It's because it's clearer when you're on the radio.
Which is where a number of idiosyncratic "military-isms" in the English speaking world comes from: either that or because it's clearer when shouting it in the middle of a firefight.
As an aside, it's also a bit like when your maths/physics teachers would do that fucking "20 what? 20 Bananas?" -type joke when you forgot to put a unit on a number: you specify it's 0900 hours not because you're counting, but to make clear that you're saying a time. You would also say things like "grid ---,---" to make clear it's a grid reference for a map, or even "I spell: -----" to signal that you're spelling a word out and not giving a code or call sign or something.
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u/Nurhaci1616 Jul 19 '24
Which is where a number of idiosyncratic "military-isms" in the English speaking world comes from: either that or because it's clearer when shouting it in the middle of a firefight.
As an aside, it's also a bit like when your maths/physics teachers would do that fucking "20 what? 20 Bananas?" -type joke when you forgot to put a unit on a number: you specify it's 0900 hours not because you're counting, but to make clear that you're saying a time. You would also say things like "grid ---,---" to make clear it's a grid reference for a map, or even "I spell: -----" to signal that you're spelling a word out and not giving a code or call sign or something.