34 common military terms you may not know.

[+Grim Reaper 6]

"Alfa, Bravo, Charlie..." is an alphabet that you may already know and understand. These words represent the letters "A," "B," and "C" in the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, more commonly known as the NATO phonetic alphabet. It was standardized in 1956 with sounds that are similar in English, French, and Spanish, and the military still uses it today to omit misunderstandings over radio. If you aren't using it already, this would be a good one to adopt for those customer service calls where you need to read your 17-digit confirmation code that somehow is made up letters that all sound the same.

Or how about when someone says "Meet me here at 1400?" The military time system, which uses the 24-hour clock, is another method used to prevent mistakes or confusion between a.m. and p.m. times, as critical missions leave no room for miscommunications. This is another one that may come in handy to civilians with a propensity for setting their alarm at the wrong time or showing up to appointments at 7 p.m. instead of 7 a.m. 

34 common military terms you may not know (msn.com)