Military Time

Military time is a very simple concept and the use of this time format eliminates any confusion as to whether a time is AM or PM. All the AM times in Military time format are the same as AM time but a zero proceeds times from 1AM to 9AM:

PM hours continue from 12:00 - 23:59

An easy way to calculate standard PM time to military time is to add 12:00 to the standard PM time. I.E. Military time for 2:45 PM would be calulated as 2:45 + 12:00 = 14:45

Here's a chart:

Standard time to Military Time
Standard Time Military Time
1:00 AM 01:00
2:00 AM 02:00
3:00 AM 03:00
4:00 AM 04:00
5:00 AM 05:00
6:00 AM 06:00
7:00 AM 07:00
8:00 AM 08:00
9:00 AM 09:00
10:00 AM 10:00
11:00 AM 11:00
12:00 PM 12:00
1:00 PM 13:00
2:00 PM 14:00
3:00 PM 15:00
4:00 PM 16:00
5:00 PM 17:00
6:00 PM 18:00
7:00 PM 19:00
8:00 PM 20:00
9:00 PM 21:00
10:00 PM 22:00
11:00 PM 23:00
Midnight 00:00

Zulu Time

Zulu time is that which you might know as UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), formerly GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). Our natural concept of time is linked to the rotation of the earth and we define the length of the day as the 24 hours it takes the earth to spin once on its axis.

  As time pieces became more accurate and communication became global, there needed to be a point from which all other world times were based. Since Great Britain was the world's foremost martime power when the concept of latitude and longitude came to be, the starting point for designating longitude was the "prime meridian" which is zero degrees and runs through the Royal Greenwich Observatory, in Greenwich, England, just outside London.

    Unfortunately the Earth does not rotate at exactly a constant rate. Due to various scientific reasons and increased accuracy in measuring the earth's rotation, a new timescale, called Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), has been adopted and replaces the term GMT. The Navy, as well as civil aviation, uses the letter "Z" (phonetically Zulu) to refer to the time at the prime meridian.

UTC to U.S Time Zone Calculations

U.S. Time Zone Calculation FROM UTC
TO U.S Time Zone
Atlantic Standard Subtract Four hours
Atlantic Daylight Subtract Three hours
Eastern Standard Subtract Five hours
Eastern Daylight Subtract Four hours
Central Standard Subtract Six hours
Central Daylight Subtract Five hours
Mountain Standard Subtract Seven hours
Mountain Daylight Subtract Six hours
Pacific Standard Subtract Eight hours
Pacific Daylight Subtract Seven hours
Alaskan Standard Subtract Nine hours
Alaskan Daylight Subtract Eight hours
Hawaiian Standard Subtract Ten hours

The U.S. time zones are:

Eastern ["R", "Romeo]
Central["S", "Sierra"]
Mountain ["T", "Tango"]
Pacific ["U", "Uniform"]
Alaska ["V", "Victor"]
Hawaii ["W", "Whiskey"].

Daylight Savings time runs in the U.S. (Except in Hawaii) from 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of April and time reverts to standard time at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday of October.

Along with Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Eastern Time Zone portion of the State of Indiana, and the state of Arizona (not the Navajo Indian Reservation, which does observe), do not observe the time change.

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