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Pilot Callsigns

The web's largest collection of callsign stories



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The Three Rules of Callsigns

  1. If you don't already have one, you will be assigned one by your "buddies".
  2. You probably won't like it.
  3. If you complain and moan too much about 1. and 2., you'll get a new nickname you'll like even less!

So, how do you get a callsign?

Do something stupid or have it fit with your last name. Obvious examples, 'Crash' or LT 'Cheese' Kraft. Sometimes it's based on a physical appearance thing like 'Carrot'. After you've earned the respect of your buddies, you'll get a more 'heroic' callsign.

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Submit a Callsign - and don't forget the story!

Most recent additions

Our callsigns list contains 1323 callsigns. Here are the latest additions:

Guano

 (added: 18 Jun 2012)
My last name is pronounced along the lines of "bat sh*t" which led to bat sh*t crazy"... My Chief wouldn't let them call me "bat sh*t" so they decided on a pc version.

Hefty

 (added: 18 Jun 2012)
Not because he was fat but Hefty like the trash bags...he was full of sh*t.

Smokey38

 (added: 18 Jun 2012)
2nd tour in Vietnam flying O-2s - All I carried was smoke and a Combat Masterpiece!

Krunch

 (added: 18 Jun 2012)
The sound the landing gear makes when it rips off after landing short on the runway.

Candyman

 (added: 18 Jun 2012)
While in Berlin for a tactics team conference, we visited a strip club called Mon Cheri, named after the chocolate-covered cherry candy. A stripper hid a piece of the candy in a special place, which someone had to find without using hands. I was coerced to find the candy or be without a callsign for the next three months.

GBIT

 (added: 5 Jun 2012)
Get Back In The; Female Pilot; Last Name "Kitchen"

Romeo

 (added: 5 Jun 2012)
Real name: Casanova

Waffen

 (added: 5 Jun 2012)
What happens when you join up coming off the target run and forget to turn off the Master Arm Switch!

Brink

 (added: 5 Jun 2012)
Pilot of a LYNX helicopter, parked the thing so close to a ledge that the thing was on the brink of falling over the edge, hence Brink.

COOTS

 (added: 5 Jun 2012)
Constantly Over-emphasizes Own Tactical Significance

DRAG

 (added: 5 Jun 2012)
The Commander at my base got this callsign after overspeeding the gear on his F-16... Twice. DRAG stands for Doesn't Raise Any Gear.

SNAG

 (added: 5 Jun 2012)
Second Marine Corps female WSO assigned to the same squadron as the first - Still Not A Guy (See NAG)

NAG

 (added: 5 Jun 2012)
Not A Guy First Marine Corps F/A-18 female weapon system office (WSO)

NADS

 (added: 5 Jun 2012)
Woman Marine Hornet backseater went to hang with guys in a "gentleman's club" while in a foreign country. She decided she was more athletic than any of the girls on stage. Got up on stage, swung around the pole, promptly lost her grip, flew off stage and went headfirst into a chair, resulting in a Harry Potter like scar on her forhead and a new callsign - NADS for "Not A Decent Stripper"

Poptop

 (added: 5 Jun 2012)
Otherwise super-stick in the squadron who managed to inadvertently jettison not one but two canopies.

Creeper

 (added: 1 Mar 2012)
On a mission was caught by his commanding officer stalking the girls of a village in Korea

Batman

 (added: 5 Feb 2012)
USAF Fighter Pilot : real name - Michael Keaton!

Me-So

 (added: 5 Feb 2012)
Last name Horn.

Sibaba

 (added: 5 Feb 2012)
F4E Instructor... students followed around foot to foot asking him questions, quick thinking Zoomy recognized he had the appearance of a "Guru" ... Instructors First name "Si" .. actual Indian Guru... "Sibaba"... you can't make these things up!!

Circum

 (added: 5 Feb 2012)
In 1982-3 I was assigned to 80 TFS, Kunsan in the Life Support shop. The Juvat tradition is that Tac Call Signs are assigned upon Green Bean tours and are permanently engraved upon your challenge coin. The rule seemed to be that your call sign would be something that you would object to. My last name is Scism, so The LSO was tasked with designating my call sign, but he was over-riden by the DO, who decided my call sign would be Circum-Scism. The policy of course was for identification purposes if war broke out. and if we called in, by phone or radio this would be part of authentification. So in the bar, in Silvertown, when I drank my Juvat Cocktail and was ceremoniously dubbed, The squadron declared that if my my Tac Call Sign was to be Circum, I had to demonstrate that I was Circumcised. Audentes Fortuna Juvat!

Arclight

 (added: 5 Feb 2012)
This guy had a personality like a B-52 strike

Manstew

 (added: 5 Feb 2012)
Was at a hotel in a foreign country where the squadron was put up on deployments. In addition, the hotel hosted airline stewardess' in-training. Initially, I was operating solo macking on a half-a-dozen airline stewardess in a hot tub all to myself. But then all of a sudden...a squady rolled in, got in the tub, spread his arms out on the rail with one of them landing behind me looking as if he put his arms around me. I moved away but it was too late. I was pissed off he showed up and it set the stage for a scene on par with Broke Back Mountain. I was branded as the guy that boils in hot water.

VC

 (added: 5 Feb 2012)
The Philippine Air Force pilot was half-Vietnamese.

Digger

 (added: 5 Feb 2012)
One day shortly after arriving to a fighter sq as a female SSgt., I had a huge wedgie, so I walked into the Flight Equipment room to dig it out of my butt in what i thought was a empty room at first glance. I had been outside packing a ISU 90 for RED FLAG in Vegas so i was all sweaty and my panties were really wedged up my crack. I shoved my hand down my pants to remove them from my butt, then i heard a chair squeak. With my hand still in my pants, i Slowly turned to my right to see someone slunched down in a computer chair checking their email and they just had this look of utter amazement on their face. It was like they couldn't believe what they saw. We just stared at each other for a second and i then pulled my hand out and then looked at it. All i could say was "I need to sanitize," and then walked out. Later, earning me the name Digger.

Mangler

 (added: 18 Jan 2012)
While in Hawaii, I had a little bit of an accident involving alcohol, a hottub, various gorgeous women, and the zipper of my shorts. Apparently, the medical term for getting your coin purse stuck in your zipper is 'testicular mangling'.
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