That system evolved with the introduction of radio communications. Early transmissions were often of poor quality, so, to avoid misunderstandings, spelling alphabets were developed. Also called phonetic alphabets, they replaced letters with words that started with the corresponding letter.

By World War II, the U.S. and British militaries had settled on a standard: Able for A, Baker for B … and Roger for R. (Previously, the British had used Robert.)

In the 1950s, a new alphabet — commonly referred to as the NATO phonetic alphabet — was adopted, and is now the most widely used. It replaced Roger with Romeo. (I’m planning to stick with Roger.)

Chris Stanford, on the briefings team, wrote today’s Back Story.

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