 | NATO phonetic alphabet: Encyclopedia II - NATO phonetic alphabet - Phonetic alphabet in popular culture
NATO phonetic alphabet - Phonetic alphabet in popular culture
Two television series (and a comic book adaptation by Charlton comics) were named "Adam-12", the radio call sign for the patrol car the two main characters were assigned to. The theme song to the original series was prefaced with simulated radio traffic which began with the call "One Adam Twelve".
The NATO phonetic alphabet is referred to repeatedly in Robert Ludlum's novel The Bourne Identity. The phrase Cain is for Charlie and Delta is for Cain is repeated, always italicised, to symbolise the messages relayed to the main character during the Vietnam war.
The nickname "Charlie" used by US servicemen in the Vietnam War is derived from "Victor Charlie", the NATO phoneticism for the initials of the Viet Cong, the armed insurgents in the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam).
The name of sports car manufacturer Alfa Romeo is sometimes believed to represent the initials AR in this system, although this is not supported by the company's official history.
UTC (aka Greenwich Mean Time) is sometimes referred to as "Zulu" time, after the Z letter designation given to the GMT time zone.
The rock band Wilco's 2002 album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, includes recordings of a numbers station speaking these words, believed to be a transmission of an alphanumeric cipher using this phonetic alphabet.
The Bloodhound Gang has a song entitled Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo on their album Hefty Fine, refering to an obvious swear word.
In the film "Super Troopers" license plates are read using a made up phonetic alphabet containing words like "Eunuch" and "Peanut."
The call sign "Sierra Oscar" is frequently heard in the British TV serial The Bill.
The call sign "Three William Fifty Six" is frequently heard in the American movie series Lethal Weapon.
In the 1991 film Hot Shots!, the alphabet is parodied in such phrases as "Yankee Doodle Floppy Disk, this is Foxtrot Zulu Milkshake," "Alpha Velveeta Knuckle Underwear, you are cleared for take-off," and "Sphincter Mucus Layer Ringworm, roger."
In The Simpsons, episode "Separate Vocations", the license plate "EX-CON" was spelled in a similar parody as "Eggplant Xerxes Crybaby Overbite Narwhal".
Adam Curry begins every episode of his Daily Source Code podcast with "Delta Sierra Charlie" and the episode number.
Other related archives1927, 1932, 1947, 1951, 1956, 1965, 1991, ARRL, Adam Curry, Alfa Romeo, American National Standards Institute, Bahasa Indonesia, Berlin, Bravo Zulu, British police, Checkpoint Charlie, Coordinated Universal Time, Daily Source Code, Delta Air Lines, Federal Aviation Administration, Greenwich Mean Time, Hefty Fine, Hot Shots!, ICAO, Indonesia, International Air Transport Association, International Civil Aviation Organization, International Code of Signals, International Maritime Organization, International Phonetic Alphabet, International Telecommunication Union, International maritime signal flags, Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet, Latin America, Lethal Weapon, March 1, Morse code, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, November 1, Philippines, RAF phonetic alphabets, Radio Regulations, Republic of Vietnam, Robert Ludlum, Royal Flying Corps, Royal Navy, SWAT, Super Troopers, The Bill, The Bloodhound Gang, The Bourne Identity, The Simpsons, U.S. states, UTC, United Kingdom, United States, Victor Charlie, Viet Cong, Vietnam War, Wilco, World War I, World War II, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, alphanumeric, call sign, cipher, five, linguistics, numbers station, phonetic alphabet, phonetic notation, podcast, schwa, symbols, umlauts
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Phonetic alphabet in popular culture", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
