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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.

Add your callsign to the list

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

Most recent additions

Our callsigns list contains 1779 callsigns. Here are the latest additions:
CLAW
 (added: 23 Oct 2024)

Clothes Lined by Aircraft Wing

Short Female MQ-1 Sensor Operator was heads-down looking at her cellphone while walking on the flight line, and caught a wing leading edge right between the eyes. Had raccoon-eyes bruising for a solid week.

Borat
 (added: 25 Oct 2024)
F-16 jock that had very dark curly hair.
Vidal
 (added: 25 Oct 2024)
Viper driver whose hair was always meticulous and spot on. Named after Vidal Sassoon, the famous British hairstylist.
Didja
 (added: 23 Apr 2024)
Col. Banger
Tiny Tanks
 (added: 30 May 2024)
Went to the 'bathroom' a few too many times during a mission
Honeybadger
 (added: 17 Jun 2023)
Female pilot that is both extremely rude and the nicest in the squadron at the same time.
Smiler
 (added: 25 Sep 2024)
Just some happy high functioning autistic guy. (He told us he was autistic after basic training). The guy would js kinda try and make friends and give people gifts for their birthday...He got punched once by a female pilot and just walked off. (RIP Björn. You will be missed.) 1996-2016
Juanton
 (added: 25 Sep 2024)
When I was the POC at my F-4 squadron in 1984, for a hail and farewell held at a Chinese restaurant, my flight commander asked me if Wonton Soup was on the menu. I replied, "No." Then he said, "What's up with that, Juanton?" I still use that callsign to this day.
Deacon
 (added: 21 Sep 2024)
My dad was a carrier-based SH-3 pilot in the Vietnam era. Got his callsign because he went to church every Sunday and was Mormon. He even cut out an Angel Moroni and stuck it on his helment. Also one of the few guys in the squadron who limited his horizontal landings to his own wife.
Bumper
 (added: 19 Sep 2024)
Ssgt R. Morrison. We called him this because he got a sprained neck in the bumper cars at the state fair and missed a crew call a few days later.
DAG
 (added: 26 Aug 2024)
Short for "Doom and Gloom". Guy always woke up in a bad mood.
JinGo
 (added: 5 Jul 2024)

Split of tongue between "Joker Fuel" & "Bingo Fuel"

Bingo Fuel means the minimum amount of fuel that is required to safely reach an airport.

Joker Fuel differs from Bingo Fuel due to it including a preplanned transition point in the flight instead of having to divert, which is when Bingo Fuel is used.

Stiff
 (added: 4 Jun 2024)
Last name was “Graves”.
Motion
 (added: 1 May 2023)
Short for "Motion Light". Only seemed to work when somebody walked by.
Splinter
 (added: 1 May 2023)
Annoying little prick that get's under your skin
Hand Job
 (added: 2 Aug 2024)
This pilot wanted the callsign "hand of god"...

Let's just say everybody said that, but finished with job<:p>

Slinky
 (added: 4 Aug 2024)
A pilot seen playing with a Slinky everytime he completes a training routine
Leprechaun
 (added: 6 Aug 2024)
Had a very Irish last name. But when asked said, "I'm not even a little Irish."

Someone responds, "They're called leprechauns"

Hulk
 (added: 7 Aug 2024)
Diminutive female pilot with an unexpectedly scary anger.
Samurai
 (added: 10 Aug 2024)
Not because I was into anime and samurai movies. I was pulling the flag up at Great Mistakes with another guy when an LT points at us and says "Hey you, come here!". I responded "Sir, Sam or I, sir?"

That's right I got my name because of a failure to use basic friggin' English.

Hand
 (added: 30 Jun 2024)
Last name was Jobin
Blindside
 (added: 7 Jul 2024)
Not a real pilot, but I fly F-16Cs on DCS with some retired airforce guys. During one of the first times flying with them we are gearing up for A/A combat, and they ask if I need help with procedures. I shrugged them off and said I had it, right up until halfway to target I realized my IFF was off and I couldn't remember how to turn it on. Instead of helping, they told me to fight it out without my radar telling me whose friendly and hope for the best. By the end, we only lost a single plane out of 3, and it was the flight lead, taken out by an AIM-9X sidewinder from my rack. After a bit of laughing they said they didn't expect me to actually fire anything off while blind, so they gave me Blindside. It's been a year and they still make sure I double check that I can see teams.
CIPHER
 (added: 16 Jul 2024)
Crashes Into Pretty Huge Emergency Room (Girls).

Dude was towards the end of his service on the PC-21 and about to transition on the F/A-18. On one of his last flights he and the instructor overshot the runway laterally due to heavy raining, landing gear broke, the FI pulled the rear handle and ejected both of them.

Gets to the emergency room at the hospital to be checked on, they tell us we can visit him later. Whole training squadron wanted to check on him, not even one hour after being delivered to the medics we get the text message “I’m all fine” and two one time-watching videos on WhatsApp in which he was having sexual relations with two different (chubby) nurses.

Hence, his callsign from that day on. We had to invent a backup story to tell to the air force commander on graduation day when he asked about our callsigns.

Video
 (added: 1 Jul 2024)
You might think there is cool combat footage of this guy. Well no, let's just say a, emmm.... "spicy video" got leaked with his girlfriend all around base
Jeff
 (added: 30 Jun 2024)
This pilot's name was Jeff, he was the commander of his unit, one day he requested a call sign, one guy in the corner was laughing, he suggested the callsign "Jeff" as commanders didn't like to be called by their name
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