Military Time: The 24 Hour Clock

Take time even as a civilian to learn military time because you really never know when you will actually have to use it. The more you learn about the military, the more you will become closer to it and understand it. If you ask any veteran, they will tell you they still use military time and always will. Below you can find a calculator to convert standard time to military time, military time charts and a printable version of the military time charts. Here is a conversion chart converting regular time to military time and how you would read or say that military time. The most notable difference between regular and military time is the manner in which hours are expressed. Regular time uses numbers 1 to 12 to identify each of the 24 hours in a day. With military time, the hours are numbered from 00 to 23. Minutes and seconds are expressed exactly the same way with military and regular time. It is not necessary to change anything regarding minutes and second when one switches from military time to regular time and vice versa. You may think that there is little chance to mix up P.M and A.M. However, when you remember that the military has to continuously switch between time zones and uses an alphabet system for that, the difference that military time makes is a lot clearer. "Alpha" timezone, "Mike" timezone, "Papa" timezone are "A", "M", and "P" times, respectively—and are the times that can easily be misunderstood if standard time was used. While this type of measurement may be different, it’s really not all that complicated when you know what each number stands for and how they are applied. As a general rule, military time is a system of telling when it is. It’s also used to report the times of briefings, meetings, and calls. Unlike standard time, the military time has the hours using numbers from 0-23 instead of 1-12. There are also distinct letters for the minutes of the hour. While most people in the military use a 24-hour clock, civilians usually have to know whether a specific time is AM or PM. The 24-hour clock makes knowing the exact time efficient.