Pilot Callsigns

Most recent additions

Alpha(bet)

 (added: 23 Jun 2025)

Guy had a Romanian surname. It was basically the entire alphabet so we called him "Alpha", short for "Alphabet".

Dorothy

 (added: 2 Jun 2025)

Real name "Abel". Very gay, stick-thin man on the squadron. Friend told us about the term "Friend of Dorothy". Dorothy showed us a picture of him wearing red sneakers from a baby shower, and sealed the name.

Tango-1

 (added: 10 Jun 2025)

In 1997, the Turkish Air Force was invited to the Red Flag exercise for the first time. At that time, 6 F-16 Block40 and 2 KC-135R tanker aircraft from the 141st Wolf Squadron were transferred to the US Nellis Air Base.

During the exercise, Turkish aircrafts were given the task of acting as Red Forces. Turkish F-16s represented Russian Su-27s and MiG-29s. Their call codes were ''Tango''. After the first familiarization sorties, the aircrafts took off for the Red-Blue fight. Turkish F16 with tail number 89-0028 locked on 5 F-15s and 4 F-16s, taking them out of the scenario. In the following days, none of the Blue Forces Pilots managed to lock on him. So this is where the ''Tango-1 Never Dies'' was born.

After that, same USAF and Israeli pilots tried to take their revenge in ''Anatolian Eagle Drill'' happened in 3rd Jet Base in 2001, Konya. But again, none of them managed to get a lock on him, and thus his ''Tango-1 Never Dies'' callsign was earned.

The same plane is still in service, in 132nd Dagger Squadron, still has his callsign written on it.

Groupie

 (added: 9 Jun 2025)

Never tell the guys of your squadron that you like a certain small-time country band that tours the bars in the general vicinity of your base. Never tell the guys of your squadron that you have a (rather loose) relationship with the (mighty cute) female lead singer of the band. Never EVER tell the guys of your squadron that you go to certain bars just because said band plays there tonight and you want to have a little 'aftershow party' with the singer. Otherwise these &$%@# might call you Groupie giving you a callsing that still sticks to you a quarter of a century later.

Nagasaki Ninja

 (added: 8 Jun 2025)

There we were... a bunch of GWOT era helo drivers. Each of us drunk as a skunk. One of us wanted a Kawasaki Ninja real bad and told us at least a dozen times over the course of the night. When he was wasted enough his brain mixed up Kawasaki and Nagasaki so he was like Yeah I'll ride a freakin Nagasaki Ninja. The ninja part got dropped over the years but Nagasaki stuck.

Honey Bun

 (added: 9 Jun 2025)

Guy had an obsession with Little Debbie snacks, caught him eating a Honey Bun one time. CO thought it was hilarious and the name caught on. Also descended into saying some form of “Nice Honey Buns!” and slapping his butt.

Irebait

 (added: 9 Jun 2025)

Short for “IR Bait”. It was given to a guy with a big forehead.

Duxie

 (added: 9 Jun 2025)

Pronounced like a mix of Duke and Dixie.

1. Born and raised south of the Mason Dixon line.
2. Invited my new RIO into my home for dinner with me and my wife.
3. Drove a Jeep Wrangler

Remember those short shorts we wore as kids during the 80s? When I had the RIO at home he saw a photo where 6yo me was wearing such shorts. He came to the conclusion:

• Daisy Duke wears short shorts
• Daisy Duke is from the south
• Daisy Duke drives a Jeep Wrangler named Dixie

What a coincidence, right? Let's forget minor details like me being a male and not having blonde hair. When he left for the night he already said 'bye, Duxie' and when I returned to base the following day it was already out of control.

Monty

 (added: 24 May 2025)

I made a joke during ground school that my wing commander laughed at, and he said "Woman like men who can tells jokes, unfortunately for you they don't like guys who look like John Cleese's asshole"

And such ended up with Monty, like Monty Python

Voyage

 (added: 29 May 2025)

Wandered too far off the battlefield, thus gaining the name for going a kilometre off target.

‘I wasn’t that far off!’

Voyage

 (added: 29 May 2025)

Yondered too far from the battlefield and shot a kilometre off target, thus gaining the name.

‘I wasn’t that far off!’

Schumacher

 (added: 1 Jun 2025)

Crashed into a guardrail while entering a base that I had just been transferred to. Lucky they didn't name me Blondie (I am a woman with light hair)

KAGE

 (added: 21 May 2025)

Copilots first deployment, went to take a leak, getting back in the seat his NVG cable hooked a fire handle and shut it down, he Killed A Good Engine.

Worm

 (added: 16 May 2025)

His name was Norm and he was bald as a baby! The nickname Worm stuck and hasn't left him since in his 30+ years of aviation and Naval work.

Molasses

 (added: 17 May 2025)

Spoke slow as..., flew the opposite.

Mike Wazowski

 (added: 20 May 2025)

Last name Wlazlinksi. Everyone gave up on that pretty quickly and came up with that.

Note: Mike Wazowski is a fictional character who appears in Disney/Pixar's Monsters Inc. franchise. He is a green one-eyed round monster with two arms, legs, and small horns.

Shaka

 (added: 8 May 2025)

While on duty, changed Zulu time with other clocks on daylight savings. Evolved from originally being called "Zulu."

Edge

 (added: 10 May 2025)

Australian Army Tiger pilot. Went on several live fire range sorties which were cancelled mid flight. Took him multiple flights to "get his load off".

Squid

 (added: 13 May 2025)

Last name is Seaman. Served in the USAF. Everyone always said "you should have gone in the Navy!" I embraced the callsign "Squid" as I knew it could have been much worse.

Beast

 (added: 6 May 2025)

Pilot was assigned to aircraft with tail number 666.

RNoAF F-16 #80-3666

Butter Knife

 (added: 24 May 2024)

Such a poor marksman that someone said he wasn’t much of a weapon.

Manus

 (added: 27 Apr 2025)

New guy didn't tell us his first name and insisted we use his last name. Turn out his first name starts with "I"

DUI

 (added: 20 Apr 2025)

Stands for ‘Dived Under IFR”. The pilots were doing a cross country flight and as she was following the lead pilot, the lead suddenly inverts his aircraft upside down and pulls on the stick to pull down and reverts right side up to drop altitude very quickly. She watches this and her EWO asks if she’s gonna follow her so she does the exact same thing, but instead of rolling back normal, she rolls halfway and pulls on the stick and ends up separating from the formation and loses sight of the formation and they have to wait for her to catch back up again. Rest in peace, Lt Serena Wileman.

Gestapo

 (added: 18 Apr 2025)

British army for context.

First time on parade. Sergeant inspecting. Noticed that I wore my trousers too high on the waist and you could see too much of my boots.

'You look like a member of the fucking Gestapo' he said.

The name stuck.

HeiHei

 (added: 10 Mar 2025)

Whenever he drank (even a little), this guy often became unaware of his surroundings and was accident prone. Also easily distracted when in that condition. Named after the incredibly stupid chicken in the Disney film “Moana”.