Willie Peter........

[Bob Wright]

I was talking with an old ex-GI the other day about the recent change of the military phonetic alphabet. This the radio usage words for letters, such as Alpha, Bravo, etc. This used to be Able, Baker, etc. Under the new system, the letter "W" becme "whisky" and the letter "P" became "papa".

But that round of artillery still remains "Willie Peter" when calling for white phosphorous. How about now?

Bob Wright

 

[Big Old Boy]

It was Willie Peter back in 1969 in Nam.

 

[Poprivit]

And there also was a song with a line;

"...and napalm sticks to kids."

Willie Peter was a real nasty weapon, as it was almost impossible to put out, and burned at a hellacious rate.

And, don't get me started about triple-canopy jungle and Agent Orange.

 

[wwb]

It was Willie Peter back in 1969 in Nam.

Yeah, but the phonetic alphabet for W P was whiskey papa..... as in whiskey tango foxtrot (a radio comm frequently asked question).

The OP was wondering when it changed from what was used in WW II.

 

[eveled]

Not sure when it changed, but it is now called the NATO phonetic alphabet, that should be a clue, when did we adopt the NATO standards?
Also L is now Lima, not Love.

I have a friend whose mother to this day calls him Whiskey Hotel Lima, because that was his license plate, and she would listen on her police scanner for it. Apparently she heard it a lot.

 

[cadillo]

I went to work for uncle Sam in '87 in a non military capacity, but we often worked with and shared com with both Marines and Army National Guard, who both used the same phonetic alphabet as us:

Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliette, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-Ray, Yankee, Zulu.

This had not changed with our agency at the time I retired in 2007.

Used to drive us nuts when we had to work with state, county or municipal LEO agencies, who seemed to each have their own phonetic alphabets.

 

[blume357]

Do we still use white phosphorus?

 

[sgtjimh]

A friend of mine called it "Wilson Pickett" in 1969

 

[graygun]

I was talking with an old ex-GI the other day about the recent change of the military phonetic alphabet. This the radio usage words for letters, such as Alpha, Bravo, etc. This used to be Able, Baker, etc. Under the new system, the letter "W" becme "whisky" and the letter "P" became "papa".

But that round of artillery still remains "Willie Peter" when calling for white phosphorous. How about now?

Bob Wright

I think it is still called that.

 

[GunnyGene]

Do we still use white phosphorus?

Yes. In grenades, artillery & mortar rounds. However, it's primarily used to produce smoke or for signaling, but is still an incendiary. Intentional use as an incendiary is frowned upon (but not banned) by some of the International rules, but not everyone abides by them. See this: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/wp.htm

 

[Cheesewhiz]

God bless you guys, you have lived a long life. The military has been using this version for a very long time, since 1957. As far as WP or Willy Peter, we normally called it Willy Pete or Willy P, all meaning White Phosphorus as a nighttime marker or used as a weapon. Great stuff for taking down a building without blowing up the whole neighborhood. Not only was it hard to put out it ate through stone, brick and almost all metals.

 

[Cheesewhiz]

I always enjoyed playing around with these when we trained with the West German Army, they were available to our inventory if needed.

http://www.modernforces.com/weapon_handthrower.htm

 

[wwb]

........ Great stuff for taking down a building without blowing up the whole neighborhood. Not only was it hard to put out it ate through stone, brick and almost all metals.

Burns right through people, too.

 

[Colonialgirl]

Or as one old Chief Bosun's Mate use to say:
"Golf Golf Foxtrot" to those wishing to argue with him or that were Lower in rank or had less TIG

 

[SAJohn]

That change was made in 1956. However, the WWII old salts aboard my ship (early 60's) never made that change. Especially our skipper who was also a fighter pilot ace. No one even thought about correcting him. He went on to captain an aircraft carrier and then made Admiral. He started with the rank of Seaman in the war aviation cadet program. He was one of the "unforgettable characters" in my life. RADM Mayo A. Hadden Jr RIP.

 

[737tdi]

Not sure when it changed, but it is now called the NATO phonetic alphabet, that should be a clue, when did we adopt the NATO standards?
Also L is now Lima, not Love.

I have a friend whose mother to this day calls him Whiskey Hotel Lima, because that was his license plate, and she would listen on her police scanner for it. Apparently she heard it a lot.

I maybe somewhat younger then you but I have never heard "L" called "Love". I started flying in 1975 and it was "Lima" then. There was a time when "M" was changed to "Money" but it never caught on and was changed back to "Mike". I make radio calls to taxi several times a day and it is second nature to me and is probably to most of y'all as well. I haven't thought about it in years, it just rolls off of the tongue like a semi-second language, kinda like military time. My brain does not process 6 PM. It is 1800 and will always be.


Semper Fi:

Karl

 

[exavid]

It was Willie Peter back in 1969 in Nam.

Yeah, but the phonetic alphabet for W P was whiskey papa..... as in whiskey tango foxtrot (a radio comm frequently asked question).

The OP was wondering when it changed from what was used in WW II.

Don't forget foxtrot tango alpha.

 

[graygun]

In the '68 movie The Green Berets,one of the guys said "baker" twice in his dying breath on the radio. I always found it strange but maybe it was just a tech mistake.

 

[cpt-t]

For the life of me, I really can`t ever remember calling it anything but ((( WILLIE PETE ))). WP was some unbeliveabley nasty stuff. When you called in Mortar`s or Red Leg Arty WP. You darn sure got Uncle Chucks attention. And you had darn sure better know what you were doing when you threw one of those heavy WP Grenade`s especially if there was any wind blowing, even just a little bit. Because it would splash back on you and your guys just like it was suspose to do, to Sir Charles. WP and Napomb were real game changers when used correctly. Because if there were any Bad Guys left after either one of these were effectively used, and they could move under their own power. They would be leaving the area at a dead run if at all possible. And not return to that area for along time if ever at all. Once either one got on someone, you could not put it out in the field. And it just had to burn it`s self out and that was a horrible way to die.
ken

 

[GunnyGene]

None of the nasty stuff that has been developed in the last 200 years is really new, except nukes. Bio, Chem, etc. have been around in various forms for several thousand years. Ever hear of "Greek Fire"? Sounds very much like WP judging from ancient writings about it. Our ancestral warriors weren't dummies.

 

[wwb]

None of the nasty stuff that has been developed in the last 200 years is really new, except nukes. Bio, Chem, etc. have been around in various forms for several thousand years. Ever hear of "Greek Fire"? Sounds very much like WP judging from ancient writings about it. Our ancestral warriors weren't dummies.

Yup.... pouring a vat of boiling oil over the parapet ain't much different than napalm as far as the effect on the human body goes.

 

[737tdi]

None of the nasty stuff that has been developed in the last 200 years is really new, except nukes. Bio, Chem, etc. have been around in various forms for several thousand years. Ever hear of "Greek Fire"? Sounds very much like WP judging from ancient writings about it. Our ancestral warriors weren't dummies.

If I recall correctly they would catapult plague infected corpses into the castles. Pretty nasty biological warfare.

Karl

 

[GunnyGene]

None of the nasty stuff that has been developed in the last 200 years is really new, except nukes. Bio, Chem, etc. have been around in various forms for several thousand years. Ever hear of "Greek Fire"? Sounds very much like WP judging from ancient writings about it. Our ancestral warriors weren't dummies.

If I recall correctly they would catapult plague infected corpses into the castles. Pretty nasty biological warfare.

Karl

Among other things. Almost every natural disease or poison was used - venomous snakes, scorpions, anthrax, rabies, leprosy, yellow fever, small pox, etc. . Some worked, some didn't. It often depended on what was readily available - anthrax infected sheep for example. Not everything was catapulted, some were simply carried in to a city as gifts or trade goods long before any actual battles. As today, it was also a psychological weapon as much as a debilitating or deadly weapon.

 

[Busterswoodshop]

When I was in field artillery (M109's) we called it " willie peter " .
We would get the call on the field phone.
" Fire mission. one round Willie Peter. Charge 7 , fuse ? , deflection xxx , quadrant xxx ".
Once we got the quadrant the round was sent down range.

Artillery was the king of the army, infantry was the queen.
The king put the balls where the queen wanted them.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Not sure when it changed, but it is now called the NATO phonetic alphabet, that should be a clue, when did we adopt the NATO standards?

Hi,

It might be the other way around, too: my first cursory introduction to phonetic alphabets came in the late '60s from friends taking flying lessons. Then in the early '70s, some amateur radio operators I worked with took pity on the kid with the "Huh?" look on his face and taught me the whole thing. They'd used the current "Alpha, Bravo, Charlie..." version for many years prior to that, and called it the International Phonetic Alphabet. I've seen one discussion where a Korean vet said the military started using the current version when he was serving in 1953. So I dunno who was first to this party...

Methinks a lot of cops (and at one time at least, some firefighters) still haven't quite figured out the value of standardization. Just for fun give one of their dispatchers a license number or spell a name using the "Pilots","IPA", "NATO" or whatever the "regular" radio operators' version is called. Some of 'em run with it just fine, some get so tangled up it's hilarious. In a sad sorta way... kinda like trying to get kids to make change on their own!

Rick C