Roger

What does "Roger That" signify? How did it become standard?

Have you ever had to convey the spelling of your name over the phone to someone?  How frustrating it is when they get it wrong.

Now imagine conveying the coordinates of a bombing raid and the pilot on the plane or the captain of a ship getting it wrong!

Photo by Piotr Guzik on Unsplash

To avoid this situation, the Allied forces during the Second World War came up with phonetic alphabets, the first of the kind was created in 1943. We are aware of the Alpha, Bravo, Chalie, Delta; NATO call signs that are used today.

But during the Second World War alphabets were Able, Baker, Chalie, Dog…

It was changed because according to the old convention, ‘UMLI’ would have been “Uncle Mike Love Item”. They wanted the whole thing to sound a bit more sophisticated.

Source: Wikipedia

When a message was received, to convey the receipt of the same, the letter ‘R’ was designated. Hence ‘Roger’ came to be used to denote receipt of the message. “Roger that” meant Received that.

When an order was received the soldier wanted to inform the post that they intended to execute the order and will comply. Will Comply was shortened to “Wilco”.  This gives us “Roger Wilco”.