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Pilot Callsigns

The web's largest collection of callsign stories
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The Three Rules of Callsigns

  1. If you don't already have one, you will be assigned one by your "buddies".
  2. You probably won't like it.
  3. If you complain and moan too much about 1. and 2., you'll get a new nickname you'll like even less!

So, how do you get a callsign?

Do something stupid or have it fit with your last name. Obvious examples, 'Crash' or LT 'Cheese' Kraft. Sometimes it's based on a physical appearance thing like 'Carrot'. After you've earned the respect of your buddies, you'll get a more 'heroic' callsign.

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Submit a Callsign - and don't forget the story!

Most recent additions

Our callsigns list contains 1787 callsigns. Here are the latest additions:
Bang Cock
 (added: 21 Nov 2024)
Pilot of Thai ancestry who (accidentally) got hit in the nuts
Newspaper
 (added: 13 Nov 2024)
Had a new issue everyday
Whatshisface
 (added: 14 Nov 2024)
Guy quite literally never spoke. You'd ask for his name and he'd just shrug at you. Ask him how he's doing and he'd look at you like you just sprang a tail. Always tried to disappear or make himself real small. Light on his feet and sneaky as all hell. It was like a cryptid sighting if you saw him out of his room. I once caught him walking out of the bathroom in the middle of the night mumbling the lyrics to "Highway to Hell". Nobody believed me. Anyway, we called him Whatshisface and sometimes when your COs were saying something stupid he'd look at you and either a) point his thumb at CO like "get a load of this guy" or b) twirl his index finger around his temple like "I think he's crazy". He was a chill dude.
E.T.
 (added: 13 Nov 2024)
Spent most of his time during basic training complaining that he wanted to go home.
Goblin
 (added: 12 Nov 2024)
I am short, have big ears, and a proclivity to collect shiny items
Wheelbarrow
 (added: 13 Nov 2024)
Only gets the job done when he's pushed.
Chomper
 (added: 5 Nov 2024)
Ended up getting the callsign 'Chomper' after word got out about how in middle school on the first day of a new school that was on military base I went crazy and bit the principal. The principal had a permanent large scar in the shape of my teeth.
Candy
 (added: 8 Nov 2024)
Last name "Cane"
CLAW
 (added: 23 Oct 2024)

Clothes Lined by Aircraft Wing

Short Female MQ-1 Sensor Operator was heads-down looking at her cellphone while walking on the flight line, and caught a wing leading edge right between the eyes. Had raccoon-eyes bruising for a solid week.

Borat
 (added: 25 Oct 2024)
F-16 jock that had very dark curly hair.
Vidal
 (added: 25 Oct 2024)
Viper driver whose hair was always meticulous and spot on. Named after Vidal Sassoon, the famous British hairstylist.
Didja
 (added: 23 Apr 2024)
Col. Banger
Tiny Tanks
 (added: 30 May 2024)
Went to the 'bathroom' a few too many times during a mission
Honeybadger
 (added: 17 Jun 2023)
Female pilot that is both extremely rude and the nicest in the squadron at the same time.
Smiler
 (added: 25 Sep 2024)
Just some happy high functioning autistic guy. (He told us he was autistic after basic training). The guy would js kinda try and make friends and give people gifts for their birthday...He got punched once by a female pilot and just walked off. (RIP Björn. You will be missed.) 1996-2016
Juanton
 (added: 25 Sep 2024)
When I was the POC at my F-4 squadron in 1984, for a hail and farewell held at a Chinese restaurant, my flight commander asked me if Wonton Soup was on the menu. I replied, "No." Then he said, "What's up with that, Juanton?" I still use that callsign to this day.
Deacon
 (added: 21 Sep 2024)
My dad was a carrier-based SH-3 pilot in the Vietnam era. Got his callsign because he went to church every Sunday and was Mormon. He even cut out an Angel Moroni and stuck it on his helment. Also one of the few guys in the squadron who limited his horizontal landings to his own wife.
Bumper
 (added: 19 Sep 2024)
Ssgt R. Morrison. We called him this because he got a sprained neck in the bumper cars at the state fair and missed a crew call a few days later.
DAG
 (added: 26 Aug 2024)
Short for "Doom and Gloom". Guy always woke up in a bad mood.
JinGo
 (added: 5 Jul 2024)

Split of tongue between "Joker Fuel" & "Bingo Fuel"

Bingo Fuel means the minimum amount of fuel that is required to safely reach an airport.

Joker Fuel differs from Bingo Fuel due to it including a preplanned transition point in the flight instead of having to divert, which is when Bingo Fuel is used.

Stiff
 (added: 4 Jun 2024)
Last name was “Graves”.
Motion
 (added: 1 May 2023)
Short for "Motion Light". Only seemed to work when somebody walked by.
Splinter
 (added: 1 May 2023)
Annoying little prick that get's under your skin
Hand Job
 (added: 2 Aug 2024)
This pilot wanted the callsign "hand of god"...

Let's just say everybody said that, but finished with job<:p>

Slinky
 (added: 4 Aug 2024)
A pilot seen playing with a Slinky everytime he completes a training routine
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