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 language  difficulties.  Each  word  is  accented  on  the 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 SIERRA 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