Many people who have never served in the military refer to the phonetic alphabet as the Army alphabet. The truth is, there is no such thing as the Army alphabet. However, the U.S. military does use a uniform system, the phonetic alphabet, to convey English letters during military communications. For this post, however, we will refer to it as the Army alphabet.
The military’s phonetic alphabet, sometimes known as the Army alphabet, uses 26 words in lieu of the standard alphabet pronunciation. Each word represents a letter of the English alphabet.
This army alphabet reduces communication errors and it is commonly known as the NATO phonetic alphabet. This army alphabet, also known as the phonetic alphabet, was adopted in 1951.
Since 1951, the Army alphabet as it is known has also become a bit of short hand to represent phrases. For example, Tango Yankee means “thank you” and Bravo Zulu means “well done.”
If you’re planning on joining the military or need a refresher in the Army alphabet, it is probably easiest to memorize the Army alphabet by learning it backwards. In other words, start with the letter “Z” and go through the entire 26 letters of the Army alphabet until you learn them all and get to “A.”
Using the Army alphabet to spell your name, your street name and other things familiar to you can help too.
The Army alphabet is below.
A = Alpha
B = Bravo
C = Charlie
D = Delta
E = Echo
F = Foxtrot
G = Golf
H = Hotel
I = India
J = Juliet
K = Kilo
L = Lima
M = Mike
N = November
O = Oscar
P = Papa
Q = Quebec
R = Romeo
S = Sierra
T = Tango
U = Uniform
V = Victor
W = Whiskey
X = Xray
Y = Yankee
Z = Zulu