How to Read Military Time

Military time, also known as the 24-hour clock, is a system of timekeeping commonly used in the armed forces, aviation, and emergency services. Unlike the regular 12-hour clock that most people use, military time is based on a 24-hour cycle. While it may seem intimidating at first, reading military time is actually quite simple once you understand the basics. In this article, we will guide you through the process of reading military time.

First and foremost, it is important to understand that military time uses four digits to display time. The numbers range from 0000 to 2359 and represent all the possible variations in a day. The first two digits indicate the hour, while the last two digits represent the minutes.

To read military time, you need to be familiar with the concept of time zones. Just like the regular 12-hour clock, military time takes into account time zones by assigning a letter to each zone. For example, Zulu time is used to represent Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is the universal time zone.

To convert military time to regular time, you can follow a straightforward process. If the hour is between 0000 and 1259, it remains the same as normal time. However, if the hour is between 1300 and 2359, you need to subtract 12 from the hour to convert it to regular time.

Let’s take a few examples to make it clearer. Suppose you come across the military time 1300. By subtracting 12 from the hour, you get 1:00 PM in regular time. Similarly, if you see 1800, subtracting 12 gives you 6:00 PM.

Now, if you want to convert regular time to military time, you’ll need to keep a few things in mind. For hours from 1:00 AM to 9:59 AM, you need to add a 0 before the hour. For instance, 3:15 AM would become 0315 in military time.

For hours from 10:00 AM to 12:59 PM, you can keep the same hour but change the ‘AM’ to ‘PM’ in military time. For example, 12:30 PM in regular time would be 1230 in military time.

To give you a clearer idea, let’s convert the time 2:45 PM to military time. First, we keep the same hour, which is 2, then change ‘PM’ to ’00’. The resulting military time is 1400.

In addition to understanding how to convert time, it is essential to grasp the military time conventions. When reading military time, it is common to separate the hour and minutes with a colon (:) or a period (.). For example, 0900 is equivalent to 09:00 or 09.00.

Furthermore, military time does not use the terms “AM” and “PM” like the regular time system. Instead, it uses “hundred hours” to indicate the time of the day. For instance, 1300 is read as “thirteen hundred.”

In conclusion, reading military time may initially be a bit confusing, but once you grasp the basics, it becomes straightforward. Remember to take into account the time zone and convert the time accordingly. By following the rules mentioned earlier, you can easily convert military time to regular time and vice versa. Practice reading military time frequently to enhance your familiarity and it will soon become second nature.