A Breath of Fresh Air

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I can always tell when I get a call from someone in the U.S. military.  They’ve planned the call, so they get right to the point without humming and hawing or getting off onto irrelevant tangents.  They’re always lucid, and communicate easily.  They know and use the standard phonetic alphabet (really important with a bad cellular connection):

Alpha
bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliette
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
X-ray
Yankee
Zulu

(Memorize these.  There are only 26 of them and they can save you from communication errors over and over)

Plus they’re always patient and respectful.  No exceptions.

Now, shall we talk about your average college student?  No thanks– I’m in a good mood and don’t want to spoil it.

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7 thoughts on “A Breath of Fresh Air”

  1. And you can always tell when you are speaking to an average college student … they always type or write “C” when you say “Sierra”.

  2. Heh. Then there’s the ever-popular; (Guy on phone is giving his address) he says, “six…”
    and I’m writing “6”
    and he continues, “…teen”
    Shit ( 6 16)

    Then there are cops, who use phonetics, but make up their own;
    “Mary”
    “I’m sorry, was that Berry, Cary, Mary, Harry, Larry, Scary, Tarry, Very, Wary, or Ferry”?

  3. Thanks for adding the “average” in college student in there. I had a phone interview for SEL before I started working there and the interviewer wasn’t very technical and was basically just weeding out the junk applicants. At the end of the interview she asked me if I was in the military, I told her I was associated with the NROTC unit prior to my accident and I then asked her why she asked. Her response was exactly the points above. Patient, respectful, clear and concise and actually listened. I like to think it’s those little things that landed me this job.

    And that phonetic alphabet thing is cake, I grew up using that as my alphabet.

  4. i’ve almost given up trying to use the phonetic alphabet over the phone, because it seems i’m never talking to anybody who’s ever heard of the very concept, much less knows how to use it.

    or as Lyle noted, they make up their own, badly.

  5. I’ve never been in the military, but I picked it up in JROTC in high school and used it ever since. Of course, I also make sure to say zero rather than oh and niner, no matter how silly people think it sounds.

  7. this is why pilots (where I learned it) use the phonetic alphabet: none of the phonemes sound like a letter. Also, when you read back a number, read the digits:
    COME RIGHT HEADING TWO SEVEN ZERO
    not
    COME RIGHT HEADING TWO HUNDRED SEVENTY

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