What is Military Time?

A day on a standard clock moves in two 12-hour sections, while the military time clock marches in a single 24-hour block. When you have the need, our time conversion widget can quickly help you make the shift from one system to the other. If you wanted to convert back from military time to civilian time, you would simply subtract 12 to arrive at the pm hour and minutes. Below are all the military time zones and the corresponding offset. If you are in a crisis and relaying information from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Wyoming, your team should not need to calculate time or definitions. It needs to be predetermined so when your teammate says “17 hundred 30 hours Whiskey” you know exactly what they mean. Nautical time zones are used by the military to ensure a standardization of time for the forces. Standard military orders would be delivered in Zulu time. Zulu time is the same as “Greenwich Mean Time” or GMT. Depending on the ship or units location on the planet, it will determine the amount of offset required. Once you get used to using military time, it will become second nature — there’s nothing really complex about this timekeeping method. And the best way to adapt to using military time is to set your computer to display military time or the 24-hour time format. Seeing military time as part of your daily routine is an excellent way to get the logic ingrained in your memory.