Why do pilots say "roger" on the radio?


	Why do pilots say "roger" on the radio?

Thr4ll

3-2-2007 8:23 PM

2337 views

tags:

pilots, airplanes, roger, radio

5 Comments |

Add a Comment

3-2-2007 9:58 PM

Darrylstuff

Have wondered about this for years! Thanks!

3-2-2007 10:20 PM

pink panther

That's pretty cool I did not know that. Now I know. Thanks for the info.

3-2-2007 10:23 PM

coconutshell

More trivia!! This is great to know.

3-2-2007 11:50 PM

TheListener

Screw communication between governments during the cold war... Finding out random factoids like this is what the internet was meant to do!

3-6-2007 10:11 AM

jera057

interesting to know...could always use more useless information.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/07cd8c7b-c276-4c9d-b206-8b249c47e51b/E389A773-1D46-46C7-8ED6-CD7EEA27A194/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mroger.htm" href="http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mroger.htm" style="font-size: 11px;">www.straightdope.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mroger.htm">Pilots and other military types say 
“roger”  to acknowledge receipt of a message or  instructions. “Roger” 
at one time was the phonetic designation for the letter R, which in turn stood for 
“received.” Why not just say "received"? From a safety perspective, it makes  sense 
to use standardized language, particularly when dealing with international operations.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mroger.htm">The use of “roger” isn't all that old. In the 
military's phonetic alphabet, "roger" didn't become the designation for R until 
1927. (Previously the designation had been "rush.")</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mroger.htm"><FONT face="Times New Roman">In 1957 "roger" was replaced by "romeo," the 
current designation, but by then "roger" = "received" was so entrenched that the 
brass knew better than to try and change it. </FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mroger.htm"><P>As for Roger’s last name, “wilco” dates from the same time, and is simply an 
abbreviation of “will comply.”  So the pilot who invokes our friend Roger Wilco 
is saying “I understand you, and will follow your instructions,” only cooler and 
shorter.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/E389A773-1D46-46C7-8ED6-CD7EEA27A194/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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