirWork, the announcer in ''VideoGame/Battlefield1'' uses the British military alphabet that was used during WorldWarOne ("Apple" for "A", as n example).

* In an example of ShownTheirWork, the announcer in ''VideoGame/BattlefieldI'' uses the military alphabet that was used during WorldWarOne ("Apple" for "A", as n example).

[[AC:[[{{Film}} Fox Item Love Mike]]]]

[[AC:[[{{Literature}} Lima India Tango Echo Romeo Alpha Tango Uniform Romeo Echo]]]]

[[AC:[[{{Music}} Mary Union Sam Ida Charlie]]]]

[[AC:[[{{Pinball}} Papa India November Bravo Alpha Lima Lima]]]]

[[AC:[[ProfessionalWrestling Papa Romeo Oscar Whiskey Romeo Echo Sierra Tango Lima India November Golf]]]]

[[AC:[[{{Radio}} Roger Able Dog Item Oboe]]]]

[[AC:[[{{UsefulNotes/Television}} Tare Easy Love Easy Victor Item Sugar Item Oboe Nan]]]]

* The Los Angeles actives in ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' — who are the focus of the show — are all named from it. (The ones at the Washington, DC branch are named after Greek gods, suggesting that each branch uses a different scheme.)

[[AC:[[VideoGames Victor India Delta Echo Oscar Golf Alpha Mike Echo Sierra]]]]

* ''VideoGame/MechWarrior 3'' had nav point designations of Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog and Echo, and the fourth game uses Greek letters. ''Living Legends'' uses the NATO system for Betty's pronounciation of the alphanumeric base names, up to Golf. ''[[AC: Outpost [[MadLibsDialogue ECHO SIX]] Captured]].''

[[AC:[[WebComics William Easy Baker Charlie Oboe Mike Interrogatory Charlie Sugar]]]]

[[AC:[[RealLife Robert Edward Adam Lincoln Lincoln Ida Frank Edward]]]]

* Most nations have a military alphabet in their native language, for example, Swedish has ''"Adam, Bertil, Caesar"'', German has "''Anton, Berta, Caeser''" Finnish has "''Aarne, Berta, Celsius''" 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).
** Corresponding Finnish alphabet are ''Åke'' (male name), ''Äiti'' (mother) and ''Öljy'' (oil).

* The three captains in ''VideoGame/Pikmin3'' are named after the first three letters in the NATO alphabet: Alph, Brittany, and Charlie.

* ''Literature/{{Biggles}}'' uses the now less well known WorldWarOne era British alphabet. One of the few uses that survived is "Ack-Ack" for AA (anti-air) fire.

* ''Series/{{Archer}}'' 's inability to use this creates a CrowningMomentOfFunny in "Skytanic". Seriously, ''Mancy''?

* Subverted on ''TheThinBlueLine'' when it turns out to be requests for drinks from a pizza place. "Tango. Tango. Lilt and a Fanta."

* The phonetic jargon in ''GenerationKill'' 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 ''GenerationKill'' aired, notably the aforementioned ''Modern Warfare 2'' and ''Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising''.

* The Colonial Fleet in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' uses this, with a couple space-flavored differences: "Constellation" and "Nebula". Only ten letters are known from the show, but the RPG sourcebooks expand on this with the [[http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Colonial_wireless_alphabet entire alphabet]]. Most of the differences from the NATO alphabet are either space-related (Meteor and Quasar) or religiously significant (Icon and Juno).

For satirical purposes, an [[http://www.andrewpatton.com/alphabet.html anti phonetic alphabet]] can be used, for example [[Franchise/ThePinkPanther Inspector Clouseau's]] "J as in jalapeno". Another set, named "Fanatic Alphabet", can be found [[http://takkirauta.blogspot.fi/2012/02/fanatic-alphabet.html here]].

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 formal ones specifically pick words themselves which all sound distinct from all the others with poor sound quality). The most common alphabets are shown below, from A to Z.

Also called a spelling alphabet or a phonetic alphabet (not to be confused with the entirely different [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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 NATO alphabet (Alpha Bravo code) was originally designed so that every code word is pronounced in each NATO language in the similar way, so there would be no linguistic misunderstandings. There are some discrepancies, however; "Juliet" is usually "Giulietta" in Italian, and easily mistaken for G. Inversely, Quebec is pronounced in the French manner (Kay-bek) which might confuse some English speakers (Kway-bec).

[[AC:{{Radio}} Roger Able Dog Item Oboe]]

[[AC:Roger Able Dog Item Oboe]]

* In ''RiversOfLondon'' Inspector Nightingale has the unique callsign Zulu-One, representing his [[WhoYouGonnaCall unique position]] in the Met.

* The NATO alphabet (Alpha Bravo code) was originally designed so that every code word is pronounced in each NATO language in the similar way, so there would be no linguistic misunderstandings. There are some discrepancies, however; "Juliet" is usually "Giulietta" in Italian, and easily mistaken for G. Likewise, the Romance languages spell "Hotel" without the H.