Phonetic Alphabet
I have seen many different standardizations of the phonetic alphabet in my travels. What’s important to remember is not what word to use, but rather, keep it easily identifiable. Having a standard one among your allies is preferable, because you know what words you are looking for.
That being said, the concept of the phonetic alphabet communication is to relay letters and numbers without confusion. Many numbers and letters can sound similar in pronunciation to each other. When saying the “phonetic letter” you are saying an entire word, but the listener is identifying that word with it’s first letter. Therefore, if I was going to read license plate number XET395 over the radio, I would actually say, “X-ray echo tango tree niner fife.”
What I have presented as standard, below, is what is used by the United States Marine Corps. I have put in parenthesis the sounds you should try to make in order to be as clear as possible on the radio.
A: Alpha (al-fa)
B: Bravo (bra-voh)
C: Charlie (char-lee)
D: Delta (dell-tah)
E: Echo (eh-coh)
F: Fox (fhocks)
G: Golf (gaulf)
H: Hotel (hoe-tell)
I: India (in-de-uh)
J: Juliet (jew-lee-it)
K: Kilo (key-low)
L: Lima (lee-mah)
M: Mike (myk)
N: November (know-vhem-burr)
O: Oscar (hoss-curr)
P: Papa (pah-pah)
Q: Quebec (kweh-beck)
R: Romeo (row-me-oh)
S: Sierra (see-air-uh)
T: Tango (tayn-goh)
U: Uniform (you-nee-form)
V: Victor (vick-tore)
W: Whiskey (whiss-key)
X: X-ray (ex-ray)
Y: Yankee (yayn-key)
Z: Zulu (zoo-loo)
1: One (wun)
2: Two (too)
3: Three (tree)
4: Four (fow-er)
5: Five (fife)
6: Six (sicks)
7: Seven (sev-un)
8: Eight (ate)
9: Nine (nye-ner)
0: Zero (zee-row)
Airsoft Commando 