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.
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:
|a. Grey Beret
||The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps
|b. Brown Beret
||The King's Royal Hussars
The Royal Wessex Yeomanry
|c. Khaki Beret
||All Regiments of Foot Guards
The Honourable Artillery Company
The Royal Anglian Regiment
The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment
The Yorkshire Regiment
|d. Black Beret
||The Royal Tank Regiment
|e. Rifle Green Beret
The Brigade of Gurkhas
Adjutant General's Corps
|f. Maroon Beret
||The Parachute Regiment
|g. Beige Beret
||The Special Air Service Regiment
|h. Light Blue Beret
||The Army Air Corps
|i. Scarlet Beret
||Royal Military Police
|j. Cypress Green Beret
||The Intelligence Corps
The Royal Regiment of
Scotland wear the Tam O Shanter (TOS) and the Royal Irish Regiment wear the
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
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
D Day is the day an operation begins.
H Hour is the hour a specific operation begins.
Days and hours can be represented by numbers plus or minus of D Day for
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.
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