Oh... and the "Adam Lincoln Nora..." is known as a "phonetic alphabet". On the radio, sometimes it's easy to mis-hear something when it's being spelled out. For example, saying the letters "D" and "B" on the radio, which can strip away some of the articulation of the speaker, can sound like "D" and "D", or "B" and "B" or "B" and "D". Using a phonetic alphabet, where a simple, but uniquely pronounced, word is assigned to each letter, helps to overcome that. Instead of saying the letters, those who are spelling things on-the-air merely speak the words assigned. It'd be real difficult to mistake "David" and "Baker" on the radio for each other.
There are different phonetic alphabets for different purposes. Perhaps the most famous is the so-called "International" phonetic alphabet, which starts out "Alpha", "Bravo", "Charlie", "Delta", and so on. A phonetic alphabet that's in fairly common use in Oklahoma law enforcement goes like this:
Adam, Boy, Charles, David, Edward, Frank, George, Henry, Ida, John, King, Lincoln, Michael, Nora, Ocean, Paul, Queen, Robert, Sam, Tom, Union, Victor, William, X-Ray, Young, Zebra
There may be variations in what words are assigned depending on where you are.
Police agencies many times need to spell out names over the air because exact matches are important in checking driver's license status and checking for warrants. For example, I don't imagine you'd be too happy being arrested on a warrant for John Smith if your name was Jon Smith.
As with all other things, learning to use a phonetic alphabet is merely the result of doing it all the time... practice makes perfect...
