Names of letters for clarity. A - Alpha B - Bravo C - Charlie D - Delta E - Echo F - Foxtrot G - ? H - ? I - Indigo J - Juliet? K - ? L - ? M - ? N - Nova? O - Oscar P - ? Q - ? R - Romeo S - ? T - Tango U - Unicorn? V - ? W - ? X - Xylophone? Y - ? Z - Zulu
I'm sure it's not universal, but-- alpha bravo charlie delta echo foxtrot golf hotel india juliet kilo lima mike november oscar papa quebec romeo sierra tango uniform victor whiskey xray yankee zulu Lima Oscar Lima! ._.. _ _ _ ._..
The OLD way G - George H - Henry K - King L - Leo M - Mary P - Paul Q - Queen S - Sam V - Victor W - Whiskey Y - Yankee
I'm going with Lima for L , Whiskey for W and Yankee for Y, as these sound familiar to me. I don't think it's standardised, but maybe somewhere there is a list out there of 'what names to call letters'. ? Maybe it's S for Sugar (or S for Sierra) or both, IDK.
So this comes from the military? That makes sense. Uncle Sam was US, soldiers out in the battlefield started calling packages with US stamped on 'presents from Uncle Sam' and that's how America got its nickname. Maybe U is uncle and S was Sam? IDK.
Thorough explanation here: NATO phonetic alphabet - Wikipedia Not sure about the whole history, but I do know that the military used it in part because of noisy environments when using a radio. If you were told to land on runway 29 D, noise in the cockpit might make you wonder if that was 29 D or 29 C? "2-9 Delta" is much easier to understand when you have all that background noise and crappy radios.