Understanding Military Time: Essential for Emergency Preparedness

We think you’ll agree that one of the great tests of leadership is to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency. The reality is that you and your family have a time problem on your hands right now whether you realize it or not. You’ve prepped well and picked up the latest survival gear so that you and yours will want for nothing in the event of a global catastrophe or breakdown in civil order. You know where to rendezvous and how to get there. The problem is that you just don’t know when to show up. 

That’s because you’ve failed to train your family on when and how to make the switch to the military clock and throw away the vestiges of the 12-hour clock. Don’t get us wrong, civilian time works great for figuring out when to take your lunch break or the end of  the work day.  

Unfortunately, survival is a 24/7 affair and only a 24-hour clock that keeps you in a constant state of readiness will do. Military time is not as complicated as it seems and we’re about to break it down for you in exquisite detail. This could be the difference between a missed rendezvous when seconds matter and your family’s ultimate survival. 

What is Military Time and Why is it Used?

Commonly known as Military Time, this is a method of time keeping that discards the 12 hour clock that uses A.M. and P.M. designations of day and night in favor of a 24-hour clock system. There are 24 hours in a day and this system simply counts them in sequence from 0 to 2359 when it then resets to zero. It is commonly used in operations that operate 24 hours a day such as the military, law enforcement, hospitals, aviation, railroads and more. For instance, 1400 converts into 2 P.M, indicating true 24 hour time.

Though its creation is often attributed to the military, the reality is that this system was being used widely in Europe long before the United States Military adopted it. Unlike that pesky metric system the rest of the world begs the United States to adopt, we took on this system willingly. The Navy adopted the 24-hour system in 1920 and the United States Army officially took it on in 1942. 

The logic is that it removes the ambiguity as to whether one is speaking of 8:00 am or 8:00 pm when they simply say, the attack begins at 8. It also does away with any time zone ambiguities. Instead, 8 am is now 0800 and 8 pm is now 2000. Don’t worry, we’re going to explain how to read military time with ease. For now, let’s just all agree that the Private First Class who finds a way to mix up 0800 and 2000 is due for some serious remedial training. 

How to Read Military Time on a 24-Hour Clock?

Military instructors often like to tell students that they are about to “break it down Barney style.” Which references the lovable purple dinosaur many kids grew up watching. The point of that phrase is that we are going to use the 24-hour clock with utmost simplicity. Here's everything you need to know about military time.

Comparison: 12-Hour Clock vs. 24-Hour Clock

Every hour of the day has its own unique assigned number when you use military time. This is different from standard time keeping as you always have two 8 o’clocks, two 12 o’clocks and so on. With the 24 hour system, each hour of the day is divided into 24 units and cannot be confused with another. 

The 24-hour day begins at midnight, or what would otherwise be called 12 am. With the 24-hour time system, that moment in time is denoted in four digits as 0000. This is the start of your day. As each minute progresses throughout the day, you simply add one minute. For example, 0001, 0002, and 0003. When it reaches 0100 that would denote the passage of one hour. This will take place until you get to 2359 (last minute of the day) and then the clock runs from midnight to midnight.

Simply put, the first two digits denote the hour and the last two denote the minutes. Another key difference comes in the verbal pronunciation of the time. Here, you will call aloud the number of zeros in the lead. For example, the time of 0030 would be pronounced “zero zero thirty.” The time 0800 would be pronounced “zero eight hundred.” The time 1445 would be pronounced “fourteen forty five.” 

The key in teaching your children to read this system “Barney Style” is just to call it aloud like they see it. If they don’t quite get it right and say “ zero eight zero zero” you will clearly know they are describing “zero eight hundred.” People often get confused when the clock crosses over to 1300 or “thirteen hundred” as that seems foreign to them. Don’t worry, we’ll show you how to convert such time in just a minute. 

Source: Envato

The Importance of Military Time in Emergency Preparedness

Before we show you how to convert the military afternoon, 1300 to 2349, let’s talk about why it is worth the effort to do so. In a survival situation, details matter. It really is that simple. If you are reading a map and you are off by just 1 degree on your direction or azimuth, by the time you travel 5 miles you will be nowhere near your intended destination. 

Likewise, if you misinterpret 8 am for 8 pm, you will be 12 hours off in your intended rendezvous time. One party will assume you never made it and because communications are limited in a crisis situation the party will move on without you. Military time ensures precision as there is but one 1530 in the 24 hour day. As every debate that compares the 12 hour clock vs military time would confirm, the latter is almost always more accurate.

Showing the 12 hour clock in the beginning is a good way to start, as you can show the day starts at midnight, and then convert any time to military time. Understanding military time will also help you coordinate with emergency authorities who are giving out directions during a crisis. When emergency radio frequencies direct you to show up at 2000 for a food and water drop, you’re going to easily know when to show up. When you apply a tourniquet to a loved one and write the time of the tourniquet on the limb, you do so in military time so that healthcare workers know exactly when the tourniquet was applied and do not unnecessarily amputate a limb. 

Using a Military Time Converter

In teaching your children military time, you have the benefit of an array of online tools that will convert that it with the click of a button. However, we’d like to suggest that this is a burden and not a blessing. Teaching children to rely and a good WiFi connection in an emergency is to invite disaster upon them. 

Moreover, there are plenty of physical tools such as charges and flash cards that will convert military time for them. In a pinch, it’s nice to have on hand. However, nothing will replace their ability to make conversions within their own minds. If they can tell you the power and damage rating of every Pokemon in their card collection, they can convert military time.

All it takes for a child to convert military time is to be capable of simple subtraction. Hours and minutes 0000 through 1259 are often self explanatory. Though you might want to spend some effort explaining the 0000 range and that it is equivalent to midnight. Once you get to 1300, military time can be quickly established by subtracting 12 from the first two numbers. 

The “16” in “1600” minus 12 now becomes “4”. As such, 1600 is the equivalent to 4pm. The moment of 1530 minus 12 is the equivalent to 3:30 pm. 2330 then becomes 1130pm. Truthfully, muscle memory is the way to go when training your children to understand military time. It takes little effort to offer up spontaneous pop quizzes while driving in the car or sitting around the house. Repetition is the key and the more you do it the more it will come naturally to them in a survival situation. 

Implementing Military Time in Your Emergency Plans

Assuming that you are training your family to read military time, now you can incorporate this highly efficient system into your emergency plans. We must also point out that the benefits to using a 24 hour clock extend beyond the precision and increased coordination. It puts your family on notice that survival is now a 24 hour affair. 

The waypoint of 5:00 pm no longer indicates the end of a work day. Rather, 1700 is just another hour to remain vigilant. We don’t begin the day at 8:00 am. Rather, by 0800 we’ve already been working towards our survival for 8 hours with 16 more hours to go. It is a mindset that will translate into increased vigilance and an accurate portrayal of the situation at hand. 

Creating and Utilizing a Military Time Chart

Military time works well where coordination between multiple individuals is important. For example, radio check-ins should be coordinated based on a 24-hour clock. If someone is supposed to check in at 1500 and they do not, any confusion could launch a response that was unnecessary. The change over of a security lookout and subsequent post assignments would be written using this system. 

The ability to coordinate between multiple individuals is essential in a survival situation as the longer a crisis goes on the more important banding up with others will become. As they say, it is not the one individual with 1,000 rounds of ammunition that will win the day. Rather it is the ten individuals with 100 rounds each who will prevail. See our article on Red Dawn and Wolverines for more on that!

The lone wolf survivor certainly has its place and staying away from others in the immediate aftermath of a disaster certainly has its merits. However, humans are communal creatures and sooner or later, they will start to reform packs, tribes, and security arrangements to secure their future. Understand how to read military time and you’ll be an asset to that group and not a liability. 

Source: Military Time Conversion Chart

Benefits Beyond Emergency Situations

As it pertains to the products we offer at MIRA, this system is most applicable to Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear (CBRN) survival. When you first detected radiation and how long you were exposed as evidence by our Handheld Geiger Counter is best related in military time.

Source: MIRA Safety

When you last took Potassium Iodide is an important medical fact to relate with specificity. You can read all about what radiation did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki to understand the importance of understanding the cost of exposure. 

However, the truth of the matter is that military time is helpful in any situation where specificity is needed. That could range from clarifying with your wife when to pick up the kids for soccer or making sure you are not late to pick up a spouse from the airport. Screwing up either one could land you in hot water with the wife and we unfortunately do not have a survival product to help you with marital strife. 

As such, we’ll wrap this article up the way we started it. Leadership is recognizing a problem before it becomes an emergency. As the leader of your family, we encourage you to recognize whether or not your family can read military time. If not, it’s a problem and now is the moment to act before it becomes an emergency when the next catastrophe arises. Stay tuned to MIRA safety for the latest and together, we will stand ready and prepared for the day most people dread.