Alpha, Bravo, Charlie . . .  

But really how many of us can go beyond that in reciting what most people think of as the “military alphabet”.  Surprisingly, many people can because the alphabet most people think of as a military quirk is actually a highly useful and highly used form of communication.  So let’s find out Yankee Uniform Charlie Alpha Romeo Echo (YuCare).

We all at some point have run into that situation where we need to spell something out, and run into the problem of similar sounding letters such as “M” and “N”, “F” and “S”, “B”, “D” and “V”, etc.  The military solved this problem by developing a standardized list of words that can be used for communicating in adverse situations such as noisy or static filled radio or telephone conversations.  This is why we associate the system with the military, but we found that you don’t need to be on an aircraft carrier radioing in to base to find a use for this system.

After World War II, with the dramatic increase in civilian aviation, radio usage, and telecommunications networks, the need for a standardized international system arose.  The United Nations developed a standardized alphabet system through the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) suitable for people from different linguistic (language) backgrounds.  Now just about everything related to communication uses the alphabet including civilian aviation, anyone using radios to transmit information, the telecommunications networks (phone companies for example), and of course the people who started it all – the military.

So is everything clear and understood?  Roger that!