With the rise of field telephones and two-way radios in militaries in the late 19th and early 20th century, poor signal, external noises, and radio interference often obscured messages and caused errors. Particularly when lives were on the line and fates of nations were being decided, it became vital to find a way to communicate clearly.
During WWI, the British Royal Air Force reportedly introduced the first complete spelling alphabet, called the RAF radio alphabet.
Not only did these coded alphabet systems help pilots and signalmen communicate more effectively, but they also helped make communication more covert.
To ensure that messages were communicated clearly, signalmen began to develop systems of words that represented each letter of the alphabet. One of the first versions of this was reportedly used in the US as early as 1913.
In World War I, several different spelling alphabets came in and out of use, and not just in the US. Many military powers were employing the spelling alphabet to help restrict the flow of information, emphasize clarity, and institute norms for order and updates.
In 1927, the International Telegraph Union (ITU) developed a spelling alphabet for telegram communication, which quickly grew popular. By the start of WWII, most commercial airlines around the world were reportedly using ITU code words.
JANAP, also known as the “Able Baker alphabet,” used different words that no longer appear in the modern military phonetic alphabet, like using Able, Baker, Easy, Roger, and Sugar for the letters A, B, E, R, and S.
In WWI, each branch of the US military (Navy, Air Force, etc.) had its own code, but by the second World War they realized that communication between forces had become too difficult.
After WWII, NATO allies identified a difficulty in the way the wartime alphabet included words and pronunciations that were specific to American English. NATO and the US decided to implement a common unified alphabet.
In 1957, all NATO countries adopted a universal phonetic spelling alphabet created by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). It was called the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet (IRSA) or just the NATO phonetic alphabet. Some spellings were different, however, like “Alfa” in the US was spelled “Alpha.”
During WWII, the US military developed the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet (JANAP) so that the forces could communicate smoothly when working together. JANAP was adopted in 1941 and continued to be used until 1957.
While the US and British militaries had each developed different codes for their alphabets, they began to combine and standardize their versions during WWII so that they could streamline communication during joint operations.
The International Civil Aviation Organization conducted extensive research over years testing various possible words for each letter in order to determine which offered the maximum mutual intelligibility between speakers from different linguistic backgrounds under various noisy battle conditions. The words had to be easy to pronounce and recognize by numerous dialects.
Whether in movies or on the phone, you’ve probably heard someone say a combination of words that sound completely senseless together, but which actually use the first letters to spell something out. The film ‘Whiskey Tango Foxtrot’ (2016) is a good example. While you might think people are just picking random words—and indeed some might be—there is actually a defined military phonetic alphabet that was established over the first half of the 1900s that uses a set of 26 words, each representing a letter of the alphabet.
Not only does it have an interesting history regarding how the so-called phonetic alphabet came to be, but it can also come in handy in certain modern situations—more of which you'll read about in this gallery. Click through to learn everything you need to know about the military phonetic alphabet.
The code phrase Bravo Zulu is one of the oldest code phrases, and means good job or well done. It reportedly originated in the Royal Navy of Great Britain.
The letters A, B, C, D, and E are Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo, respectively.
While still employed by militaries, the codes are useful in any field that requires the same three guiding principles for military communication, or the military ABCs: Accuracy, Brevity, and Clarity. It can be used in aviation, medicine, radio, and other realms of tech.
The letters F, G, H, I, and J have the code words Foxtrot, Gold, Hotel, India, and Juliet.
While most of us aren't trying to communicate coordinates amid battle, the military alphabet is useful in war movies and military-themed video games, and it's important in cases where you need to give critical information to emergency services.
The US government reportedly classified the IRSA as confidential at first, but later released it to the public. The IRSA became ever more popular with time, and many have come to know it simply as the military alphabet.
It can be useful even when you're talking on the phone and need to avoid misunderstanding due to different pronunciations or poor signal. Even in the same dialect, the sounds of B, V, T, and P are difficult to distinguish, and the same goes for F, S, M, and N. Now here are the code words you should know.
Today the only parts of the JANAP WWII-era alphabet still in use are "Charlie," "Mike," "Victor," and "X-Ray.”
The letters U, V, W, X, Y, and Z have the code words Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-Ray, Yankee, and Zulu.
Some others include: “November Gold,” which means no go or no good; “Whiskey Charlie” is the name for the water closet; “Tango Yankee” means thank you; and “Lima Charlie” means loud and clear.
The letters K, L, M, N, and O are, respectively, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, and Oscar.
Each word also has its own flag, which ships can put up to communicate with each other. Sometimes flags will spell words, using the Yankee, Echo, and Sierra flags to spell “yes,” for example. Other flags have their own separate meanings, like if the Oscar flag (pictured) is up, that means someone went overboard.
There are combinations of these code words that are popular code phrases in the military: “Charlie Mike” means continue mission. “Oscar Mike” means on the move. “Tango Delta” means target down.
The letters P, Q, R, S, and T are Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, and Tango.
Contrary to its name, the so-called NATO phonetic alphabet is actually not phonetic. Phonetic alphabets are used to indicate, through symbols or codes, what a speech sound or letter sounds like. The military phonetic alphabet is technically a spelling alphabet.
See also: Unbelievable military experiments of the 20th century