Doc Jargon: Roger, Robert, Romeo related by radio

Photo By Collen McGee | Doc Jargon, cutting through the jargon that is the U.S. Army.  

UNITED STATES

12.08.2022

Story by Collen McGee 

Fort Riley Public Affairs Office

Dear Doc Jargon,
My husband is a company commander here on Fort Riley. One afternoon I went to pick him up from the unit and I heard him ask a Soldier about something and the Soldier replied, “Roger that, Sir.”
This isn’t the first time I’d heard this form of an affirmative and I was wondering what it means and where the term came from.
I know it isn’t the name of a person — but it sure sounds funny from my end hearing Roger talked about so much. Just kidding — but I am still curious.
Sincerely,
Not Roger’s wife

Dear Not Roger’s Wife,
I’m glad you have a sense of humor mixed in with your question. You are right — there isn’t a specialist Roger in every company on post.
In the 1940s, British and American military members had to learn to communicate despite the language barrier — joke intended. There were, and still are, so many dialects and accents even with a common language that radio operators needed to find a way to capture messages clearly. After all, many of those messages were vital and an error could mean life and death to those receiving or sending them.
According to Jakub Marian’s website for language learning, science & art at https://jakubmarian.com/origin-of-the-phrase-roger-that-in-english/, they came up with a common phonetic alphabet to use during World War II. In fact – here is the previous one: Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox, George, How, Item, Jig, King, Love, Mike, Nan, Oboe, Peter, Queen, Roger, Sugar, Tare, Uncle, Victor, William, X-ray, Yoke, Zebra
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization said this early version was used by the Army and Navy.
Radio operators would say “Roger” or “Roger that” to stand for the letter R and tell the sender the message was received. Roger wilco would mean, received and will comply.
But in 1956, according to NATO’s website, www.nato.int/cps/fr/natohq/declassified_136216.htm, a phonetic alphabet was designated and the word to signify “R” became Romeo.
But, the term Roger remained thanks to movies, NASA astronauts using it while being broadcast on television and because it was catchy. However, the term could have been another name entirely if developments in radio technology and the evolution of the terminology had coincided. Marian writes that before WWII the word for R was Robert.
The NATO site also lists some other historic versions of this means of communication. And according to the NATO site, The International Telecommunication Union formally adopted it making it the established universal phonetic alphabet governing all military, civilian and amateur radio communications. As it was NATO Allies who spearheaded the final revision, it became known from that point on as the NATO Alphabet.
Here is the current version:
ALFA, BRAVO, CHARLIE, DELTA, ECHO, FOXTROT, GOLF, HOTEL, INDIA, JULIETT, KILO, LIMA, MIKE, NOVEMBER, OSCAR, PAPA, QUEBEC, ROMEO, SIERRA, TANGO, UNIFORM, VICTOR, WHISKEY, X-RAY, YANKEE, ZULU
I hope that helps. Thanks for asking.
Sincerely,
Doc Jargon

• Date Taken: 12.08.2022
• Date Posted: 12.07.2022 17:31
• Story ID: 434707
• Location: US