Army radio follow a very simple procedure. 6-Unit commander 7-highest ranking sergeant (NCO) 5-Executive officer "Black" is always the callsign for the headquarters element. So the commander would be called "Black 6," although the callsign is normally a lot cooler. At the company level, the company name is normally used before the number. So the Bravo company commander will be called "Bravo 6." At the platoon level, the platoon number is used after the company name, but before the name. position name So the platoon leader of 2nd platoon, Bravo company would be called "Bravo 2-6" and the platoon sergeant Bravo 2-7." For uncensored video, check out my substack at: ryanmcbeth.substack.com Like my shirts? Get your own at: www.bunkerbranding.com/pages/ryan-mcbeth Watch all of my long form videos: ua-cam.com/play/PLt670_P7pOGmLWZG78JlM-rG2ZrpPziOy.html Twitter: @ryanmcbeth Join the conversation: discord.gg/pKuGDHZHrz Want to send me something? Ryan McBeth Productions LLC 8705 Colesville Rd. Suite 249 Silver Spring, MD 20910 USA
In 1985, while in Basic Training, I was in our afternoon radio class. That morning we had been in Map Reading for about three hours. While on the line with the instructor, reading from our scripts to practice radio discipline, I called in a fire mission on my Drill Sergeant. The Drill Sergeant had me squat with my arms extended, holding my chair straight out in front of me, which as many of you know, can be quite painful after just a few minutes. While I was squatting and holding up my chair, the Radio instructor came up and complimented me on the accuracy of both my radio skills and my grid coordinates. He then set a can of Coke on the seat of my chair as a reward. After he walked off, the Drill Sergeant opened my Coke, drained it in one pull, crushed the can, and set it back on my now very wobbly chair. He said, "Thanks, trainee. I needed a cold drink. Hit me up after graduation to get it back. Heck, son, come on over to my house and I'll grill you a steak and loan you my wife, too. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
My experience is Canadians and British tend to have really tame call signs if at all. Yankee's have some hilarious if not more casual relationship with radio discipline going on. In Afghanistan I heard something like "Jedi-Master this is Padawan 1-3 over".
@Minute Man Letting guys pick their own call signs seems to really boost morale.. Sometimes it's the small things that make the big difference.. It's also pretty easy to miss just numbers coming over the radio.. You can't really ignore someone calling for the Wavy Wookie though.. Every army has their own system.. As long as it works for y'all that's all that matters.. I'd walk side by side with and follow Canadian troops into hell any day.. We dont have the toughest continent on the face of the earth for no reason..
Yeah. There is a fair amount of fixed call signs like pronto and bluebell and stuff but no picking of your own. Although I have heard of a Slayer and Long Knife being used.
The US Navy often omits the "this is" part, especially on internal comms and between the ship and its small boats, Also, call signs for ships are classified and rotated daily.
@@kellymouton7242 Interesting, didn't know that. We rarely said "this is", even on initial contact, unless we were on a channel with coalition forces. We would include it in a response, often if the message was for multiple units. "This is Neversail, roger, out. This is Minnow, roger, out." Usually responding to the Screen Commander.
USAF callsign rotation is similar(at least back in the late 90's when I worked flightline). The aircraft use their sortie number as their callsign, and those are generated as needed.
Totally unrelated comment but I've been longing to see how navies are structured, any idea on where to get information like that or is that not publically available?
@scurra1163 well yes... but one was the squadron commander and 2 was the deputy commander. So Dark-1 might be flying as the wingman to Dark-36. 36 was basically random 1 was the Commander. It should also be said that Dark-1 probably was just doing a required training exercise to remain current and might not be the mission commander. Similarly as an E-7 I have had my squadron deputy commander come on mission as the driver of the wrecker. I once had a full bird Col fall into my mission as... an observer on a supplementary security element. Basically he had driven into northern Iraq in a three gun truck element and ROE in the are said you could not leave base without 4 gun trucks... so his personal security detail and he were assigned to me until we got to a base where it was considered safe enough for only 3 MRAPs were needed. Best mission ever.
I served in the US Army as a Cavalry Scout. In the cavalry, companies are called troops. In my cavalry squadron, the troops where A, B, C, D, E and a headquarters troop. Each of the troops had a Native American name of their call sign, Apache, Blackfoot, Comanche, Dakota, Eskimo, and Huron. So instead of Alpha 6 it was Apache 6. Another time was I assigned to a to D troop and their callsign was Dragon. So instead of Delta 6 it was Dragon 6. I think this type of call sign is up to the squadron commander. In Apocalypse Now, LTC Killgore's call sign was Big Duke 6.
Yeah, sometimes it gets changed. That’s way cooler. The last time I was in Iraq, my callsign was boardwalk 7. We didn’t use a platoon name because we were part of the QRF of bravo company. So it had to be a B word.
S.Korean military here. We don't have designated numbers for certain positions. Whether it's the brigade commander or a ditch with a radio in the middle of nowhere they follow the same 3 letter callsign. Callsigns are regularly changed and are issued down from Corps level. So no choosing callsigns and sometimes they pick the weirdest words. For battalion levels they issue one codebook for inter-battalion callsigns and one for communicating up to brigade levels.
The US used to send out CEOI in the same manner but the introduction of Singars permitted the use of Hollywood "calls" signs... and while in actual combat and other high stress situations it helps provide clarity in the coms...less to try and figure out .
A very infantry-centric view (not surprising from a former infantryman). Armor units at the platoon level typically use "1" for platoon leaders and "4" for platoon sergeants (corresponding to tank or vehicle number). Plus rather than a platoon numeral, there's a standard color scheme Red/White/Blue/Green so for example Red 1 is the first platoon platoon leader. I've also been in units that used "9" rather than "7" for the senior NCO, so in the end it's all down to unit SOP.
Yeah, when I drove our CSM my callsign was Hotel 9 Delta and that was a light infantry battalion. Trying to remember if we had a Hotel 7 at that unit, maybe the S3 or something.
@glenndean6, I agree. Internally we used colors for the platoon and on a battalion net we used company and platoon and tank slot... Charlie 1-1. Thanks for covering armor on this one!
I'm in a German Disaster Relief organisation and our callouts usually work like this: Organisation Descriptor(Some sort of alternative Name which is usually shorter) And for it then continues with the name of the location we're based in. Then a 2 Digit Number for the Unit Type And then a 2 Digit Number for a designation within that unit. This leads to a Radio call sign something like this: YYYYYYY YYYYYYYY XX XX Y is a letter, X a Number. And the second set of numbers can either be a vehicle descriptor( If you know the vehicle codes you know what the person who calls you is capable of) Or it can be a person. Like the group leader or his/her "squad" leader. Then we differ in the Words to designate the end of our transmissions. We have "Kommen" ~ Come as the designation for a request to get a answer. And "Ende" ~ End as a signal that we are finished.
Doing RFS Firecomm, I had tongue-twisters like Quorrobolong 7, Bishop's Bridge 7, Wallarobba 7, Bolwarra Bulk Water, Goorangoola 9. Some brigades had multiple of a category, so you would suffix it with an Alpha, Bravo, etc. There were a few rarer callsigns like FIREBIRD (spotting aircraft) or FIREBOAT Delta. There was also a priority: YELLOW was a maintenance or 'pie and chips' run, or returning to station; BLUE was on a incident (think SÉCURITÉ); RED was urgency (think PAN PAN); and EMERGENCY was firefighter or persons in imminent danger (think MAYDAY). It was a 'net', so Firecom controlled the channel, and during a call other units could only 'butt-in' if it was a higher priority call. So a unit would call "Firecomm, this is Lochinvar 7 Alpha, BLUE", we'd answer "Lochinvar 7 Alpha, this is Firecomm, go ahead with your message, OVER". At the end Firecomm would say the time in 24h, and then CLEAR to indicate the channel was available (think OUT), or "CLEAR OF YOU" to indicate Firecomm was about to put out another call (think BREAK BREAK). When you had multiple incidents in your zone, some with over 10 units responding to a single incident, it got really busy, really fast, on the radio. By the end of an 11 hour night shift your tongue was unserviceable. We covered for RFS Firecomm after-hours from a Marine Rescue radio base (which I still do), so throw in a maritime MAYDAY as well and it made for an interesting night.
Ryan 50 years ago I drew the short straw and got to spend a week in the field as the artillery liaison NCO. I was the driver for the officer who was in charge of artillery. I was a Red Leg and not a grunt. I had one uniform, a poncho and a blanket for a week. My officer put several cases of C-Rats in the jeep witch contained a non portable radio. I was an E-3 doing the job of an E-6. I knew radio protocols. Infantry officers would give fire missions to the Artillery Liaison Officer . He then gave me the battery for the fire mission and I would call it in. So I did it all right. When there was nothing happening I was told to leave the Command “Tent” . Then I placed my poncho on the ground and covered with the blanket. This was until I was called by my officer. I did my job well and ate cold C-Rats for a week.
Civilian pilot here. My instructors told me to avoid saying "to" and "for" over the radio because they sounded like the numbers 2 and 4, respectively. Standard radio procedure for reporting altitude to air traffic control under visual flight rules is to say your aircraft callsign, your current altitude, and whether you are climbing or descending to a certain altitude. Say that I'm flying at 2,000 feet and I want to tell the ATC facility (let's say NorCal Approach) that I'm going up to 5,500 feet. In full form, it sounds like "NorCal Approach, Skyhawk 928DH at 2,000 feet, climbing to (or for) 5,500." You have to say it really quickly though, because as Ryan says, other people need to use that radio frequency too. If ATC's hearing someone else talk over my radio call and they only get the last part of my radio message, they might think that I, a dinky little Cessna 172, want to go up to 25,500 feet ("to 5,500") or 45,500 ("for 5,500"). There will be confusion and ATC will ask me to clarify and I need to make that radio call all over again. That's a minute of air time gone, and in busy airspace, that's an airplane traveling between 2 and 3 miles. Drop the "to" and you get "NorCal Approach, Skyhawk 928DH at 2,000, climbing 5,500." It kinda sounds rude in spoken form, but in radio communications, politeness is a problem; brevity is life.
I drove for my battalion commander many moons ago. Anyone calling for him called for "Red Knight 6". if he was away my response would be "Red Knight 6 Romeo". Romeo being short for RTO or Radio Telephone Operator. When handing the radio off to him he would respond with "Red Knight 6 Actual". Otherwise it was just "Red Knight 6". Just another way of letting people on the other end know they are or are not talking to the actual person they are calling for. Small things like that you just learn as you go.
Former 11B here - assigned to a mech brigade HHC when the 4ID was at Ft Carson, CO. Worked at the brigade HQ in S-3 shop (planning, training, & operations) and as training sgt at company. Every Old Man had a diff pet peeve for coms. I was sure to brief new officers before each deployment. You'd better not: 1) preface anything with "Be advised"; 2) use profanity to describe your situation; and 3) NEVER, EVER refer to troops as "bodies" - as in "I don't have enough bodies to...".
This became one of my favorite UA-cam channels in existence. Your content is informative, easy to digest and hilarious. You’ve absolutely nailed it, thank you Ryan!
@@RyanMcBethProgramming I was going to say this video helped me to understand original CoD Modern Warfare trilogy :P, although I know there's probalby a lot of incorrect callsings and other things in these games (first thing that comes to my mind is calling air-to-ground-missile "AGM missile"). Are there any chances of you doing a reaction video to Call of Duty or other media like that?
@@RyanMcBethProgramming here’s one for you. What’s 7-November? I know the CSM was Spartan 7, but they also had 7- November… 1-36Inf. 2004 OIF Ready First 1-1
The closest the Navy gets to this kind of alphanumberic designators for communication between general quarters battle stations in the weapons departments/divisions, was how we numbered our weapon system mounts aboard ship. All mounts to port (left) end in an even number. All mounts to starboard (right) end in odd numbers. All mounts centerline were descending starting with fore (front) through to aft (after or stern). The numbering system always has the numbers 1 and 2 starting from the front of the ship and descending down as many as you need to the end of the ship. So let's say you have two forward .50cal HMG mounts on either side of the front of ship. You would refer to them as follows: Mount 51. Mount 5 means the .50 caliber heavy machine gun, 1 means your .50 is mounted on the starboard side and is the first .50 caliber mount starting from the front of the ship. Mount 52. Mount 5 means the .50 caliber HMG, 2 means your .50 is mounted on the port side and is the first .50 caliber mount starting from the front of the ship. I'll use WWII warships as an example for centerline mounts. Mount 51, 52, 53, 54. These would be 5" gun mounts or rapid fire freedom. Mount 61, 62, 63. These would be 16" gun mounts or maximum freedom. We didn't have numbers for the gun captains, I think it was something along the lines of "Mount 31, gun captain." If they specifically needed to send a hail to that mount. This gets confusing for people outside of the Navy because we have NCO's in charge of specific departments/divisions or details would often be referred to as "insert job" "captain or commander" even though they did not hold that rank or were not even an officer. You got use to it pretty rapidly. When we were learning fleet comms in the Navy. One of the things that stuck out to me was our use of the word "tac" in place of dot for when you were relaying a series of numbers with points in between. If I remember correctly, the mechanics for initial communication were the location you were communicating with and then your location after.
When I was deployed to Iraq, I was 2-2 Delta, second platoon-second squad, since I was just a private, I was Delta. Our battalion was broken up into companies and scattered around Baghdad. Plus our company, Alpha, largely operated on our own, doing patrols and securing a local gas station by arming and disarming the security guards every day. There was no need to use Alpha or other company designators in our calls unless we were attached to other units for an cordon and search operation. For a time we had a different set of radios for just our company. On these we were informal, using nicknames and joking.
"Be Advised" (4:28) reminded me of a time long long ago when i was a mortar platoon leader. I was on the battalion net when a very familiar voice came on: "Mortar plt leader (or whatever my call sign was) this is Bn Cdr 6......Be Advised not needed - out"....... huh?......I sat there perplexed....had i just been fired? Did they not need my platoon any more....huh what? Thankfully I sat there for a minute and figured it out. No Slack 6 was a stickler for radio Prowords. "Be Advised" are just extra words in any radio transmission, not an Army Procedure word/phrase and I had just used the phrase on the radio. Brevity is paramount on the radio. He took that seriously. (but be advised....every one still uses it lol)
The coolest call sign i ever had was when I was in Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry (2BDE, 4ID). Being a mechanized company we broke the platoons into red, white, and blue Platoons. The dismount squad leaders were Red 4 and Red 5. Ohh yes, I was Red 5!
The scariest moments I felt as a O311 was when I was on radio watch and hear India 6 actual, Chaos 6 actual on the company net. If CG comes in all the way down to the all the way to company's net you didn't have to know what he was going order but it was really likely that it was going to suck
Armor is a bit different when you get to company level. Each platoon has 4 tanks and each member of the tank has a call sign. Platoons are color coded Red (first platoon), White (second platoon), Blue (third platoon). Tanks are numbered one through four with the platoon leader’s tank number one and the platoon sergeant’s tank number four. Crew positions are Lima (loader), Golf (gunner), Delta (driver), and Actual (tank commander). For example: Charlie red one delta. Charlie (company), Red (platoon), One (platoon leader’s tank), Delta (Driver). That call sign broadcast on the battalion frequency would narrow it down to whomever was in the driver’s seat of that particular tank.
i was a tanker in vietnam we had 5 tank per plt, 3 plt per co, 2tanks in hhc, and 3 co per batt. my call sign is dreadnaught bravo 25 delta. it means 2nd battalion ,34th armor, b company 2nd platoon, 5th tank ,driver " simple "
In the Armor community, the platoons are known as Red, White, and Blue platoon for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. 5, 6, and 7 are still the XO, CO, and 1SG. But tank platoons have 4 tanks per platoon. The PL is always the one tank so for example, I'm in blue platoon, or third, so my Platoon Leader is known as Blue 1. The platoon sergeant is always the 4 tank, so he is Blue 4. Each person on the tank also have identifiers over the radio. The gunner on the 1 tank would be Blue 1 Golf, the loader would be Blue 1 Lima, and the driver would be Blue 1 Delta. Love your content boss, yes, I'm a 19K.
During my service, we used to cherish radio blunders. We used a nationwide medical emergency frequency (but our ambulances and rescue vehicles had limited range) so while we followed strict radio protocol or our commanding officer would rip us a new one, some of the other companies around the country didn't and most often they would make us laugh, except when we were in an actual emergency and some twat was asking the corporal back at base what was for lunch or dinner while we were trying to reach our HQ.... 😅
Ryan, your ability to comingle personal stories and specific technical data makes your videos both educational and very enjoyable to watch. Thank you for what you do.
When i served in the Swedish Army back in the days we had names for the company and platoons. For instance, our company was ”DB” or ”David Bertil”. 1st Platoon was ”BA” or ”Bertil Adam”, 2nd ”BB” or ”Bertil Bertil” and so forth.
I’m sure that many wondered why the XO is 5, commander is 6, and first sergeant is 7. What about 1-4? These are reserved for the staff sections, S-1 through S-4. 1: Admin/personnel 2: intelligence 3: operations/planning 4: logistics/supply
Similar idea but with differences in Canada. Commanders are 9 not 6. As B squadron 2 troop commander I was 22 and my troop sergeant was 22A, and the other two vehicles were 22B and 22C. If we were on an infantry net 22C would have been B company, second platoon third section (squad). If I was operating as an armoured unit attached to and under command of an infantry unit I would become Tango 22, If I were an infantry unit attached to an armoured unit I would have become India 22. B Squadron (company equivalent) headquarters would be 2 and the Squadron commander would be 29. This is a long time ago, might be different now.
In Skippyland Sunray is the commander of the unit/sub-unit/platoon/section so as the platoon commander of 1 platoon of 1 Health Company my c/s was Sunray 1-1. When I was grunting as section commander of 1 section 6 platoon I was Sunray 2-3-Alpha being I was the leader of the first section (c/s alpha) of the third platoon (c/s 3) of the 2nd company (c/s 2) of the battalion 🍻🍻🍻
my dad was an NCO in the USAF during Vietnam till 1980, and his dad (grandpa) was an NCO during WWII in the 8th Army Air Force (B-17's) so I love these videos. What separates us from the other military powers of the world is the backbone of our military, a strong NCO group of men and women empowered to make the right decisions during the conflict.
When transmitting a message to higher, make sure as a lower enlisted you "Out" all reports. It shows your leadership you know what you're doing and that you can assert yourself. :D
In the aviation side of the US army you get a personal call sign once you become a pilot in command, which is basically a level where your qualified enough to fly solo.
Also in Desert Storm my Marine reserve tank unit had a TOW Platton from Miami Florida. 80 % of the Marines in it we're Cuban. TOW critters were Humvees with TOW missile launcher mounted in a gunners position on the roof. So in Saudi they would all talk in Spanish on the radio which ticked off the higher ups. They finally got told to not speak in Spanish over the radio, LOL!
Great video. Thanks. The only other thing I would add is that a captain taught us that even if you initiated the call and would normally out the call, don't out your commander. Let them do so.
And : Think - Push - Talk (tenk-trykk-tal in NO) . It`s important because of the brevity you mentioned,no uhh`s , ahh`s or ehh`s . In Norway we also a administrative net and a LOG net (for higher units ) . It to avoid msg about lack of bread etc on the operational net. We call it literary bread (brød)messages and it`s a big nono.
One section reminded me of bootcamp. In boot, we had to stencil our last names into our uniforms. My last name isn't short - it isn't long. When I heard "Shmuckatelli": 1 - I laughed 2 - I remembered how jealous I was of recruits with short names 3 - I remembered how lucky I was my name wasn't really long (nor Shmuckatelli!)
If you're spelling a long name phonetically I've found it helpful to say them in 3/4 letter groups. Jackson IE. Juliet, Alfa, Charlie....Kilo, Sierra, Oscar, November.
A relative was a navy communication operator on a few ships and a "boat" or sub in the 70's. They would do radio checks to all the bases in the Pacific and get sports results before the games where shown do to the delay. It was a racket with the radio people. Only small bets not to blow the scam but it was fleet wide.
The “actual” designator was something they did in the rebooted Battlestar Galactica series. Also when I first got in (civilian) EMS I was a little surprised at how foreign the radio chatter sounded. It took me a little while to develop an ear for what was being said, even when what was being said wasn’t code or lingo….different accents, mumbles, where the radio mic was oriented in relation to the speaker (in the truck or on the individual) and background noises on scene. Once I got an ear for it it became like a 2nd language or dialect to me. I was a lowly EMT in a major metro area, and tbh I found the behind-the-scenes logistics of ems much more interesting than the medicine. One of my most exciting (ass clenching) moments was rolling up on an MCI right after it happened and basically coordinating a multiagency response that utilized all the available resources from my ambulance company, the county fire, neighboring city fire, rescue air, etc. normally when a high ranking FD officer shows up like a battalion chief they assume command (otherwise first unit on scene has command until relieved) but I don’t recall the bat chief ever making a big deal and taking command. It felt much more cooperative where he showed up and coordinated his elements, but I was still running around using 3 different radios to call in equipment and guide personnel. The logistics of the hidden world behind the world is so fascinating
The current issue of Vietnam War magazine has a great article on how well the enemy was able to listen in and fully understand our radio traffic. The author, a senior Signal Corps officer, cited poor electronic security in the radios themselves as well as a general lack of discipline with respect to call signs, etc.
Radios should always be considered unsecure in my opinion. Discussion of movements should be very limited as enemy is probably listening. Even if enemy cant translate or decrypt a sudden increase in radio traffic could indicate an action is soon to happen. If movements must be discussed they should as much as possible be limited to things happening now, logic being that by the time the enemy decodes or translates the radio conversation and passes that info along it will be worthless as troops or bombs will have arrived and they will know it anyway.
I'm so grateful for how metal our call signs were, I loved roll call at task force meetings. My PSG was tired of witch doctor or bandaid, so PFC me picked Voodoo, 17 years later it's still going strong.
Back in the Finnish military we just called each other by your names over the radio. Of course we knew who we were calling for over the comms due to being signal units.
With the dutch red cross we use the same method of radio talk (first announce your target, identify yourself, message, over) but we only use numbers, in an XX-X-XX format where the numbers are used to identify the province of the call, the department, and the actual callsign
In Germany you start with the organization, so 'RotKreuz' for the red cross followed by the location as a specific word followed by the number assigned to the station. Finally you get the digits that describe the unit and if necessary digits counting up to distinguish units that otherwise have the same code. For example: "Rotkreuz Stuttgart 1/83/12 von Florian Stuttgart 11/42 kommen" is a simple fire truck from Birkach calling ambulance #12 stationed at the main station operated by the red cross.
Its stuff like this that makes me love the internet. Such an obscure topic that you can't rely on Google to give a concise-enough answer, and then a Chad like you comes along! Well done sir. That's a sub for you.
A good policy. I too was in the Marines and was in charge of the communication section. We had a different call sign format. Did your cousin say "if I told you, I would have to kill you"?
As a commodog from '08-'17, this sparked some old memories and training. You don't just forget commo training and jargon. Would be interesting to see a follow up from this video maybe exploring the 25 series field a bit and the importance that is Communications.
US Navy will also use "Break" when a command unit is giving general information to all on the network but then needs a specific response from a unit. I.e. "Whiskey this is (Whiskey command call sign) I make track #### (classification of track), break, Charlie track and report. Over." This is basically telling whomever Charlie is that that track is their responsibility. This would typically be followed with, "Charlie roger, out." Or if they had lost that track on their sensor or for some reason could not be the one responsible, "Charlie CANTCO (reason for non-compliance), over." The reason the first is out and the second is over; first time the net needed no more information and is executing as directed, while the second shows that a direction cannot be followed and the net needs further information/tasking.
I was in Signal Corps (1976-1980), and we used a two-digit system to identify communication sites. 50 was Division Main; 51, 52, 53 were units acting in direct support of Main, not necessarily located with Main. 70-series was for remote locations. 71, 72, 73 etc. were forward areas. The first digit told you 'Scope', second digit told you 'Section'. The lower the Section number, the higher the priority. Never saw/heard of a 60-series. We provided communications for Units conducting exercises; I have no idea how they were trained to use what we provided.
@@RyanMcBethProgramming Thank you. I appreciate it very much. I will be doing that in the next couple of days, (if life doesn't throw me a mean curve first, which it has the last few days).
When I was in the 82nd ABN Div (313th MI BN - deactivated years ago, during Army reorganization), I was in a C&J (Collection & Jamming) Platoon…and when I was stationed in Okinawa (1st Bn, 1st SFG (A), as a member of a SOTA we often said “Break Squelch and Die”
I was in the Army back in the time before fully encrypted radios were a thing. Our call signs (and radio frequencies) changed daily to limit enemy intelligence from our radio messages. A classified booklet known as the CEOI (communications/electronics operating instructions) listed all units and subunits within a command. You had an extract of the CEOI with the pertinent pages for your unit to refer to. Woe betide anyone who lost their CEOI extract. Call signs had a specific format. The unit had a three character identifier in the format letter-number-letter, followed by a two digit number for the individual or subunit. These were all randomly generated and changed daily at local midnight.
The only encrypted radio I ever personally saw was during a class on the KY-57 in OBC. But we had KOI-18s for the crypto we didn't have. I have a great two weeks after someone left the damn KOI-18s in the vault and then couldn't' find it in the field.
Really good video I wish I knew this before watching Platoon and Hamburger Hill, note civil aviation uses much the same format. Target name,this is (aircraft registration), message, over or out. Also use of the International Phonetic Alphabet and numbers using “Niner” so that it can never be mistaken for “NEIN”.
This radio video reminds of my 1963-69 days as a Marine Corps Radio-Telegraph Operator (a voice operator also Morse code trained). I remember using the same formats you spoke of ... the format has been used a long time: some of the call sings I remember: Pretext - Battalion CO Anchor - Company CO Yomama Platoon CO Some air strikers: Angel (rescue/medevac helo pilot) Bandit (F4C pilot) Big Foot (B-52 pilot) Widow Maker (B-52 spotter in a Cessna) However, GO NAVY 😁
Big thank you for interesting video. I also absolutely would love to see/hear your opinion on chinese baloon if its possible. You just have that special talent to find info and break it down that makes it easy to understand some complicated details. Thanks in advance!
HI Ryan, it would be great to see a video about the difference between NCOs and normal officers. Has always confused me. I'm sure I could look it up but I'm lazy
@@bostondan77 NCOs ie sergeants, corporals sign up for longer than most junior officers,start at the bottom work their way up the ranks usually based on performance/ability! The main difference in combat is Nato Ncos can react to real time situations,make decisions and command using their ability and experience whilst russians have to follow previous issued order or wait for a new one.
In college American Military history was one of my favorite classes. Our teacher was not great, I can only imagine how informative and amazing a full class from Ryan would be! You put out such informative videos and I really like that you give us examples of how it works and not just explaining it!
Really enjoy your updates Ryan. As a very old soldier, I am glad to report that the call signs and procedures have not changed since before Viet Nam days. Makes me feel less obsolete. One thing that may be different are security protocols. Back in my day there were no secure radio communications below brigade, anyway. We had to use Signal Security Procedures to at least verify who we were talking to. You know, "Verify Mike 4... Confirm Fox 3." Then, we'd change prearranged frequencies to meet up again. Wasn't perfect, but it was all we had. I sure hope that's all changed. One important thing you may want to emphasize is that it's not "Repeat" unless you are talking to artillery support. It's "Say Again." Also, is everything all "Copy" now, or is "Roger" still just as good? Cheers, Out.
We still do authentication, but I don’t think I’ve done that since the 90s. I think that with encrypted frequency, hopping radios it’s not as much of a concern.
Current Signalier here. I can't get too much in depth on an open channel, but it has changed. Most of our radios support encryption & hopping frequencies multiple times a second. Listening in is very difficult. "Roger" is used much more often than "Copy", the latter mainly being used only when taking down information like "Schmuckatelli".
Former 31K Signal here. Great job! I would often use 'break' so as to not key the mic for overly long periods of time. Also, a word to avoid 'repeat', since that is often used in Field Artillery... we instead use 'say again' (which I still do 30 years later). Lastly - the reboot of Battlestar Galactica had excellent use of military comms for a sci-fi show...!
For us seafairers 'Break' is also used to allow a pause in case emergency traffic needs to come in. For example Channel 16 is the nautical hailing and distress channel. If ship A wanted to hail ship B they'd connect on channel 16 and then move to a working channel. When the Coast Guard puts out a long radio message, say to give information on a weather pattern, they'll say part of the message, "Break" and pause in case there is emergency traffic, then continue the next segment and break again.
I am not sure if they still do this but , if you say break multiple times it is a destress call and a sign to clear the comms. So break,break, break means i have an urgent message, usually a medical evacuation. A medical evacuation is 9 lines so you near clear comms to communicate. Line 1 pickup site Line 2 radio frequency Line 3. # of patients by precedence-urgent, urgent surgical,priority, routine Line 4 Equipment Line 5 total #of patients Line 6 security at pick-up site Line 7 method of marking- smoke, ect Line 8 Patient Nationality Line 9 Nuclear-Biological-Chemical Contamination A M.I.S.T. report will be given MECHANISM of Injury Type of INJURY SIGNS vital signs. TREATMENT given. Say morphine given or IV.
Using "break" for this as well as the keyword for waiting seems like a bad idea. The (foreign) system I am familiar with uses "wait" for the waiting command and "mayday, mayday, mayday" to clear all comms in an emergency and a seperate keyword repeated thrice to clear comms for something extremely urgent in general.
Another great video about a snippet of military life that a normal person would not have even noticed. I find it amazing that people knew and understood Morse code. Then in ships understood flag messages. Who thought that talking on a phone could be so complicated? 😃
Wow, liked that. I was in MARS a number of years back being an amateur radio operator. And this brought back memories. People on the phone still get confused when I ask them to spell phonetically. Or I spell phonetically. In the amateur radio circles, everybody has a call sign so we are all equal in that respect. Anyway, I hope you'll do more of these. BTW, what's the Commander in Chief?
CIC Actual would be my guess. The Secret Service generates individual callsigns for every President and their family. So, say you have a President like Putin, and he has a young child in grade school. You might tag him as Spook, and the kid as Sandbox. That way, all on the channel know who you are talking about. The next President might have been a property owner, and have a son that works in a bakery. You might have a call sign Landlord, and the boy called Breadstick. It’s not something rooted in a particular science.
great explanation...former Gunslinger 6...we re-flagged G Co from E Co 3 days after I took command and I got to "pick" our new call sign. 1SG and I let the company do it. Thank god I didn't end up as Gecko 6. That was awhile ago, but it was fun to sign off at CoC as "OG Gunslinger 6, out."
In Desert Storm my Marine M60a1 tank was White 3 as we were the 3rd of 4 tanks in White Platton (2nd platoon). Our company CO's tank was Black 6 and the XO's tank was Black 5. We were attached by platoon's to Marine Infantry companies in 1/6. White platoon was with Alpha company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine regiment or A/1/6. Alpha companies commander was called Spear Point. As a whole he called us Tanks on the radio. So he would say: "Tanks, tanks this is Spear Point over"......Spear Point this is tanks go ahead (White 1, 2nd platoon's commander answering). The US Army scout (M113) that acted as a liaison vehicle between 2nd Marine division and the US Army Tiger Brigade was called "Hound dog". In the minefields I heard someone fire a large caliber weapon right near my tank. I told my tank commander that someone behind us had just fired. A moment later we heard on the radio: "White 1, White 1 this is black 5, your last white unit just took a near miss from six enemy artillery rounds 20 meters behind them, over". It took me about 3 seconds to realize that my tank was the last white unit in line in the minefields, LOL.
Probably my favorite military radio things are in Generation Kill. There is one scene where the Alpha Company Commander asks his 2nd platoon leader if they found any blown up tanks in the BDA, and the platoon leader doesn't want to say that they found nothing, and the USAF dropped like 80 tons of bombs on empty sand, and you get the exchange below Assassin 2, Assassin Actual: Interrogative, did you find any destroyed Iraqi armor? Over. Assassin Actually, Assassin 2 Actual, not specifically. Over. Interrogogative, did you find any non-specific Iraqi armor? Over. Negative. We turned a lot of dirt. Assassin 2 out. There is another good one where Bravo Company 2nd Platoon Leader tries to call the Team Leader for Team 1 on the radio, but instead he gets the RTO. Hitman 2-1, Hitman. Hitman 2, send traffic. Over. I need 2-1 Actual on the hook. Over. Uh... 2-1 Actual is on a mission.... Taking a dump. First combat dump in country. If anyone hasn't seen Generation Kill, do yourselves a favor and watch it immediately.
The Swedish version of numbers to people. The first platoon in first company there callsign would be AQ. The platooncommander would be AQ1. Second in command AQ2. First maneuver company in battalion would be QL. CO would be QL1. So company's is Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango. Thats one HQ/support company and four maneuver comp. PL, QL, RL, SL, TL. The platoons is A, B, C, D, E. And squads is E, F, G, H. So 1 squad in 2 platoon in 3 company is EBR. If you want the squad leader its EBR1. The system is called FAL-A. Fasta Anropssignaler Lägre enheter - Armén. Some thing like "Fixt callsigns for lower units - army"
This was more helpful than the radio training class I did in BCT. I don't remember squat from it. When they had the slide up for Over, out, actual, etc. they had it for maybe 10 seconds so I didn't have enough time to read it and copy the info down
I served in a scout platoon of a mechanized infantry battalion in the 80s-90s. In training our net call sign was usually 'Red'. E.g. "Red 6 actual" was the LT, while "Red 6" was usually his snarky driver. The scout platoon had 6 vehicles, 3 M113s and 3 M901 ITVs with 30 troops in all. We had 2 radios per vehicle with one tuned to our local net, and the other usually tuned to the battalion net. The FIST team was colocated with battalion HQ, and we had a 4" mortar platoon native to the battalion as well - so we could call for fire when we thought we needed it. Sometimes the call sign would be changed to something else in the signals section of the operations order. This was back before all the fancy encrypted channel hopping tech - we were broadcasting in the clear on an analog radio. As a result, we would use one time pads to encrypt critical information that we didn't want the enemy to hear - such as Pvt Schmucitelli's name. We could also use the pad to authenticate we were indeed "Red 1" and in possession of the pad. Later on when I had to talk to ATC while learning how to fly airplanes, the standard radio telephone procedures I learned in the Army came in real handy. Those standards are universal, generally speaking, across the world given ATC communication is standard across all borders.
In Germany the sgt. of the company is called "Spiess". He is the mother of the company (second man after dad, the captain, 😂😂😂, the lieutenants don't matter) So Ryan, you've been mom!!!
Swedish prostate guerilla here. Our units have 2 letter designations from battalion level downwards. VJ - Battalion HQ QJ- 1st company, RJ - 2nd company, SJ - 3rd company, TJ - 4th company AQ, BQ, CQ, DQ designates 1st to 4th platoons in JQ company. AR, BR, CR, DR are 1st to 4th platoons in JR- company etc... Groups in each platoon are denoted E, F, G, H, I, J... 2nd group/squad, first platoon, 3rd company would be simply; FA. This works in the Swedish doctrine as it is mission oriented (here is your task and resources, report back when completed. No, we do not care how you accomplish your task...). You rarely signal beyond two levels up in the organisation. If, by some circumstances, a squad leader reports something directly to battalion HQ it would probably take a few seconds for the operator to figure out who just called and left a message to the battalion-whomever but that is another story. 1-unit commander 2-Exo 3- Staff Cmdr / head of staff 4- Highest ranking sergeant 10 - Personnel functions 20- Intelligence and security 30- Tactical 35- Combat (?not sure about the translation?) 36- Combat exec 40- Supplies and logistics 41-quartermaster 50- fieldwork 60- Air 70- Signaling operations 80- Medical management team 90- reserve
Marine radioman 73 -76 Still had open frequency Though encryption was available too So i was Lil Abner And many others The numbers come from the s numbers S1. S2. S3. S4. Xo Is 5
I worked on some of the early ATACCS systems. The idea was that every vehicle would transmit telemetry for every 25 meters of movement. This was then sent back to command where a real-time picture of the battlefield would be displayed. The EM signature of a unit using this system was MASSIVE. For some reason, when specing this out no one took the EM signature into account. Testing is a good thing.
Army radio follow a very simple procedure.
6-Unit commander
7-highest ranking sergeant (NCO)
5-Executive officer
"Black" is always the callsign for the headquarters element. So the commander would be called "Black 6," although the callsign is normally a lot cooler.
At the company level, the company name is normally used before the number. So the Bravo company commander will be called "Bravo 6."
At the platoon level, the platoon number is used after the company name, but before the name. position name So the platoon leader of 2nd platoon, Bravo company would be called "Bravo 2-6" and the platoon sergeant Bravo 2-7."
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Why did they change easy to echo?
Hey this is super cool I have always wondered about this. Thanks for explaining it in an easy to understand manner.
Silver Spring? One of my stepsons lives there.
Hey Ryan do you think you could make a general video just about the infantry? Thanks!
Thanks for the video
In 1985, while in Basic Training, I was in our afternoon radio class. That morning we had been in Map Reading for about three hours. While on the line with the instructor, reading from our scripts to practice radio discipline, I called in a fire mission on my Drill Sergeant. The Drill Sergeant had me squat with my arms extended, holding my chair straight out in front of me, which as many of you know, can be quite painful after just a few minutes. While I was squatting and holding up my chair, the Radio instructor came up and complimented me on the accuracy of both my radio skills and my grid coordinates. He then set a can of Coke on the seat of my chair as a reward. After he walked off, the Drill Sergeant opened my Coke, drained it in one pull, crushed the can, and set it back on my now very wobbly chair. He said, "Thanks, trainee. I needed a cold drink. Hit me up after graduation to get it back. Heck, son, come on over to my house and I'll grill you a steak and loan you my wife, too. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
....sounds like Fort knox. 🤣😂😅
Cuck confirmed.
I have no idea what they wanted you to learn from this experience lmao
@@daminox Good radio skills, don't fuck with your drill instructor (or, whatever the offer, his wife).
@@westrim but he offered🤔😂
My experience is Canadians and British tend to have really tame call signs if at all. Yankee's have some hilarious if not more casual relationship with radio discipline going on. In Afghanistan I heard something like "Jedi-Master this is Padawan 1-3 over".
Canadians have a fixed system of numbers and letters with differences from the system McBeth outlined here. No Jedi Masters.
My call sign was Wavy Wookie..
@@MarkLada I've had a few over the years, the best one being the completely boring 22 (TwoTwo)
@Minute Man Letting guys pick their own call signs seems to really boost morale.. Sometimes it's the small things that make the big difference.. It's also pretty easy to miss just numbers coming over the radio.. You can't really ignore someone calling for the Wavy Wookie though.. Every army has their own system.. As long as it works for y'all that's all that matters.. I'd walk side by side with and follow Canadian troops into hell any day.. We dont have the toughest continent on the face of the earth for no reason..
Yeah. There is a fair amount of fixed call signs like pronto and bluebell and stuff but no picking of your own. Although I have heard of a Slayer and Long Knife being used.
The US Navy often omits the "this is" part, especially on internal comms and between the ship and its small boats, Also, call signs for ships are classified and rotated daily.
"Most" Army units usually drop the "this is" after initial contact is made. At least the units I've been involved with did
@@kellymouton7242 Interesting, didn't know that.
We rarely said "this is", even on initial contact, unless we were on a channel with coalition forces.
We would include it in a response, often if the message was for multiple units. "This is Neversail, roger, out. This is Minnow, roger, out." Usually responding to the Screen Commander.
USAF callsign rotation is similar(at least back in the late 90's when I worked flightline). The aircraft use their sortie number as their callsign, and those are generated as needed.
Totally unrelated comment but I've been longing to see how navies are structured, any idea on where to get information like that or is that not publically available?
@scurra1163 well yes... but one was the squadron commander and 2 was the deputy commander. So Dark-1 might be flying as the wingman to Dark-36. 36 was basically random 1 was the Commander.
It should also be said that Dark-1 probably was just doing a required training exercise to remain current and might not be the mission commander.
Similarly as an E-7 I have had my squadron deputy commander come on mission as the driver of the wrecker. I once had a full bird Col fall into my mission as... an observer on a supplementary security element. Basically he had driven into northern Iraq in a three gun truck element and ROE in the are said you could not leave base without 4 gun trucks... so his personal security detail and he were assigned to me until we got to a base where it was considered safe enough for only 3 MRAPs were needed. Best mission ever.
I served in the US Army as a Cavalry Scout. In the cavalry, companies are called troops. In my cavalry squadron, the troops where A, B, C, D, E and a headquarters troop. Each of the troops had a Native American name of their call sign, Apache, Blackfoot, Comanche, Dakota, Eskimo, and Huron. So instead of Alpha 6 it was Apache 6. Another time was I assigned to a to D troop and their callsign was Dragon. So instead of Delta 6 it was Dragon 6. I think this type of call sign is up to the squadron commander. In Apocalypse Now, LTC Killgore's call sign was Big Duke 6.
Yeah, sometimes it gets changed. That’s way cooler. The last time I was in Iraq, my callsign was boardwalk 7. We didn’t use a platoon name because we were part of the QRF of bravo company. So it had to be a B word.
S.Korean military here.
We don't have designated numbers for certain positions. Whether it's the brigade commander or a ditch with a radio in the middle of nowhere they follow the same 3 letter callsign.
Callsigns are regularly changed and are issued down from Corps level. So no choosing callsigns and sometimes they pick the weirdest words.
For battalion levels they issue one codebook for inter-battalion callsigns and one for communicating up to brigade levels.
I wonder if anyone got handed foxtrot golf tango
@@dgurevich1 Callsigns are Korean
K a T u S A
The US used to send out CEOI in the same manner but the introduction of Singars permitted the use of Hollywood "calls" signs... and while in actual combat and other high stress situations it helps provide clarity in the coms...less to try and figure out
.
A very infantry-centric view (not surprising from a former infantryman). Armor units at the platoon level typically use "1" for platoon leaders and "4" for platoon sergeants (corresponding to tank or vehicle number). Plus rather than a platoon numeral, there's a standard color scheme Red/White/Blue/Green so for example Red 1 is the first platoon platoon leader. I've also been in units that used "9" rather than "7" for the senior NCO, so in the end it's all down to unit SOP.
I now wanna ask Paul from Combat veteran reacts radio call signs for Military Police units
Yeah, when I drove our CSM my callsign was Hotel 9 Delta and that was a light infantry battalion. Trying to remember if we had a Hotel 7 at that unit, maybe the S3 or something.
@@Hurdle11C I was Renegade 9D, when I was my PSG's driver. HHC Mortars 1/5 Cav.
@glenndean6, I agree. Internally we used colors for the platoon and on a battalion net we used company and platoon and tank slot... Charlie 1-1. Thanks for covering armor on this one!
@@lordulberthellblaze6509 In one unit I served in the MPs went by "Mud Pig." I kid you not.
I'm in a German Disaster Relief organisation and our callouts usually work like this:
Organisation Descriptor(Some sort of alternative Name which is usually shorter)
And for it then continues with the name of the location we're based in.
Then a 2 Digit Number for the Unit Type
And then a 2 Digit Number for a designation within that unit.
This leads to a Radio call sign something like this:
YYYYYYY YYYYYYYY XX XX
Y is a letter, X a Number.
And the second set of numbers can either be a vehicle descriptor( If you know the vehicle codes you know what the person who calls you is capable of)
Or it can be a person. Like the group leader or his/her "squad" leader.
Then we differ in the Words to designate the end of our transmissions.
We have "Kommen" ~ Come as the designation for a request to get a answer.
And "Ende" ~ End as a signal that we are finished.
Don't forget the most important German radio number: zwo!
THWler haha. Ich bin so schlecht im Funken, zum Glück machen das immer andere
Doing RFS Firecomm, I had tongue-twisters like Quorrobolong 7, Bishop's Bridge 7, Wallarobba 7, Bolwarra Bulk Water, Goorangoola 9. Some brigades had multiple of a category, so you would suffix it with an Alpha, Bravo, etc. There were a few rarer callsigns like FIREBIRD (spotting aircraft) or FIREBOAT Delta.
There was also a priority: YELLOW was a maintenance or 'pie and chips' run, or returning to station; BLUE was on a incident (think SÉCURITÉ); RED was urgency (think PAN PAN); and EMERGENCY was firefighter or persons in imminent danger (think MAYDAY). It was a 'net', so Firecom controlled the channel, and during a call other units could only 'butt-in' if it was a higher priority call.
So a unit would call "Firecomm, this is Lochinvar 7 Alpha, BLUE", we'd answer "Lochinvar 7 Alpha, this is Firecomm, go ahead with your message, OVER". At the end Firecomm would say the time in 24h, and then CLEAR to indicate the channel was available (think OUT), or "CLEAR OF YOU" to indicate Firecomm was about to put out another call (think BREAK BREAK).
When you had multiple incidents in your zone, some with over 10 units responding to a single incident, it got really busy, really fast, on the radio. By the end of an 11 hour night shift your tongue was unserviceable. We covered for RFS Firecomm after-hours from a Marine Rescue radio base (which I still do), so throw in a maritime MAYDAY as well and it made for an interesting night.
Ryan 50 years ago I drew the short straw and got to spend a week in the field as the artillery liaison NCO. I was the driver for the officer who was in charge of artillery. I was a Red Leg and not a grunt. I had one uniform, a poncho and a blanket for a week. My officer put several cases of C-Rats in the jeep witch contained a non portable radio.
I was an E-3 doing the job of an E-6. I knew radio protocols. Infantry officers would give fire missions to the Artillery Liaison Officer . He then gave me the battery for the fire mission and I would call it in. So I did it all right. When there was nothing happening I was told to leave the Command “Tent” . Then I placed my poncho on the ground and covered with the blanket. This was until I was called by my officer.
I did my job well and ate cold C-Rats for a week.
In the USAF the golden rule is never say the word "Clear" over the radio, because that word is reserved for tower giving clearances to aircraft.
We were taught never to say repeat either unless it was needed as part of a fire mission.
Civilian pilot here. My instructors told me to avoid saying "to" and "for" over the radio because they sounded like the numbers 2 and 4, respectively. Standard radio procedure for reporting altitude to air traffic control under visual flight rules is to say your aircraft callsign, your current altitude, and whether you are climbing or descending to a certain altitude. Say that I'm flying at 2,000 feet and I want to tell the ATC facility (let's say NorCal Approach) that I'm going up to 5,500 feet. In full form, it sounds like "NorCal Approach, Skyhawk 928DH at 2,000 feet, climbing to (or for) 5,500."
You have to say it really quickly though, because as Ryan says, other people need to use that radio frequency too. If ATC's hearing someone else talk over my radio call and they only get the last part of my radio message, they might think that I, a dinky little Cessna 172, want to go up to 25,500 feet ("to 5,500") or 45,500 ("for 5,500"). There will be confusion and ATC will ask me to clarify and I need to make that radio call all over again. That's a minute of air time gone, and in busy airspace, that's an airplane traveling between 2 and 3 miles. Drop the "to" and you get "NorCal Approach, Skyhawk 928DH at 2,000, climbing 5,500." It kinda sounds rude in spoken form, but in radio communications, politeness is a problem; brevity is life.
@@threestrikesmarxman9095 funny how tricky simple homophones can get
I’ve wondered about the meaning of “Actual” ever since 2004!
(Used often in Battlestar Galactic - all makes complete sense!
I learn a lot from Ryan!!
I drove for my battalion commander many moons ago. Anyone calling for him called for "Red Knight 6". if he was away my response would be "Red Knight 6 Romeo". Romeo being short for RTO or Radio Telephone Operator. When handing the radio off to him he would respond with "Red Knight 6 Actual". Otherwise it was just "Red Knight 6". Just another way of letting people on the other end know they are or are not talking to the actual person they are calling for. Small things like that you just learn as you go.
Former 11B here - assigned to a mech brigade HHC when the 4ID was at Ft Carson, CO. Worked at the brigade HQ in S-3 shop (planning, training, & operations) and as training sgt at company. Every Old Man had a diff pet peeve for coms. I was sure to brief new officers before each deployment. You'd better not: 1) preface anything with "Be advised"; 2) use profanity to describe your situation; and 3) NEVER, EVER refer to troops as "bodies" - as in "I don't have enough bodies to...".
This became one of my favorite UA-cam channels in existence. Your content is informative, easy to digest and hilarious. You’ve absolutely nailed it, thank you Ryan!
Probably not what you were thinking, but as a military sci fi writer this was super useful.
Generation Kill easily has the best comms in any movie/tv show
I’m very used too radio call signs. I am a veteran from Canada armed forces. We used them too. Ty for ur service in the American armed forces
"Unless you're really trying to stay awake". Memories!
That was really cool. Now I have another field that I can nit pick on movies and games.
Video games are the worst. "Major, take Bravo squad and assault that bunker."
@@RyanMcBethProgramming I think game devs do it like this: "You 2, take those ragtag group of soldiers there. We'll call you Bravo squad"
@@RyanMcBethProgramming sometimes they put actual effort into it and it really pays off when they do
@@RyanMcBethProgramming I was going to say this video helped me to understand original CoD Modern Warfare trilogy :P, although I know there's probalby a lot of incorrect callsings and other things in these games (first thing that comes to my mind is calling air-to-ground-missile "AGM missile"). Are there any chances of you doing a reaction video to Call of Duty or other media like that?
@@RyanMcBethProgramming here’s one for you.
What’s 7-November? I know the CSM was Spartan 7, but they also had 7- November…
1-36Inf. 2004 OIF Ready First 1-1
The Russian guy that preformed with the skull of an azov soldier was shot in the head a day or so ago. Poetic justice.
Reddit source?
Warthog defense youtube channel
HEADSHOT!
Big deal… He wasn’t using it anyway.
Lol, rekt.
The closest the Navy gets to this kind of alphanumberic designators for communication between general quarters battle stations in the weapons departments/divisions, was how we numbered our weapon system mounts aboard ship.
All mounts to port (left) end in an even number.
All mounts to starboard (right) end in odd numbers.
All mounts centerline were descending starting with fore (front) through to aft (after or stern).
The numbering system always has the numbers 1 and 2 starting from the front of the ship and descending down as many as you need to the end of the ship.
So let's say you have two forward .50cal HMG mounts on either side of the front of ship. You would refer to them as follows:
Mount 51.
Mount 5 means the .50 caliber heavy machine gun, 1 means your .50 is mounted on the starboard side and is the first .50 caliber mount starting from the front of the ship.
Mount 52.
Mount 5 means the .50 caliber HMG, 2 means your .50 is mounted on the port side and is the first .50 caliber mount starting from the front of the ship.
I'll use WWII warships as an example for centerline mounts.
Mount 51, 52, 53, 54. These would be 5" gun mounts or rapid fire freedom.
Mount 61, 62, 63. These would be 16" gun mounts or maximum freedom.
We didn't have numbers for the gun captains, I think it was something along the lines of "Mount 31, gun captain." If they specifically needed to send a hail to that mount. This gets confusing for people outside of the Navy because we have NCO's in charge of specific departments/divisions or details would often be referred to as "insert job" "captain or commander" even though they did not hold that rank or were not even an officer. You got use to it pretty rapidly.
When we were learning fleet comms in the Navy. One of the things that stuck out to me was our use of the word "tac" in place of dot for when you were relaying a series of numbers with points in between.
If I remember correctly, the mechanics for initial communication were the location you were communicating with and then your location after.
When I was deployed to Iraq, I was 2-2 Delta, second platoon-second squad, since I was just a private, I was Delta. Our battalion was broken up into companies and scattered around Baghdad. Plus our company, Alpha, largely operated on our own, doing patrols and securing a local gas station by arming and disarming the security guards every day. There was no need to use Alpha or other company designators in our calls unless we were attached to other units for an cordon and search operation. For a time we had a different set of radios for just our company. On these we were informal, using nicknames and joking.
In British and many Commonwealth militaries, a formation commander is usually referred to as Sunray and the 2IC as Sunray Minor.
EX NZ Army here and to speak to the 'Actual' Leader of any callsign, you would say something like " Zero Alpha this is Zero two, fetch Sunray over"
"Be Advised" (4:28) reminded me of a time long long ago when i was a mortar platoon leader. I was on the battalion net when a very familiar voice came on: "Mortar plt leader (or whatever my call sign was) this is Bn Cdr 6......Be Advised not needed - out"....... huh?......I sat there perplexed....had i just been fired? Did they not need my platoon any more....huh what? Thankfully I sat there for a minute and figured it out. No Slack 6 was a stickler for radio Prowords. "Be Advised" are just extra words in any radio transmission, not an Army Procedure word/phrase and I had just used the phrase on the radio. Brevity is paramount on the radio. He took that seriously. (but be advised....every one still uses it lol)
It’s really hard to break that habit
The coolest call sign i ever had was when I was in Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Infantry (2BDE, 4ID). Being a mechanized company we broke the platoons into red, white, and blue Platoons. The dismount squad leaders were Red 4 and Red 5. Ohh yes, I was Red 5!
The scariest moments I felt as a O311 was when I was on radio watch and hear India 6 actual, Chaos 6 actual on the company net. If CG comes in all the way down to the all the way to company's net you didn't have to know what he was going order but it was really likely that it was going to suck
Holy shit what the hell happened
Armor is a bit different when you get to company level. Each platoon has 4 tanks and each member of the tank has a call sign. Platoons are color coded Red (first platoon), White (second platoon), Blue (third platoon). Tanks are numbered one through four with the platoon leader’s tank number one and the platoon sergeant’s tank number four. Crew positions are Lima (loader), Golf (gunner), Delta (driver), and Actual (tank commander). For example: Charlie red one delta. Charlie (company), Red (platoon), One (platoon leader’s tank), Delta (Driver). That call sign broadcast on the battalion frequency would narrow it down to whomever was in the driver’s seat of that particular tank.
Cobra Blue 1 Golf ……..we didn’t use Charlie or delta was cobra and demon
Agreed. I was Charlie company and we went by Cobra as well. 1-37 armor
@@shawncooke7991 nice I was 2-8 cav
i was a tanker in vietnam we had 5 tank per plt, 3 plt per co, 2tanks in hhc, and 3 co per batt. my call sign is dreadnaught bravo 25 delta. it means 2nd battalion ,34th armor, b company 2nd platoon, 5th tank ,driver " simple "
Not to mention also I had an over watch on one mission from an Apache who’s callsign was Extreme 44 so not sure how their callsigns work.
In the Armor community, the platoons are known as Red, White, and Blue platoon for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. 5, 6, and 7 are still the XO, CO, and 1SG. But tank platoons have 4 tanks per platoon. The PL is always the one tank so for example, I'm in blue platoon, or third, so my Platoon Leader is known as Blue 1. The platoon sergeant is always the 4 tank, so he is Blue 4. Each person on the tank also have identifiers over the radio. The gunner on the 1 tank would be Blue 1 Golf, the loader would be Blue 1 Lima, and the driver would be Blue 1 Delta. Love your content boss, yes, I'm a 19K.
During my service, we used to cherish radio blunders. We used a nationwide medical emergency frequency (but our ambulances and rescue vehicles had limited range) so while we followed strict radio protocol or our commanding officer would rip us a new one, some of the other companies around the country didn't and most often they would make us laugh, except when we were in an actual emergency and some twat was asking the corporal back at base what was for lunch or dinner while we were trying to reach our HQ.... 😅
Ryan, your ability to comingle personal stories and specific technical data makes your videos both educational and very enjoyable to watch.
Thank you for what you do.
When i served in the Swedish Army back in the days we had names for the company and platoons. For instance, our company was ”DB” or ”David Bertil”. 1st Platoon was ”BA” or ”Bertil Adam”, 2nd ”BB” or ”Bertil Bertil” and so forth.
Something to add; “break break break” means “everybody shut up. What I have to say is more urgent than whatever you’re saying.”
I’m sure that many wondered why the XO is 5, commander is 6, and first sergeant is 7. What about 1-4?
These are reserved for the staff sections, S-1 through S-4.
1: Admin/personnel
2: intelligence
3: operations/planning
4: logistics/supply
I don't think that is the reason; if you omit S6 shop. 1 and 4 are also used in amor unit to designate platoon leader and platoon sargeant.
The 1-4 are designated the same way.. the "job" is designated by thier number. 1-4
Thank you for the Ryan McBeth School for Kids Who Can't Radio Good.
Similar idea but with differences in Canada. Commanders are 9 not 6. As B squadron 2 troop commander I was 22 and my troop sergeant was 22A, and the other two vehicles were 22B and 22C. If we were on an infantry net 22C would have been B company, second platoon third section (squad). If I was operating as an armoured unit attached to and under command of an infantry unit I would become Tango 22, If I were an infantry unit attached to an armoured unit I would have become India 22. B Squadron (company equivalent) headquarters would be 2 and the Squadron commander would be 29. This is a long time ago, might be different now.
It’s still the same, also, the NCOs are called Sunray and drivers/radio operators for commanders are called Zulu.
In Skippyland Sunray is the commander of the unit/sub-unit/platoon/section so as the platoon commander of 1 platoon of 1 Health Company my c/s was Sunray 1-1. When I was grunting as section commander of 1 section 6 platoon I was Sunray 2-3-Alpha being I was the leader of the first section (c/s alpha) of the third platoon (c/s 3) of the 2nd company (c/s 2) of the battalion 🍻🍻🍻
my dad was an NCO in the USAF during Vietnam till 1980, and his dad (grandpa) was an NCO during WWII in the 8th Army Air Force (B-17's) so I love these videos. What separates us from the other military powers of the world is the backbone of our military, a strong NCO group of men and women empowered to make the right decisions during the conflict.
When transmitting a message to higher, make sure as a lower enlisted you "Out" all reports. It shows your leadership you know what you're doing and that you can assert yourself. :D
"Yes sir. Very cool sir." Automatically marked you as a former NCO! Great video.
In a lot of battalions, companies themselves will have call signs that start with the letter of their company.
In the aviation side of the US army you get a personal call sign once you become a pilot in command, which is basically a level where your qualified enough to fly solo.
Also in Desert Storm my Marine reserve tank unit had a TOW Platton from Miami Florida. 80 % of the Marines in it we're Cuban. TOW critters were Humvees with TOW missile launcher mounted in a gunners position on the roof. So in Saudi they would all talk in Spanish on the radio which ticked off the higher ups. They finally got told to not speak in Spanish over the radio, LOL!
Great video. Thanks. The only other thing I would add is that a captain taught us that even if you initiated the call and would normally out the call, don't out your commander. Let them do so.
And : Think - Push - Talk (tenk-trykk-tal in NO) . It`s important because of the brevity you mentioned,no uhh`s , ahh`s or ehh`s .
In Norway we also a administrative net and a LOG net (for higher units ) . It to avoid msg about lack of bread etc on the operational net. We call it literary bread (brød)messages and it`s a big nono.
One section reminded me of bootcamp. In boot, we had to stencil our last names into our uniforms. My last name isn't short - it isn't long. When I heard "Shmuckatelli":
1 - I laughed
2 - I remembered how jealous I was of recruits with short names
3 - I remembered how lucky I was my name wasn't really long (nor Shmuckatelli!)
If you're spelling a long name phonetically I've found it helpful to say them in 3/4 letter groups.
Jackson
IE. Juliet, Alfa, Charlie....Kilo, Sierra, Oscar, November.
A relative was a navy communication operator on a few ships and a "boat" or sub in the 70's. They would do radio checks to all the bases in the Pacific and get sports results before the games where shown do to the delay. It was a racket with the radio people. Only small bets not to blow the scam but it was fleet wide.
Ryan is passively training us to be his logisitics
The “actual” designator was something they did in the rebooted Battlestar Galactica series.
Also when I first got in (civilian) EMS I was a little surprised at how foreign the radio chatter sounded. It took me a little while to develop an ear for what was being said, even when what was being said wasn’t code or lingo….different accents, mumbles, where the radio mic was oriented in relation to the speaker (in the truck or on the individual) and background noises on scene. Once I got an ear for it it became like a 2nd language or dialect to me.
I was a lowly EMT in a major metro area, and tbh I found the behind-the-scenes logistics of ems much more interesting than the medicine. One of my most exciting (ass clenching) moments was rolling up on an MCI right after it happened and basically coordinating a multiagency response that utilized all the available resources from my ambulance company, the county fire, neighboring city fire, rescue air, etc. normally when a high ranking FD officer shows up like a battalion chief they assume command (otherwise first unit on scene has command until relieved) but I don’t recall the bat chief ever making a big deal and taking command. It felt much more cooperative where he showed up and coordinated his elements, but I was still running around using 3 different radios to call in equipment and guide personnel.
The logistics of the hidden world behind the world is so fascinating
My 2nd Baghdad deployment. Delta 2/5 CAVs call signs for platoons were, Red/ Rocket, White/ Trash and Blue/ Falcons.
The current issue of Vietnam War magazine has a great article on how well the enemy was able to listen in and fully understand our radio traffic. The author, a senior Signal Corps officer, cited poor electronic security in the radios themselves as well as a general lack of discipline with respect to call signs, etc.
Radios should always be considered unsecure in my opinion. Discussion of movements should be very limited as enemy is probably listening. Even if enemy cant translate or decrypt a sudden increase in radio traffic could indicate an action is soon to happen. If movements must be discussed they should as much as possible be limited to things happening now, logic being that by the time the enemy decodes or translates the radio conversation and passes that info along it will be worthless as troops or bombs will have arrived and they will know it anyway.
I'm so grateful for how metal our call signs were, I loved roll call at task force meetings. My PSG was tired of witch doctor or bandaid, so PFC me picked Voodoo, 17 years later it's still going strong.
Back in the Finnish military we just called each other by your names over the radio. Of course we knew who we were calling for over the comms due to being signal units.
Well the finns have their own language, as a lot of people understand english, so they have to use callsights.
the finns are known for their lack of radio discipline
Pretty certain Finnish counts as encrypted at all times.
@RyanMcBeth that's a good looking Mechanized Infantry Company you used there. ACO 2-5 CAV!!!
With the dutch red cross we use the same method of radio talk (first announce your target, identify yourself, message, over)
but we only use numbers, in an XX-X-XX format where the numbers are used to identify the province of the call, the department, and the actual callsign
In Germany you start with the organization, so 'RotKreuz' for the red cross followed by the location as a specific word followed by the number assigned to the station. Finally you get the digits that describe the unit and if necessary digits counting up to distinguish units that otherwise have the same code.
For example: "Rotkreuz Stuttgart 1/83/12 von Florian Stuttgart 11/42 kommen" is a simple fire truck from Birkach calling ambulance #12 stationed at the main station operated by the red cross.
Its stuff like this that makes me love the internet. Such an obscure topic that you can't rely on Google to give a concise-enough answer, and then a Chad like you comes along! Well done sir. That's a sub for you.
thank you for this. My cousin is a Marine Radio guy. He wouldn't tell me any of this.
A good policy. I too was in the Marines and was in charge of the communication section. We had a different call sign format. Did your cousin say "if I told you, I would have to kill you"?
As a commodog from '08-'17, this sparked some old memories and training. You don't just forget commo training and jargon. Would be interesting to see a follow up from this video maybe exploring the 25 series field a bit and the importance that is Communications.
US Navy will also use "Break" when a command unit is giving general information to all on the network but then needs a specific response from a unit. I.e. "Whiskey this is (Whiskey command call sign) I make track #### (classification of track), break, Charlie track and report. Over." This is basically telling whomever Charlie is that that track is their responsibility. This would typically be followed with, "Charlie roger, out." Or if they had lost that track on their sensor or for some reason could not be the one responsible, "Charlie CANTCO (reason for non-compliance), over." The reason the first is out and the second is over; first time the net needed no more information and is executing as directed, while the second shows that a direction cannot be followed and the net needs further information/tasking.
Yeah mine said get the hell out it there duck for cover. Everybody knew what that meant!
I was in Signal Corps (1976-1980), and we used a two-digit system to identify communication sites.
50 was Division Main; 51, 52, 53 were units acting in direct support of Main, not necessarily located with Main.
70-series was for remote locations. 71, 72, 73 etc. were forward areas.
The first digit told you 'Scope', second digit told you 'Section'.
The lower the Section number, the higher the priority.
Never saw/heard of a 60-series.
We provided communications for Units conducting exercises; I have no idea how they were trained to use what we provided.
“Generation War” did a prett good job of demonstrating the use of call signs.
Thank you, Ryan. This has proved to be very helpful for a project I'm writing; so much so I have it book marked. I greatly appreciate it.
Send me an email if you need help
@@RyanMcBethProgramming Thank you. I appreciate it very much. I will be doing that in the next couple of days, (if life doesn't throw me a mean curve first, which it has the last few days).
When I was in the 82nd ABN Div (313th MI BN - deactivated years ago, during Army reorganization), I was in a C&J (Collection & Jamming) Platoon…and when I was stationed in Okinawa (1st Bn, 1st SFG (A), as a member of a SOTA we often said “Break Squelch and Die”
I was in the Army back in the time before fully encrypted radios were a thing. Our call signs (and radio frequencies) changed daily to limit enemy intelligence from our radio messages. A classified booklet known as the CEOI (communications/electronics operating instructions) listed all units and subunits within a command. You had an extract of the CEOI with the pertinent pages for your unit to refer to. Woe betide anyone who lost their CEOI extract.
Call signs had a specific format. The unit had a three character identifier in the format letter-number-letter, followed by a two digit number for the individual or subunit. These were all randomly generated and changed daily at local midnight.
The only encrypted radio I ever personally saw was during a class on the KY-57 in OBC. But we had KOI-18s for the crypto we didn't have. I have a great two weeks after someone left the damn KOI-18s in the vault and then couldn't' find it in the field.
To simplify:
“Hey you, this is me, over.”
‘Hey you, this is me, send it. Over.’
I was in a scout troop. Honestly, we were just assigned random call signs.
Chaos an acronym for “Colonel Has An Outstanding Solution”.
Really good video I wish I knew this before watching Platoon and Hamburger Hill, note civil aviation uses much the same format. Target name,this is (aircraft registration), message, over or out. Also use of the International Phonetic Alphabet and numbers using “Niner” so that it can never be mistaken for “NEIN”.
This radio video reminds of my 1963-69 days as a Marine Corps Radio-Telegraph Operator (a voice operator also Morse code trained).
I remember using the same formats you spoke of ... the format has been used a long time: some of the call sings I remember:
Pretext - Battalion CO
Anchor - Company CO
Yomama Platoon CO
Some air strikers:
Angel (rescue/medevac helo pilot)
Bandit (F4C pilot)
Big Foot (B-52 pilot)
Widow Maker (B-52 spotter in a Cessna)
However,
GO NAVY
😁
Big thank you for interesting video. I also absolutely would love to see/hear your opinion on chinese baloon if its possible. You just have that special talent to find info and break it down that makes it easy to understand some complicated details. Thanks in advance!
Arma players all over the world are thanking you right now
HI Ryan, it would be great to see a video about the difference between NCOs and normal officers. Has always confused me. I'm sure I could look it up but I'm lazy
I like this idea, why are NCOs better than top level down command (like what Russian terrorists use).
@@bostondan77 NCOs ie sergeants, corporals sign up for longer than most junior officers,start at the bottom work their way up the ranks usually based on performance/ability!
The main difference in combat is Nato Ncos can react to real time situations,make decisions and command using their ability and experience whilst russians have to follow previous issued order or wait for a new one.
Super simplistic breakdown
NCO = Supervisor
Officer = Manager/Sr Manager
Little more to it but should help
Officer - the boss you never had
NCO - the old brother you never had
In college American Military history was one of my favorite classes. Our teacher was not great, I can only imagine how informative and amazing a full class from Ryan would be! You put out such informative videos and I really like that you give us examples of how it works and not just explaining it!
Really enjoy your updates Ryan. As a very old soldier, I am glad to report that the call signs and procedures have not changed since before Viet Nam days. Makes me feel less obsolete.
One thing that may be different are security protocols. Back in my day there were no secure radio communications below brigade, anyway. We had to use Signal Security Procedures to at least verify who we were talking to. You know, "Verify Mike 4... Confirm Fox 3." Then, we'd change prearranged frequencies to meet up again. Wasn't perfect, but it was all we had. I sure hope that's all changed.
One important thing you may want to emphasize is that it's not "Repeat" unless you are talking to artillery support. It's "Say Again." Also, is everything all "Copy" now, or is "Roger" still just as good?
Cheers, Out.
We still do authentication, but I don’t think I’ve done that since the 90s. I think that with encrypted frequency, hopping radios it’s not as much of a concern.
Current Signalier here. I can't get too much in depth on an open channel, but it has changed. Most of our radios support encryption & hopping frequencies multiple times a second. Listening in is very difficult.
"Roger" is used much more often than "Copy", the latter mainly being used only when taking down information like "Schmuckatelli".
Former 31K Signal here. Great job! I would often use 'break' so as to not key the mic for overly long periods of time. Also, a word to avoid 'repeat', since that is often used in Field Artillery... we instead use 'say again' (which I still do 30 years later). Lastly - the reboot of Battlestar Galactica had excellent use of military comms for a sci-fi show...!
Love these videos
This has been the best explanation of standard radio etiquette I have hear. Thanks much and keep it up.👍
Household 6, the wife
And when she's flying, the plane's callsign changing to 'Air Force One'.😆
@@csabagall8811 🤣
😂
For us seafairers 'Break' is also used to allow a pause in case emergency traffic needs to come in. For example Channel 16 is the nautical hailing and distress channel. If ship A wanted to hail ship B they'd connect on channel 16 and then move to a working channel.
When the Coast Guard puts out a long radio message, say to give information on a weather pattern, they'll say part of the message, "Break" and pause in case there is emergency traffic, then continue the next segment and break again.
I am not sure if they still do this but , if you say break multiple times it is a destress call and a sign to clear the comms.
So break,break, break means i have an urgent message, usually a medical evacuation. A medical evacuation is 9 lines so you near clear comms to communicate.
Line 1 pickup site
Line 2 radio frequency
Line 3. # of patients by precedence-urgent, urgent surgical,priority, routine
Line 4 Equipment
Line 5 total #of patients
Line 6 security at pick-up site
Line 7 method of marking- smoke, ect
Line 8 Patient Nationality
Line 9 Nuclear-Biological-Chemical Contamination
A M.I.S.T. report will be given
MECHANISM of Injury
Type of INJURY
SIGNS vital signs.
TREATMENT given. Say morphine given or IV.
Using "break" for this as well as the keyword for waiting seems like a bad idea. The (foreign) system I am familiar with uses "wait" for the waiting command and "mayday, mayday, mayday" to clear all comms in an emergency and a seperate keyword repeated thrice to clear comms for something extremely urgent in general.
Another great video about a snippet of military life that a normal person would not have even noticed. I find it amazing that people knew and understood Morse code. Then in ships understood flag messages. Who thought that talking on a phone could be so complicated? 😃
This was really good and informative!! Appreciate the insight!
A breakdown of hand signals,and their merit and uses, would be cool.
Wow, liked that. I was in MARS a number of years back being an amateur radio operator. And this brought back memories. People on the phone still get confused when I ask them to spell phonetically. Or I spell phonetically. In the amateur radio circles, everybody has a call sign so we are all equal in that respect.
Anyway, I hope you'll do more of these. BTW, what's the Commander in Chief?
POTUS actual?
Wouldn't POTUS simply be whatever they picked for their USSS call sign?
CIC Actual would be my guess.
The Secret Service generates individual callsigns for every President and their family.
So, say you have a President like Putin, and he has a young child in grade school.
You might tag him as Spook, and the kid as Sandbox.
That way, all on the channel know who you are talking about.
The next President might have been a property owner, and have a son that works in a bakery.
You might have a call sign Landlord, and the boy called Breadstick.
It’s not something rooted in a particular science.
Today it's probably dumbass 6.
@@panachevitz Nah Brandon actual.
great explanation...former Gunslinger 6...we re-flagged G Co from E Co 3 days after I took command and I got to "pick" our new call sign. 1SG and I let the company do it. Thank god I didn't end up as Gecko 6. That was awhile ago, but it was fun to sign off at CoC as "OG Gunslinger 6, out."
In Desert Storm my Marine M60a1 tank was White 3 as we were the 3rd of 4 tanks in White Platton (2nd platoon). Our company CO's tank was Black 6 and the XO's tank was Black 5. We were attached by platoon's to Marine Infantry companies in 1/6. White platoon was with Alpha company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine regiment or A/1/6. Alpha companies commander was called Spear Point. As a whole he called us Tanks on the radio. So he would say: "Tanks, tanks this is Spear Point over"......Spear Point this is tanks go ahead (White 1, 2nd platoon's commander answering). The US Army scout (M113) that acted as a liaison vehicle between 2nd Marine division and the US Army Tiger Brigade was called "Hound dog". In the minefields I heard someone fire a large caliber weapon right near my tank. I told my tank commander that someone behind us had just fired. A moment later we heard on the radio: "White 1, White 1 this is black 5, your last white unit just took a near miss from six enemy artillery rounds 20 meters behind them, over". It took me about 3 seconds to realize that my tank was the last white unit in line in the minefields, LOL.
My last call sign was Murder 99 the artillery battery that shot for me was Murder 16.
Now I understand even less ;). At least it gives me couple minutes that PERUN might update. But no luck.
You too? I'm here waiting for Perun as well.
@@glenndean6 Aren't we all?
EYYY BOYS NEW PERUN DROPPED
@@p_serdiuk We know!
@@p_serdiuk And we're off! (*cue rush to Perun's channel*)
Ive always wondered what those words mean, ive only heard them in the movies and tv, glad to know that how its done. Thanks man.
Probably my favorite military radio things are in Generation Kill. There is one scene where the Alpha Company Commander asks his 2nd platoon leader if they found any blown up tanks in the BDA, and the platoon leader doesn't want to say that they found nothing, and the USAF dropped like 80 tons of bombs on empty sand, and you get the exchange below
Assassin 2, Assassin Actual: Interrogative, did you find any destroyed Iraqi armor? Over.
Assassin Actually, Assassin 2 Actual, not specifically. Over.
Interrogogative, did you find any non-specific Iraqi armor? Over.
Negative. We turned a lot of dirt. Assassin 2 out.
There is another good one where Bravo Company 2nd Platoon Leader tries to call the Team Leader for Team 1 on the radio, but instead he gets the RTO.
Hitman 2-1, Hitman.
Hitman 2, send traffic. Over.
I need 2-1 Actual on the hook. Over.
Uh... 2-1 Actual is on a mission.... Taking a dump. First combat dump in country.
If anyone hasn't seen Generation Kill, do yourselves a favor and watch it immediately.
man... Platoon .. is such a great movie...
Wow. As a 42 year old non military guy, I really needed to watch this.
The Swedish version of numbers to people. The first platoon in first company there callsign would be AQ. The platooncommander would be AQ1. Second in command AQ2. First maneuver company in battalion would be QL. CO would be QL1. So company's is Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango. Thats one HQ/support company and four maneuver comp. PL, QL, RL, SL, TL. The platoons is A, B, C, D, E. And squads is E, F, G, H. So
1 squad in 2 platoon in 3 company is EBR. If you want the squad leader its EBR1. The system is called FAL-A. Fasta Anropssignaler Lägre enheter - Armén. Some thing like "Fixt callsigns for lower units - army"
This was more helpful than the radio training class I did in BCT. I don't remember squat from it. When they had the slide up for Over, out, actual, etc. they had it for maybe 10 seconds so I didn't have enough time to read it and copy the info down
I served in a scout platoon of a mechanized infantry battalion in the 80s-90s. In training our net call sign was usually 'Red'. E.g. "Red 6 actual" was the LT, while "Red 6" was usually his snarky driver. The scout platoon had 6 vehicles, 3 M113s and 3 M901 ITVs with 30 troops in all. We had 2 radios per vehicle with one tuned to our local net, and the other usually tuned to the battalion net. The FIST team was colocated with battalion HQ, and we had a 4" mortar platoon native to the battalion as well - so we could call for fire when we thought we needed it.
Sometimes the call sign would be changed to something else in the signals section of the operations order. This was back before all the fancy encrypted channel hopping tech - we were broadcasting in the clear on an analog radio. As a result, we would use one time pads to encrypt critical information that we didn't want the enemy to hear - such as Pvt Schmucitelli's name. We could also use the pad to authenticate we were indeed "Red 1" and in possession of the pad.
Later on when I had to talk to ATC while learning how to fly airplanes, the standard radio telephone procedures I learned in the Army came in real handy. Those standards are universal, generally speaking, across the world given ATC communication is standard across all borders.
In Germany the sgt. of the company is called "Spiess". He is the mother of the company (second man after dad, the captain, 😂😂😂, the lieutenants don't matter)
So Ryan, you've been mom!!!
I just finished rewatching Generation Kill yesterday and this makes a whole lot more sense now.
Swedish prostate guerilla here. Our units have 2 letter designations from battalion level downwards.
VJ - Battalion HQ
QJ- 1st company, RJ - 2nd company, SJ - 3rd company, TJ - 4th company
AQ, BQ, CQ, DQ designates 1st to 4th platoons in JQ company. AR, BR, CR, DR are 1st to 4th platoons in JR- company etc...
Groups in each platoon are denoted E, F, G, H, I, J...
2nd group/squad, first platoon, 3rd company would be simply; FA.
This works in the Swedish doctrine as it is mission oriented (here is your task and resources, report back when completed. No, we do not care how you accomplish your task...). You rarely signal beyond two levels up in the organisation.
If, by some circumstances, a squad leader reports something directly to battalion HQ it would probably take a few seconds for the operator to figure out who just called and left a message to the battalion-whomever but that is another story.
1-unit commander
2-Exo
3- Staff Cmdr / head of staff
4- Highest ranking sergeant
10 - Personnel functions
20- Intelligence and security
30- Tactical
35- Combat (?not sure about the translation?)
36- Combat exec
40- Supplies and logistics
41-quartermaster
50- fieldwork
60- Air
70- Signaling operations
80- Medical management team
90- reserve
Marine radioman 73 -76
Still had open frequency
Though encryption was available too
So i was Lil Abner
And many others
The numbers come from the s numbers
S1. S2. S3. S4.
Xo Is 5
I worked on some of the early ATACCS systems. The idea was that every vehicle would transmit telemetry for every 25 meters of movement. This was then sent back to command where a real-time picture of the battlefield would be displayed. The EM signature of a unit using this system was MASSIVE. For some reason, when specing this out no one took the EM signature into account. Testing is a good thing.
THAT brought back a ton of memories of "Radio" School in beautiful 29 PALMS CA.
Next episode: Ryan breaks down Sterling Archer's radio discipline.