Military Time Conversion & How To Read

While most people in the military use a 24-hour clock, civilians usually have to know whether a specific time is AM or PM. The 24-hour clock makes knowing the exact time efficient. If someone told you to meet at "five-o-clock" you might ask if that is in the morning or evening. With military time, they would have told you "Zero Five Hundred Hours" or "Seventeen Hundred Hours" which would clear up the confusion. Military time is a means of keeping, recording, and expressing time that’s based on the 24-hour format. The 24-hour cycle used in military time removes the need to use suffixes such as "AM" and "PM," and thus makes time expression brief and unambiguous. The military will continue to use the 24-hour clock for many years to come mainly because it eliminates confusion. This also makes it easier when traveling to other countries on a deployment. Military time will always be used for assigning tasks and planning missions. Military time is part of the first line of security and will always be part of the military’s heritage and tradition. The main thing to know about military time is that it never changes. This makes it easier for everyone, especially new soldiers, to understand when they need to be somewhere.