For what it's worth, the phonetic alphabet is not exclusive to the military. The US military uses the same phonetic alphabet as the aviation community (although I admit the military was probably the forerunner). Police use a different phonetic alphabet resulting in One-Adam-Twelve. You can tell the geezers or who learned the phonetic alphabet from WW II movies when they use Easy instead of Echo (although Sgt. Rock of Easy Company rolls off the tongue more smoothly than Sgt. Rock of Echo Company).