CHAPTER 4 COMMUNICATIONS Communications  are  of  vital  importance  to  a shipboard organization and are sometimes referred to as the voice of command.  Without proper communication among  the  different  parts  of  the  ship,  the  whole organization could break down and fail in its mission. Communications, as discussed in this chapter, are grouped  into  two  basic  categories—interior  and exterior. Interior communications are concerned only with the exchange of information between individuals, divisions,  and  departments  aboard  a  single  ship  or station. Exterior communications deal with conveying information between two or more ships, stations, or commands. One  of  the  most  important  communications systems  used  aboard  ship  is  the  sound-powered telephone. Sometime in your Navy career, you   will “man”  a  sound-powered  telephone  set.  You  must become familiar with the proper usage and care of the equipment.  In  addition,  you  must  learn  the  correct procedures  used  with  the  sound-powered  telephone system, including the use of the phonetic alphabet. THE PHONETIC ALPHABET Learning Objective: When you finish this chapter, you will be able to— Identify  the  phonetic  alphabet  as  applied  to communications. It is easy to confuse the sounds of certain letters, such as bee and dee, cee and zee. To avoid confusion, the Navy requires that phonetic equivalents of letters be spoken instead of the letters themselves. The Navy has had a phonetic alphabet for many years. From time to time, it’s been changed in attempts to use words that would instantly bring to mind the letter represented by the word. The phonetic alphabet (table 4-1) was adopted by the armed forces of the various NATO  nations  as  a  means  of  overcoming  many 4-1 A glance at a globe is all it takes to appreciate the meaning of control of the sea in the nuclear age. —Admiral Arleigh Burke LETTER EQUIVALENT SPOKEN A ALFA AL fah B BRAVO BRAH voh C CHARLIE CHAR lee D DELTA DELL ta E ECHO ECK oh F FOXTROT FOKS trot G GOLF GOLF H HOTEL hoh TELL I INDIA In dee ah J JULIETT JEW lee ett K KILO KEY loh L LIMA LEE mah M MIKE Mike N NOVEMBER no VEM ber O OSCAR OSS cah P PAPA pah PAH Q QUEBEC kay BECk R ROMEO ROW me oh S SIRERRA see AIR rah T TANGO TANG go U UNIFORM YOU nee form V VICTOR VIK tah W WHISKEY WISS key X XRAY ECKS ray Y YANKEE YANG key Z ZULU ZOO loo Table 4-1.—Phonetic Alphabet