Let’s pick up where the previous post ended. Besides dates, the Navy will expect you to tell/read time a specific way as well. The US military uses a 24 hour system to tell time, compared to the 12 hour system you likely use now. It’s quite similar to the time format used in much of Europe and some other countries, with a few differences. The biggest advantage to this is that it’s clear what time of day or night one is referring to, and saves the need to use variables like AM and PM. Military time is generally written with just 4 numerical digits, using the first 2 for the hours and the last 2 for the minutes. Yes, there are versions of writing military time that include numbers for the seconds and even letters for the time zone, but you can worry about those specifics once you’re in a particular position that deals with those factors. When writing out the time, make sure not to use a colon (:) between the hours and minutes, as it should appear as a solid 4-digit number. The first two digits of your number will range from 00 to 23, representing the hour of the day. 00 represents Midnight, 01 is 1 AM, 02 is 2AM, and so on until 12 which is 12:00 noon. Now when you hit 13 is when you’ve entered the hours you currently know as PM. 13 is 1 PM, 14 is 2 PM, and it goes on until 23 which is 11 PM. The last two digits of your number are the minutes, and they’re treated the same way you currently write minutes. So if it’s 2:45 AM, that’s written as 0245 in military time. 4:30 PM is written as 1630 in military time. Remember again that there is no colon and no AM/PM, although there is one addition that is sometimes included. Some people write “hours” after the time, but I recommend waiting until you’re actually working in the Navy to see if it’s the norm in your position or not. Lastly you need to know how to actually say the time out loud. Unlike in many tv shows/movies, you DO NOT say the letter “O” before the time, as in “oh eight hundred”. That’s seen as more casual and you do not want to start off possibly appearing lazy or disrespectful. Similarly to the date, you do always include a zero before the hour if it’s only one digit, as in 0700 for 7:00 AM (instead of just 700). If there is a zero first, remember to actually SAY “zero”. When the time is an exact hour, like 0700 or 1300, that is when you say “hundred”, as in “zero seven hundred” or “thirteen hundred”. If instead there are minutes in the time, then follow the hour with the number of minutes and DO NOT say “hundred”. 0725 is “zero seven twenty-five”, and 1340 is “thirteen forty”. The oddest time to remember is midnight, which is written as 0000 and usually pronounced “zero hundred”. Also as mentioned before, plenty of people do include the word “hours” after the time, but try not to use it until you know it’s what your team/superior prefers to use. This can be a tough concept to get across in writing, so here are a few more examples for variety. I’ll likely include flashcards or something similar in the future as well.
0000 – Zero Hundred – 12:00 Midnight 0245 – Zero Two Forty-five – 2:45 AM 0500 – Zero Five Hundred – 5:00 AM 1120 – Eleven Twenty – 11:20 AM 1300 – Thirteen Hundred – 1:00 PM 1930 – Nineteen Thirty – 7:30 PM 2215 – Twenty-two Fifteen – 10:15 PM If you’re having trouble remembering what the times from 1300 onward refer to, you just need to subtract 12 from the hours portion. I highly recommend setting your phone’s clock to the “24-Hour Time” option. If you have both a stove and microwave digital clock in the kitchen, set one of them to the 24-hour format, so you can quickly compare the two throughout the day and make it second nature. Comments are closed.
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Just Call Me Kilo
Although I'm a navy brat from a military family, I'm quite anxious and reserved. Therefore I'm not one to show my face and be overly social, but I like to help where I can! Ask me a question nicely if there's a topic you need help learning about and I'll see if I can address it. Archives
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