Pilot Callsigns in USA Military Service Branches

[FourSpeed]

Hi Pilots,

I've a friend that I regularly golf with who was a U.S. Army Helicopter pilot (Hueys & Cobras) during the '70's.  Obviously, he was a great help to me while I was learning the DCS Huey a few years back, and we often talk aviation while on the links... 

Anyway, during one of those chats, I asked him what his personal callsign was, and he totally surprised me when he said he never had one, and couldn't think off the top of his head of anyone he flew with who had one either...

Now, I've always thought that it's very common that U.S. Air Force and Navy pilots have callsigns (often given based on their names, or some sort of "event" that occurred during training,  etc.), so I was very surprised when he said they didn't seem to be a thing back in his day...

 

I'm curious to get some insight from any past Army pilots regarding callsigns, and whether they just weren't in vogue, or whether that "tradition" trickled into the Army later than they did in the other service branches, or whether they're still rare for Army pilots.

 

Thanks in Advance,

4 ~S!~

 

 

[Dragon1-1]

I think this is fighter-specific, and US Army doesn't fly any. USAF and USN helo and transport pilots don't necessarily have callsigns, either. Not sure about bombers.

[FourSpeed]

I'm not sure that's actually the case that it's only for fighter pilots.

This Link seems to imply differently, and if former Apache pilot and YouTuber "Casmo" is an actual callsign (rather than just an internet nickname) then there's at least one Army Pilot with one, although Apaches came into service well after Hueys and Cobras.

That's why I was kind of hoping a few Army folks would weigh-in.

 

Regards,

4 ~S!~

 

 

 

[Yurgon]

On 4/11/2023 at 5:47 AM, FourSpeed said:

I'm curious to get some insight from any past Army pilots regarding callsigns, and whether they just weren't in vogue, or whether that "tradition" trickled into the Army later than they did in the other service branches, or whether they're still rare for Army pilots.

Not a pilot here, just a milsim enthusiast. I highly recommend you listen to the Fighter Pilot Podcast. a) because it's a fantastic show, and b) at the end of each episode, the guest is asked to explain the origins of his/her callsign. Early on there was even an entire episode devoted to pilot callsigns. Casmo may also have talked about it on his Low Level Hell podcast, which is another recommendation of course.

My understanding is that back in the days of the Vietnam war, personal callsigns were still pretty rare in the fighter pilot community and basically unheard of in any of the other military aviation communities in the US. Probably around the '80s that changed and more and more fighter pilots got personal callsigns; the movie Top Gun certainly helped proliferate this notion. Rituals were established on how to assign callsigns, and who has the power to do so, and most importantly, when a pilot indicates that a callsign in the making is not to his/her liking, then it's guaranteed to be the one they'll have to stick with for the rest of their careers.

(I've even heard of pilots using inverse psychology by mentioning to their squad mates that they really didn't like a certain callsign, which was the one that they secretly hoped to establish for themselves...)

I'm unsure about the timeline, but as I understand it, other communities like helos (both attack and transport), transports, bombers, electronic attack, and ISR also started picking up on the callsign habit over the years. I think today, these pilots don't necessarily have to have a callsign, but it wouldn't be uncommon to have one.

@Casmo @bradmick maybe you guys can shed more light on callsign habits in the scout and attack helicopter community.

Edited April 13, 2023 by Yurgon
Added LLH Podcast recommendation

[Jeb]

army aviators dont use call signs, I dont think I wanted one back in the day, Most came from doing stupid sh_t. We had nicknames , mine was jebidea, JEB.

Edited April 25, 2023 by Jeb

[Dragon1-1]

3 hours ago, Jeb said:

Most came from doing stupid sh_t. 

This is true for any and all callsigns, the world over.  Even if you have a callsign that sounds cool, there's usually a very, very dumb story (and/or occasionally a dirty joke) associated with it. USAF has a bit of ceremony associated with them, and I think USN does, too (not sure about USMC), but that's all.

It doesn't matter what they're called, either. I heard marines in the infantry, at least, use "knack-name". It's all the same deal. It's meant to make sure you never live down that one time you forgot to take your Pepsi bottle out of your pocket before going into an altitude chamber (true story! Not mine, cribbed that from f16.net).  

[M14Jackson]

On 4/11/2023 at 1:16 AM, Dragon1-1 said:

I think this is fighter-specific, and US Army doesn't fly any. USAF and USN helo and transport pilots don't necessarily have callsigns, either. Not sure about bombers.

While not a fighter, some in the USAF Recce community did have call signs.  And some not so complimentary...  Don't ask...

Edited June 1, 2023 by M14Jackson

[Dragon1-1]

As mentioned, the majority of USAF callsigns are neither complimentary nor clean.  Though supposedly, USMC takes the cake in dirty and otherwise foul-mouthed callsigns, at least as far as US services are concerned. Either way, it's not unheard of for pilots of other types of aircraft to have a callsign, it's just not seen as mandatory as it is with fighters.