RANKS

  MODES OF ADDRESS

  REGIMENTAL HEADDRESS
  CODEWORDS & NICKNAMES
  DATES & TIMINGS
  PHONETIC ALPHABET

    RANKS    

OFFICER RANKS

Army

Navy

Air Force

Field Marshal

NON-COMMISSIONED RANKS

Note: (1) May include Junior Technician and Senior Aircraftsman

Modes of Address

Where appropriate soldiers are addressed by their generic rank without any qualifications, therefore Generals, Lieutenant Generals and Major Generals are all addressed as 'General'. Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels as 'Colonel', Corporals and Lance Corporals as ' Corporal'. Staff Sergeants and Colour Sergeants are usually addressed as 'Staff' or 'Colour' and CSMs as Sergeant Major. It would almost certainly be prudent to address the RSM as 'Sir'.

Private Soldiers should always be addressed by their title and then their surname. For example: Rifleman Harris, Private Jones, Bugler Bygrave, Gunner Smith, Guardsman Thelwell, Sapper Williams, Trooper White, Kingsman Boddington, Signalman Robinson, Ranger Murphy, Fusilier Ramsbotham , Driver Wheel, Craftsman Grease or Air Trooper Rotor. However, it should be remembered that regiments and corps have different customs and although the above is a reasonable guide it may not always be correct.

Regimental Headdress

The normal everyday headdress of NCOs and Soldiers (and in some regiments of all ranks) is the beret or national equivalent. The norm is the dark blue beret. Exceptions are as follows:

 

The Royal Regiment of Scotland wear the Tam O Shanter (TOS) and the Royal Irish Regiment wear the Caubeen.

CODEWORDS & NICKNAMES

A Codeword is a single word used to provide security cover for reference to a particular classified matter, e.g. 'Corporate' was the Codeword for the recovery of the Falklands in 1982.

In 1997 'Bolton' was used to refer to operations during the reinforcement of Kuwait and Op Grapple was used  for operations in support of the UN in the former Yugoslavia.

A Nickname consists of two words and may be used for reference to an unclassified matter, e.g. 'Lean Look' referred to an investigation into various military organisations in order to identify savings in manpower.

DATES & TIMINGS

When referring to timings, the Armed Forces use the 24-hour clock. This means that 2015 hours, pronounced twenty fifteen hours, is in fact 8.15pm.

Soldiers usually avoid midnight and refer to 2359 or 0001 hours. Time zones present plenty of scope for confusion! Exercise and Operational times are expressed in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) which may differ from the local time.

The suffix Z (Zulu) denotes GMT and A (Alpha) GMT + 1 hour. B (Bravo) means GMT + 2 hours and so on.

The Date Time Group or DTG can be seen on military documents and is a point of further confusion for many. Using the military DTG 1030 GMT on 20th April 2007 is written as 201030Z APR 07. When the Army relates days and hours to operations a simple system is used.

When the Armed Forces relate days and hours to operations a simple system is used:

a. D Day is the day an operation begins.

b. H Hour is the hour a specific operation begins.

c. Days and hours can be represented by numbers plus or minus of D Day for planning purposes.

Therefore, if D Day is the 20 Mar 2009, D-2 is the 18 Mar 09 and D+2 is the 22 Mar 09. If H Hour is 0600hrs, then H+2 is 0800 hours.

PHONETIC ALPHABET

To ensure minimum confusion during radio or telephone conversations, difficult words or names are spelt out letter by letter using the following NATO standard phonetic alphabet.

ALPHA - BRAVO - CHARLIE - DELTA - ECHO - FOXTROT - GOLF - HOTEL - INDIA - JULIET - KILO - LIMA - MIKE - NOVEMBER - OSCAR - PAPA - QUEBEC - ROMEO - SIERRA - TANGO - UNIFORM - VICTOR - WHISKEY - X RAY - YANKEE - ZULU