I was taught “fife” as well.
Monosyllabic, so that there would be no confusion with “fi-er”. You never want anything to be confused with firing orders.
They really pronounce papa as “pa-PA”? I can’t imagine the average US military dude or dudette pronouncing it that way. I’ve always heard it as “PA-pa” but that’s just from movies, TV, YouTube, etc.
You’re…no longer employed here!
Also why they say “say again” instead of “repeat”, because “repeat” can mean “That artillery barrage was exactly on target; keep firing just like that”.
“Pete and Sayagain went for a boat ride…”
For those interested in this sort of thing, see
And for droids, the binary equivalent is
I often had to communicate with healthcare admin people, and soon discovered that the NATO alphabet only confused them further. I just accepted that phone calls, along with the delays for the “if this is an emergency, please hang up and dial 911,” the offer of Spanish, “please listen carefully as our menu options have changed,” etc. would by necessity include exchanges such as this
Exactly this. “Repeat” is an artillery fire command. The call for fire can simply be, “Repeat, over.” To which the FDC would reply, “Repeat, out.” And you’d soon have rounds going downrange.
But it is not keep firing just like that, It is fire one more salvo at the same spot as the last one.