Pilot Callsigns

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.

Add your callsign to the list

Most recent additions

Gangsta

 (added: 30 Mar 2008)

During IRAQI FREEDOM our OG demanded quiet in the mission planning cell during pre-takeoff briefs. This went on for several weeks and with each turn he got more and more frustrated by the interruptions until one day he'd had enough, stopped the briefing, and summarily fired the chief planner and then threatened similar actions for the rest of us. Someone later said he looked just like Al Capone. One of our life support troops overheard that and said, "yeah, he's a real gangsta." It stuck.

Flea

 (added: 30 Mar 2008)

Lazy a$$ driver who whenever there was alot of work to be done around the hangar used to flee!!

Squawk

 (added: 30 Mar 2008)

Pilot who finally managed to squawk in the right transponder code after 4 failed attempts...

Shooter

 (added: 30 Mar 2008)

The evening I arrived at Kunsan, a Friday night, I got into a late night game of 4-5-6. Since I had a pocketfull of cash for the PCS, I told the guy with the dice to "shoot it" several times. Since I won each time and pocketed a serious amount of $, the story got around and hence the nickname.

TAC-N

 (added: 30 Mar 2008)

Flight doc, Turn And Cough, Now! Enough said...

Casper

 (added: 30 Mar 2008)

Hired by the Syracuse Guard unit and United Airlines the same month. Went to airline training and didn't show up at the Guard unit for two months..as in "The Ghost".

Tuna

 (added: 14 Mar 2008)

I tried to cook a can of Tuna over a chemical (hexi) stove during a ground survival training thing, the can blew sky high because of the heat, we were not allowed back on the base ever again and I got a bolloking from my shell-shocked C.O. Somebody called me that on the way back to base and it stuck.

Pookie

 (added: 14 Mar 2008)

Short punk kid who wanted a cool callsign. He wanted to be called Swerve from when he was a kid. Everything we called him he hated. So we pulled Pookie out of nowhere. He hated Pookie more than any other callsign. We loved it! We got a HOT CHICK to tell him that she wanted to call him Pookie because he reminded her of an old boyfriend that was just as hot as he was. He loved it. But secretly we all knew that we just pulled it our of our A**!

Squieek

 (added: 14 Mar 2008)

Cause I stept on the CO's little dog. Had to go to hospital for half a day, I had a black eye for a week.

Shaft

 (added: 9 Mar 2008)

The guy's first name is Cam. 'Nuff Said.

Fridge

 (added: 9 Mar 2008)

A guest had brought some French Cheese to the bar along with some salami and other goodies. This well-intentioned Lt, working behind the Sq bar, decided to put this particular cheese in the refrigerator. Wrong move. It was Brie, which HAS to be served at room temp when it is at its oozing best. No class.

Cherry

 (added: 9 Mar 2008)

First Name: Buster (no lie!)

Nogas

 (added: 9 Mar 2008)

This former F-111 pilot shows up at Kunsan for his first Viper tour and wouldn't shut the f**k up about the F-111. We named him Nogas - No One Gives A Shit!

Scuba

 (added: 9 Mar 2008)

Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus - got caught getting a bj in a hot tub in Vegas during Red Flag

WingNut

 (added: 9 Mar 2008)

Well I have big ears and the flightline said my head's on hand tight.

Jabba

 (added: 3 Mar 2008)

Extremely handsome aviator

Scarecrow

 (added: 3 Mar 2008)

I've been told I have a high intimidation factor.

Cooler

 (added: 1 Mar 2008)

I had an instructor in T-38's who said that while preparing to cross the pond the flight doc gave the pilots immodium AD. Well after taking the pills the flight got cancelled due to Wx. well, next evening ready for the hop he couldn't s$%t and he couldn't take another set of pills. So, long story short, halfway across the pond he used his cooler to hold the waste.

Batman

 (added: 1 Mar 2008)

One day I thought it would be a good idea to share a picture of a SPEC Ops guy in HALO gear getting ready for a jump...he looked like Batman. So I sent the e-mail out to the rest of the shop under the title "I am BATMAN!!!" and made the mistake of not attatching said picture. From that day on I was officially known as Batman.

GATOR

 (added: 1 Mar 2008)

Was TDY to Nellis and he was arrested by the SP's for throwing beer bottles in the urinal - so gator stands for Got Arrested Trashing O-club Restroom.

Gorbachev

 (added: 1 Mar 2008)

This guy was taking off the CSD/ADG door, cause he dropped a chip detector and couldn't find it, and he didn't leave any screws in the door to keep it steady. Well one of the screws got stuck up under the jet and he went to get it unstuck....well it popped out and then gravity took over. The door came down and it caught him off guard and it slapped him in the forehead. One of the screws cut into his forehead and caused about an inch gash. Then somebody mentioned that it reminded him of Mikhail Gorbachev. And that's how he got that name.

Jugs

 (added: 20 Feb 2008)

First female tacair pilot at Miramar -- 'nuff said...

Master

 (added: 20 Feb 2008)

Col. Daniel Bader... 'nuff said. At one point during an Air Staff Tour, a well meaning bird colonel tried to change it to "Darth" but that didn't stick.

Gator

 (added: 20 Feb 2008)

Guy was a huge University of Florida fan.

Ghost

 (added: 20 Feb 2008)

Always had a bad habit of coming out of nowhere and scaring the crap out of everybody. Several references were made at how I could pass through walls and just materalize without a sound, and my very pale skin, so several people started calling me a "ghost" and the name stuck.