The ABC's for Special Forces, Fighter Pilots & Manly Men

At one point or another in your week you'll have to spell something- it may be to the hostess taking your name at the restaurant or to the student loan representative on the phone in India. Most attempts sound something like this, "B- as in boy, A- as in apple, and D- as in dog." The solution to your nursery school spelling technique is a system heavily utilized by both the military and aviation communities around the world: the NATO Phonetic Alphabet.
This spelling alphabet was created to help eliminate confusion over radio transmissions and is still widely used to this day. With a little bit of practice, this list is easy to memorize and will be useful in your everyday life even if you aren't a commando.

Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta*
Echo
Foxtrot**
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliet
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
X-Ray
Yankee
Zulu

*In the aviation community, Delta is obviously an airline, so it's often replaced with Data, Dixie, or David.
**Why is the F in KTF said as Fox? Fox was used in the phonetic alphabet during WWII and it's less of a mouthful than Kilo Tango Foxtrot. So we went with it.

Here's some other communications tidbits that you may find interesting:

• To confirm you understood the message just relayed the phrase "message received" was eventually shortened to R for "received." During WWII, the word for R was Roger. And it's stuck ever since.
• When you are done transmitting your message on the radio the phrase "over to you" was used. That has now been shortened to just "over." A conversation is ended by the phrase "out" and is usually ended by the person of higher rank (in the military). 
• During WWII and Korea, if you thought a transmission was humorous, it was appropriate to respond "Lima-Oscar-Lima, over." Actually, that's not true at all, in WWII the words for L and O were Love and Oboe. 
• Some numbers have their own pronunciation as well to make them sound more unique, but there's really no practical use to learn those if you don't use them already, so I'll spare you that information.

So there you have it, a useful way to spell that works in English and non-English speaking countries belonging to NATO. 

Tango Alpha Sierra out.