Milcom Callsigns Dec 10
Milcom Callsigns Dec 10
AS OF Dec 2010
This list is the work of many people. I started in 1998 with a basic list that I
pulled off of the web. That list had been compiled by Hugh Stegman, a highly
respected radio hobbyist and columnist for Monitoring Times. In the intervening
years I have added callsigns that I myself have heard and verified as well as
those from various “seasoned”, respected milcomer’s and HF utility
communications hobbyists here in the US as well as Europe.
Background:
One has to take most military calls with a grain of salt. They are often used by
more than one unit. Also, the US military is closing bases left and right,
moving and combining things, transferring tasks to the reserves, and the like.
For basically historical reasons I have left in many of the daily changing
tactical callsigns used by the TACAMO & ABNCP units. We may not see them again,
but then again they could be reused.
Many CPs, Air National Guard or CAP units, and the like, derive callwords from
geographical characteristics of their locations, i.e AK-SAR-BEN (Nebraska
backwards, and a popular horse track), MUDBUG (near the Mississippi "big muddy"
delta, where mudbug crabs are found), and HIGH ROLLER (Nevada ANG, Reno).
AIRCRAFT CALLSIGNS:
There are several “systems” that I have noted over the years.:
NOTE #1: TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE, THE CALLSIGNS IN THIS LIST ARE FROM
UNCLASSIFED SOURCES---NO CLASSIFIED INFORMATION HAS BEEN KNOWINGLY INCLUDED IN
THIS LIST.
NOTE #2: Some of the callsigns were taken from the aircraft's Mode S
tranmissions as copied by listeners with an SBS box. These callsigns are entered
by the flight or ground crews. As such one sometimes sees things like " F-15s
Suck" or "A-10s Rule" in the callsign block. I have added those callsigns that
seem to "make sense" to the list in hopes that they are valid callsigns however,
with the usual caveat.