Military time made easy Marine Military Academy Blog

The new boot camp recruit will learn military time before even entering boot camp. Their recruiter should teach them this, because when they arrive, they’re not going to be told 5 am, they’re going to be told 0500. Chow starts at 0600, not 6 am, and ends at 0800, not 8 am. For most people, it can be difficult to memorize and use the military time chart. One of the best ways to learn is just by making a clock and practicing telling time. After a few repetitions, it will become easy, and hopefully, even second nature. Many veterans today only use a watch with military time. Any given time of day is expressed in four digits. The day in military time begins at midnight with 0000, pronounced "zero hundred hours" or simply "zero hundred." The next two digits (01) represent the minutes past the hour. Since military time and regular time use minutes in exactly the same way, no conversion is required. 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.