Boom-Boom 'Jeff 'Boom-Boom' Paulk, a 10TFS pilot got his name for a funny thing. He used to be the Nr2 Quaterback at the Georgia U football team, so a very competitive guy. One night at the O'Club one of the Sabres challenged all his bro's with the Sabre coin. When a pilot challenges another with the sqdn coin at places where alcohol is served, his fellow has to show his coin within 60 seconds. If all his bro's have the coin, the one who challenged has got to pay a round, however, if there's someone who doesn't have the coin he'll buy a round for the rest. Anyway, that day Jeff had left his coin in the car when he was challenged, he immediately runs out of the bar, tried to push the door open in this violent football- player- manner... and wham.... guess what happened... He slammed the main entrance door of the O'club, which was fully glass, into a million pieces. So they gave him the name Boom-Boom'

Boomer Recieved it from my buddies in an unfortunate event that almost cost my life. What to say, it was a mailfunction on the engines and they ignited, started burning. Luckily, I was just prepairing for a take-off from a carrier, so it was easy to heat off the engines and abort. - Eddie M.

Boss The movie 'Cool Hand Luke', was always playing on an old 8mm at Williams AFB, and some of the new guys that was training with the T-38 talon would always say "Sir I don't understand or I don't get it." So this young kid from Sacramento CA name Overton would always say in a deep down south voice "What we have here, is a frailer to communicate". And it never fail some one would always ask, "Who the h--l are you?' Overton would smile and reply "Boss, Boss Overton." Then spit as thou he had chew in his mouth.

B.B. A drunken night at the Kun (Juvats of course) for a young Lt. 3 seconds away from being named Opie for the rest of my life when another punk saved me. Offered up B.B. to the crowd - complete silence since no one could figure out what B.B. meant. "Has anyone ever been stuck next to this kid at the bar? Blah Blah (f^*$ing) Blah...so B.B. for short." No vote, no more names, just a nametag with B.B. on it. What is Good!

BA Given to a pilot who had a quite hefty posterior. Stands for Big A$$.

BABS Sleeping with a flight surgeon - Banging A Back Seater

Back fire Well it was my one-on-one combat training mission in PAF F-16 squadron. When I found my instructor at my tail I rapidly fired as many flares as we were allowed to show off. My instructor some how got in a wrong place so he had to face the back fire. Then at debrief he held me responsable for "firing backwards" at him rather than to fire when he was in front, it got a ludicrous sitcom as my backfire seemed to be quite accurate. My Squad-mates labeled me a 'back fire' shooter and it became a funny tactic.

Badger Former Viking driver. I'm from Wisconsin and gave up a few weekends during flight training to make sure I knew my stuff. That (some LTCDR said I went after it like a Badger) and Wisconsin had terrible football teams when I was in the Navy so it was kind of an insult, I guess.

Badger As a specialist helicopter pilot, we were involved in night time flying ,almost all of the time.One of my buddies got the nickname of Vampire, I fell over laughing, I had to ask,why that call sign, he responded by saying he was told only vampire bats fly at night. Before I could say anything else, he responded with a reply, you have one too. Badger, how come I asked , he responded, they only come out at night looking for something to eat, just like you, every time you fly, you look for a candy bar to put into your flight suit pocket.

Baja Went off roading in a jet and got stuck in the mud after sliding off the runway.

Baldy Laughlin 1993: Female student married a classmate who got Vipers (F-16 aka "Lawn Dart") BALD-D: Bangs A Lawn Dart Driver

BALZ Belonged to a Viper driver with a last name of Benoit

Bambi This pilot, who is now flying F-15s at Tyndall, hit a pregnant deer with his nosegear while taking off in a T-38 at Columbus. Needless to say, there were guts all over the runway and they had to close it for half an hour to clean-up.

Bambi Killer 'Some years ago a guy was in Gagetown learning to fly the Kiowa. One of the events was learning to fire the gun pod; the mission was to pop up from behind a hill and shoot at a target a mile away. It takes a few seconds for the lead to travel downrange, and as one pilot was watching to see if he'd hit the target, a deer made the fatal mistake of leaping from behind cover at the wrong moment. For the rest of this fellow's career in the Canadian Forces, he was tagged 'Bambi Killer'.'

Banana Last name Hammock.

BANJO Met a couple guy's from a 135 unit. They told me about this pilots call sign which translates to Busted A$$ Naked Jacking Off.

Banya I was new to the squadron and going through MQT and was looking for a car. My flight commander was selling his VW jetta, so we haggled on a price. We came to an impasse, when I said my wife and I would take him and his wife out to dinner as a tie breaker. So, it came from the episode of Seinfeld when Jerry gives Kenny Banya an Armani suit, and Banya has to take Jerry to dinner - or something like that. I tell the girls in the Nellis club that it means "long like vine" in Swahili.

Barbie My pal and I were discussing callsigns before entering a briefing where they were at least vaguely decided. We found several that we thought were downright hilarious. When I went in and introduced myself, my buddy loudly proposed Barbie for mine and it stuck. It's all right though, he ended up with TwinkleToes for his.

Barf I'm a civilian, was riding in the trunk of a D/mod, trying to get my 9g+ pin. Got to 9.2 on the meter, made it all the way back to the chocks too....

Barracuda A guy who has a big and sharp nose

Batman One day I thought it would be a good idea to share a picture of a SPEC Ops guy in HALO gear getting ready for a jump...he looked like Batman. So I sent the e-mail out to the rest of the shop under the title "I am BATMAN!!!" and made the mistake of not attatching said picture. From that day on I was officially known as Batman.

Batman USAF Fighter Pilot : real name - Michael Keaton!

Battmann Went blind 5 times in a ACM sortie during conversion. Hence: Blind All The Time Mann..

baywatch A fun drunk memory during a boating incident that involved alot of swimming

BDU Not the quickest guy in the squadron. Short for Big Dumb Unit - pronounced "Badoo"

Beagle Kept 'bouncing around' on landings like an excited beagle puppy.

Beaker Named after the muppets character. She had a high pitched voice and never shut up

Beans One of the guys found my 7th grade picture. Apparently I look like Beans from Even Stevens

Bear Due to my grizzley attitude towards the FNGs.

Beaver I was the only female student in a whole class of men at an aeronautical university. I was kind of worried that the other students were not interacting with me much, if at all. I spoke to the teacher, who probably in turn spoke to the students. To welcome me, they gave me the callsign "Beaver". It sticks to this day.

Beeper Fight Surgeon with the 162nd Fighter Wing of the Arizona Air Guard. The Doc was on call for his civilian practice. Thought there was no chance he would get called in and decided to do a rear seat jaunt in the viper. While at last chance his beeper goes off. He has to tell the viper driver to return to chalks so he can get out and handle the emergency.

Beeper F-15 pilot; based off of the stall warning alarm that I seemed to become familiar with

Belly Flop Coming in for a landing on the chopper the pilot forgot to put the landing gears down. I think the name says it all.

Bent Bob P-3 flight engineer. Standing alert the 3rd day in a row, we'd already rented nearly every movie the Kadena Air base rental place had. Bob found this title and decided it looked good. Got back and popped it in the player in the day room. The entire crew was there. The movie "Bent" is about a gay jew in a Nazi concentration camp that falls in love with another gay.... well, you get the picture. He became "Bent Bob" after that.

Berlin Taxied his aircraft into a wall while making a turn.

BIA 'Sometimes a call sign doesn't have to be a name or word. Maj. Mike Lay, a member of the 78th Fighter Squadron at Shaw, goes by the call sign of 'BIA' as in 'Born In America.' A Knoxville, Tenn., native, Lay said he was christened 'BIA' because he likes to talk about home and family.'

Biff This is Col. S.A.'s callsign from pilot training, he got it because he dressed nicer than everyone else in his class and drove a nicer car which lead people to believe that he was preppy, which got him the preppy name of BIFF!

Big Bird Last Name: Crow - Also a pretty heft guy

Big Mac Last name McDonald

Big Money Last name is Menard (Editor note: Menards is a chain of home improvement stores; they use "Save big money at Menards" in advertising)

Big Red Tall 6'4 Redhead A-10 Wart-hog TFW at RAF Bentwaters in past.

BigDaddy Senior member of the squad, always keeping track of the younger members. (Father Figure)

Birdie 'As in 'bye bye …'. This guy showed up a lot in the HUD during ACM training.'

Birdie While still flying RF-104G Starfighters in the early 80s I hit à bird which caused substantial damage and fuel loss. Eventuallly took the cable on à German airfield but the jet had caught fire because of the bird. Ground egressed with the loss of the jet. Hence Birdie

Biscuit Real flakey dude.

Bit Last name Chy.

Bitch This poor guy had his ex-girlfriend around during his naming. When everybody was yelling names and trying to get their point across, she stood up and yelled: "You guys shut the F*%K up! That's my bitch!". Thanks for the help hon...

Blackadder The man with the plan. He reminded us of Blackadder's Baldrick because of his phrasing "cunning plan". Unfortunately Baldrick was already taken so we just chose Blackadder.

Blackberry A young afro-american captain,caught being nude in lockers room, and all fellows saw his balls... Hence, "Blackberry"...

Blackjack No one could ever correctly pronounce my last name - Blalack, plus we used to play cards alot in the ready room.

Blaster Pulled the jet out for a run -up and had not noticed the new silt fence to control ground traffic. Ground crew was giving me good signals until for a moment there was a look of terror from the crew. Upon shut down saw many yards of fabric was now tangled up in barbed wire fencing and trees. Took several hours and lots of cutting to get it down. Nearby was a porta-potty. Thank god I did not disturb that, could have been "Crap Blaster "!

Blaze Caught on fire in the base kitchen

Blow Last name Jobins

Blow French-Canadian CF-18 pilot, last name Jobin. 'nuf said.

Boards Ears sticking out, like the speed brakes on an A-4

Bobbit CF-18 pilot got this callsign after having the IFR hose wrap around the probe on his CF-18. While sitting there wondering what to do, the hose tightened and sheared the tip of the probe off the jet - kinda what Lorraina Bobbit did to her husband!

Bobbitt While "poking" (RCAF slang for inflight refueling), he broke off the refueling probe.[Ed. note: google Lorena Bobbitt, if you're not familiar with the story...]

Bold FOD in the cockpit

Bolleke This is my call sign since ages. Given to me by my drill instructor in one of my first jobs in my military life. Refering to my body shape at that moment (end of 80's) [Note from Editor: "Bolleke" is a Flemish word and can be translate as "Small sphere" in English]. Since that moment I kept my call sign with honours, even for 6 months in ISAF HQ, Kabul, AFG. Years later I will be for the first time in a F-16 Sqn at 10th W Tac, KB, BE.

Bone-Saw Every one in my squadran SAW that I was bad to the BONE.

BoneDust Cold, cool, and calculating, never unnerved, an execellent pilot

Bones My callsign while serving in the 4th Helicopter Group of the Italian Navy as flight surgeon... actually I'm an orthopaedic surgeon

Boo-boo 'When asked to explain his call sign, Marine Capt. Clint 'Boo-Boo' Weber, who flies an F/A-18 with Squadron 332, shook his head. 'I'm not sure why but they said I looked like Yogi Bear's sidekick,' said Weber, who has heavy, dark brown eyebrows.'

Booger F-15 pilot. Why you ask? When Dan was in flight school, he had a bad cold and he had to get rid of the boogers. So he shot a snot rocket in front of his peers.

Booger A testiment to rule #3! Grew up in texas nice desert climate, hot, low humidity. first operational posting was to Hahn Air Base in germany. In the wet cold my nose ran every second I was out doors, the sleeves of my flight jacket served as my hankie. They started calling me crusty, i got an attitude about it and my buddies changed my nick to "boogers". should have kept my trap shut.

Bookem 1977...yes, 1977. Right at the beginning of the period when individual callsigns in the air were authorized. Flying A-7s in the 74 TFS, the Flying Tigers, at England Air Patch, La. Getting ready to go fight my first F-5 aggressors. My flight Commander and flight lead was scratching his head for a call sign for me, when he suddenly thought of the recently popular TV Show "Hawaii 5-0". Thus, "Bookem, Danno" became the callsign. And that is the rest of the story!

Bookie I run the pools in our Squadron so the callsign fits, also my last name is Case so if I do something really stupid they call me Book

Boom Boom This guy had forgotten to take his emergency brake off before he was launched off the aircraft carrier catapult. Tires don't do so well when this happens.

Boomer No real story, actually... They just found out I was watching a bit too much BSG :)

Bouncer I was flying Skyraiders with a Vietnamese Wing. Never flew a "tail dragger" before, so I initally bounced too many times on landing... which became a joke among the VNAF pilots. My call sign translated from Vietnamese: Bouncer Dale Talley USAF Ret.

Bradox I was at flight school and one night the guys decided to go out drinking. so being 21 I though I could handle a little alcohol. Turns out I can't and after a while I was passed out. When we got back to base our leader -a guy named Denis (callsign Menis)- said that I was so drunk it was a "parodox" (I doubt he knows what it means). I had just woken up and though he said bradox - it stuck.

Brain Captain Rich H., F-16 pilot and fighter weapons school graduate. 3000 hours in the viper (1981-2000). Was attending weapons school, class 87-01 when he earned the name "Brain." It seems that Rich knew more than all of the FWIC instructors and took every opportunity to tell them that. During one academic session, the class was learning how to build the APG-66 radar and to define the "life of a radar contact." Rich interrupted the weapons instructor, took the chalk from him and (correctly) amended the radar diagram on the chalk board. The instructor immediately thanked Rich for being the "Brain" of the class. Rich received three Zeros and a One on his next four BFM sorties....

Bramage Brain + Damage = Bramage

Braniff I was furloughed from Braniff International Airways and was going through pilot training at Williams AFB. I had not told my classmates about my flight experience. After the first check ride, I confessed I had some flight experience. When they I told them about Braniff, that became my call sign.

Brave Sir Robin F-15E pilot thought he heard explosion while taxiing and ground egressed... leaving a civilian VIP in the backseat.

Breaker Last name is Himan. See "Buster".

Brick I'm not an F-16 Driver, but this is the only callsign website I could quickly find. So, here's the deal -- I'm an engineer/analyst type who was a back-seater in the QF-4 Phantom (test jets) a few years ago at Tyndall and I just "earned" my callsign tonight, courtesy of 3 double shots of Jeremiah Weed. Other options on the board were "Smithers" and "Milhouse" (both Simpson's references, of course -- and not at all cool ones at that). I drank my way out of those and bought our 2-star a double shot in order to get his 51% majority vote. Needless to say, he then deemed me "Brick" and I've recoved enough from those three double shots to record this stirring rendition of the story. I feel like it all turned out pretty well in the end, considering the alternatives. [Fri, 20 Mar 07]

Brillo Had the most abrasive personality around....

Brink Pilot of a LYNX helicopter, parked the thing so close to a ledge that the thing was on the brink of falling over the edge, hence Brink.

Brokeback F-18 Pilot at Yuma - named J P Mountain

Brome Viper guys last name was Genry... say it outloud with a asian accent. Not polically correct these days but creative.

Bubbles Capt. Douglas S. Champagne

Bubbles New guy was RTB after training. Flying low over the beach when "suddenly" his canopy blew off flying into the water.

Bubbles I Got the bends from a bad alttitude chamber, during a refresher at Langley AFB. I was given the callsign "Bubbles" during the next monthly squadron safety breifing.

Bubbles Has a tendency to clear his voice with a burp whenever he has to think... on the headset it sounds like bubbles.

Buddy Guy had a thing for 50's rock n roll. Few guys said it was asking for bad luck considering what happened to the real singer. "Buddy" however took it in rather good stride.

BUFF Big Ugly Fat F**k... Ugly, fat fighter pilot.

Bug One of our first female pilots. Her last name was Utley. Although not ugly, she took the name any way.

BUG Bald Ugly Guy

Buggy boy Got drunk, decided to borrow a Golf Buggy on Base to get back to accommodation. Crashed it into a tree, ruined Lawn outside the Officers Mess....Had a long interview with the Base CO negative biscuits, coffee and pleasant language....Got away with it...just....Earned alot of extra duty.

BUGS Boobs Under G Suit...Warthog driver

BULIT Had one of my pilots completely trashed coming home from the sandbox stopping in Moron, Spain when we called a taxi there was another guy in it. The passenger was a real jerk and picked a fight with him, he whooped him pretty good and threw him back in the taxi. Hence the name BULIT, Beat Up Lithuanian in Taxi

Bull Last name "Schmidt".

Bull A Viper driver in my unit was named "Bull" When I asked about the callsign I was told it was because certain parts of his physique resembled a bull's.....I never asked for proof.

Bullhead A native from Texas, always wanted to be called "Cowboy", but we preferred to give him "Bullhead". In addition, his head also looked like a buffalo ...

Bulltaco F-18 pilot stubborn as hell, pussied out on a lot of social events, via the taco. Hard core as a Marine.

Bun-bun Never let your wife call you by her term of endearment, especially when any JO in the squadron can hear it.

Bundle Bill In the early days of C-141A airdrops most of the airdrop training missions flown were SATB or Simulated Airdrop Training Bundle missions. This was a 15-pound sand or gravel bag with a small chute. It had the same airdrop ballistics characteristics as a large heavy equipment platform but at a greatly reduced price. The pilots and navigators didn’t care what they dropped as they received airdrop currency credit for dropping SATB’s as though they were actually heavy platforms or paratroopers jumping. The loadmasters didn’t. They had to rig and drop an actual heavy or troops to log any currency. For this reason most loadmasters hated “bundle drops”. I, on the other hand as a young loadmaster, loved flying and this was just another chance so I flew them all the time and since my first name was Bill, I became Bundle Bill.

Burbank New F/A-18 driver shows up at first squadron and says "Hi, I'm Hollywood" Experienced pilots taken aback by Topgun wannabe declare, you're no Hollywood, more like Burbank. The c/s stuck.

Burner Leave the engine in BUC and try to take-off and this callsign will stick to you as well

BURNT Better Use Rope Next Time. Younger brother took leave while in UPT. He got back from leave late because he and his gal got stuck in the hotel elevator for a few hours and the fire dept had to come rescue them. No one believed him until they got confirmation from the fire dept.

Burp I was tasked to introduce the Secretary-General of NATO to an audience of many 'stars', and some lesser individuals... halfway through my introduction... you guessed it: I let go a massive burp! I could have died on the spot, but he took it generously and I continued to serve my country, fly Vipers and even had a career!!

Buster Last name is Himan. See "Breaker".

Buster F16 pilot, last name Cherry

Butcher After an episode of fratricide in an exercise against the Wisconsin guard, he attained the callsign 'blows up the cheese heads, extremely retarded'. [Ed note: Wisconsin produces large volumes of cheese]

BVR Back in the day I tended to choose very cheap cologne (the kind you get by the gallon) and wore way too much of it. Fellow flyers told me thjey could smell me before they could see me and named me BVR (Beyond Visual Range). I told people it stood for "beaver".

BVR I used to wear the most god awful cheap cologne and way too much of it. The guys told me they could smell me before they could see me...hence the name- "Beyond Visual Range" or B.V.R.

Other callsigns

B-Square, Bag, Bama, Barney, Basco, Batman, BBGun, Beaker, Beeker, Belker, Bernie, Biff, Big Daddy, Bijou, Birdstrike, Bison, Blanks, Bleuboy, Blink, Bluto, Boj, Bomb, Bond, Bones, Boomer, Boomslang, Boot, Boston, BouBou, Bounce, Bowz, Box, Breed, Brick, Bro, Bubba, Buck, Bugsy, Bullet, Burner, Butch, Butkus, Buzz, Byrdman, ...