Oct 27, 2018 3 min read

“Squadron leader, Bogies at twelve o’clock. Watch your back.”

“Roger that.”

In practically every book, movie or television show about a military battle or maneuver, in the communication between the effected parties, the reply to an order, warning or observation is usually, “Roger that.”

So why, of all names, Roger? The answer goes back to the beginning of aviation when the technology in a plane, especially its cockpit, was primitive, meaning ground-to-air communication (and vice versa) was far more difficult, but also far more important, not only to help guide the pilots, but to keep them from crashing. In the beginning, pilots and ground crews communicated with visual flares, and even hand signals (planes back then didn’t reach the altitudes they do today). This was especially true when flying at night, and in 1921, when pilot Jack Knight flew the first-ever successful overnight mail flight, his flight path was lit by signal flares held by postal employees and local farmers.

The first ground-to-air direct communication was a form of Morse Code, but to save time – quick decision-making being critical when flying planes in the 1920s – whenever possible, abbreviations rather than words were transmitted, so the letter “R” meant message “Received.” Thus, pilots could quickly respond “R,” meaning they received and understood the ground crew’s instructions.

And then, this week (Oct. 29) in 1927, ground-to-air communication via Morse Code was first replaced by voice communication, and the International Telegraph Union created a phonetic alphabet to communicate quickly – “Alpha, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy … ” down through the alphabet, and “Roger” became the designation for “R” – “Roger that” (Received). Although all the words were of English derivation, they were picked not because of their meaning, but because they were short and simple, making their newly designated definition easy to remember. This was particularly necessary during World War II because not all allied nations – which included France, Russia and even Yugoslavia – were fluent in English, so words like “Roger, to mean “Received,” became part of an international “aviation language” that everyone understood.

Interestingly, in 1957, “Roger” was replaced by “Romeo” as the designation for message “Received,” and “Romeo” today is the official code word for the original “R” – “Received” – in the globally adopted phonetic alphabet. That said, out of long ingrained habit, “Roger that” is still the most common communication.

Or, perhaps, because it is simply a preference. After all, why would “Romeo” stand for message “received,” when the reason both Romeo and Juliet killed themselves in Shakespeare’s play about two star-crossed lovers is because Romeo never received Friar Laurence’s message that Juliet was not dead, but rather in a drug-induced coma from which she would soon awake.

Bruce G. Kauffmann’s email address is bruce@historylessons.net.