Help answer this question below.
Not to be a stickler here, but the question is what is the complete "NATO" phonetic Alphabet. It ISN'T what do the Americans use?
If you look it up in "The Warrior's Handbook" from the Canadian Armed Forces, or the "Basic Recruit Manual" in the British Armed Forces or the "Basic Training" Manual from the Australian Defence Force, you'll find that the actual NATO usage is "Mama" not "Mike".
At least, THIS is the information that Canada, The United Kingdom and Australia is giving its troopers. All NATO countries. While the US is, of course, a NATO country, lets face it, it's quite likely that the US *IS* using "Mike" as the "M", because, well, not many organizations tell the Americans how to say things!
The NATO phonetic alphabet:
Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta Echo Foxtrot Golf Hotel India
Juliet Kilo Lima Mike November Oscar Papa Quebec Romeo
Sierra Tango Uniform Victor Whiskey Xray Yankee Zulu.
This alphabet dates from about 1955 and is approved by the
International Civil Aviation Organization, the FAA and the
International Telecommunication Union; note that different
bodies prefer different spellings, so one also
sees: Alfa Juliett Juliette Oskar Viktor.
The following links are for information on the NATO Phonetic Alphabet specifically, which is what the question asked for. ALL state that M is "MIke" and you can click the links to verify that.
**Sources for NATO (not U.S. Military) phonetic alphabet**:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/encyclopedia/nato_phonetic_alphabet_1
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/NATO-phonetic-alphabet
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/NATO%20phonetic%20alphabet
http://www.bckelk.uklinux.net/phon.full.html
The official designation for the letter M is indeed "Mike." See, for example, http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/communications/flags/flags.html, which shows the designations for all the letters, their pronunciations, and the signal flags associated with each letter.
A - Alpha
B - Bravo
C - Charlie
D - Delta
E - Echo
F - Foxtrot
G - Golf
H - Hotel
I - India
J - Juliet
K - Kilo
L - Lima
M - Mike
N - November
O - Oscar
P - Pappa
Q - Quebec
R - Romeo
S - Sierra
T - Tango
U - Uniform
X - X-Ray
Y - Yankee
Z - Zulu
Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliet
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
X-Ray
Yankee
Zulu
There is no official NATO publication containing the NATO phonetic alphabet: this is becase "NATO phonetic alphabet" is actually the common name for the Radiotelephony spelling alphabet of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) which has been adopted by the military of each NATO country.
The ICAO ratiotelephony spelling alphabet is
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
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet
A=ALPHA
B=BRAVO
C=CHARLIE
D=DELTA
E=ECHO
F=FOXTROT
G=GOLF
H=HOTEL
I=INDIA
J=JULIET
K=KILO
L=LIMA
M=MIKE
N=NOVEMBER
O=OSCAR
P=PAPA
Q=QUEBEC
R=ROMEO
S=SIERRA
T=TANGO
U=UNIFORM
V=VICTOR
W=WHISKY
X=X-RAY
Y=YANKEE
Z=ZULU
NATO Document ATP-45 B of the ADatP3 standard contains the list used in the NATO phonetic alphabet. That document has sections that are restricted though, so you wouldn't be able to see it unless you are cleared and have a need.
Also, all the NATO documents spell it ALFA..not ALPHA.
A - Alfa
B - Bravo
C - Charlie
D - Delta
E - Echo
F - Foxtrot
G - Golf
H - Hotel
I - India
J - Juliet
K - Kilo
L - Lima
M - Mike
N - November
O - Oscar
P - Pappa
Q - Quebec
R - Romeo
S - Sierra
T - Tango
U - Uniform
X - X-Ray
Y - Yankee
Z - Zulu
NATO Document ATP-45 B of the ADatP3 standard contains the list used in the NATO phonetic alphabet. That document has sections that are restricted though, so you wouldn't be able to see it unless you are cleared and have a need.
Also, all the NATO documents spell it ALFA..not ALPHA.
A - Alfa
B - Bravo
C - Charlie
D - Delta
E - Echo
F - Foxtrot
G - Golf
H - Hotel
I - India
J - Juliet
K - Kilo
L - Lima
M - Mike
N - November
O - Oscar
P - Pappa
Q - Quebec
R - Romeo
S - Sierra
T - Tango
U - Uniform
X - X-Ray
Y - Yankee
Z - Zulu
A Alpha
B Bravo
C Charlie
D Delta
E Echo
F Foxtrot
G Golf
H Hotel
I India
J Juliett
K Kilo
L Lima
M Mike
N November
O Oscar
P Papa
Q Quebec
R Romeo
S Sierra
T Tango
U Uniform
V Victor
W Whiskey
X X-ray
Y Yankee
Z Zulu
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/NATO-phonetic-alphabet
As you can see, there actually is not much standardization of phonetic alphabets in fact, though there is more in practice. You can make up your own if you want to, but it takes more thought than appears at first glance. It is important that no two words rhyme, so that there is a high probability that they can be properly distinguished even if only part of the word is heard. Intelligibility is the only goal. But that does mean that sticking to a conventional, widely used one is the smartest.
OK its not the NATO one - but if you wanted to really confuse people you could use the following that someone sent me as a joke once:-
Aye, Bee, Cue, Double-u, Ell, Four, Gibe, Hour, Iambic, Jay, Knee
Lye, Mnemonic, Nine, One, Psedonym, Quay, Repeat, Six, Tsar,
Urn, Veldt, Write, Xenon, You, Zero
PS I also concur - its Mike not Mama
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Comments
Mike used by the British military from around 1943 onwards, replacing Monkey. Mama would be too similar to Lima anyway.
by Quirkie on December 14th, 2004
My Warrior's handbook says "Mama"
by snafubg on December 30th, 2004
Okay, you cited a reference so I'll cut you some slack :) Warriors Handbook, huh? Sounds interesting.
by Andy Ninja Is Wicked Back To Work on February 1st, 2005
Having been assigned as liasion to units in the BRD, UK, Canada, and France, the term used is MIKE NOT MAMA--MAMA WAS dropped
by RJTRIES on March 15th, 2006