Many people are confused about how to write time and date in military. There are a few different ways to do it, but the most common is using the 24-hour clock. This can be tricky for people who use the 12-hour clock, but it is not impossible. With a little practice, you will be able to master this system.

Writing the Date in the Military

As previously said, it is a good idea to understand how the military writes the date so that you may use the correct format in military letters and papers. It’s not as tough as you think – it’s certainly not rocket science! The military date should be formatted as follows:

(1) The Day
(2) The Month
(3) The Year

The characters required for the date’s day, month, and year are as follows:

Day = 2 characters (numbers)
Month = 3 characters (letters)
Year = 2 characters (numbers)

That is, DD MMM YY.

Please follow the sequence and avoid using commas.

As a result, the date and time military format (as of this writing) is 13 FEB 22. Here’s a tool you may use daily to verify the date in a certain format.

Day (DD)

Precisely two integers should represent every day. As a result, the first nine days of each month are preceded by a zero. As an example:

01 = 1st
02 = 2nd
03 = 3rd
04 = 4th
05 = 5th
06 = 6th
07 = 7th
08 = 8th
09 = 9th

Month (MMM)

The months must be spelled out in letters, but only three may be used. As a consequence, all months except May are reduced or shortened.

Pick the first three letters of the month’s name. As an example:

JAN = January
FEB = February
MAR = March
APR = April
MAY = May
JUN = June
JUL = July
AUG = August
SEP = September
OCT = October
DEC = December

Please remember that the month should always be written in capital letters.

Year (YY)

In military date format, the year, like the month, should be limited to two integers. Take the year’s last two digits. As an example:

18 = 2018
19 = 2019
20 = 2020
21 = 2021
22 = 2022

However, you will sometimes come across military papers and paperwork that indicate the year with four letters like YYYY. The year is spelled out as 2018/2019/2020/2021/2022, and so on.

The United States military uses the DD MM YYYY format for standard military correspondence. The common month-day-year format is used for correspondence with civilians.

Examples

Here is a list of special days and holidays in the United States written in Army date format. Briefing through these might assist you in fast becoming acquainted with the right military date format.

01 JAN 22 = New Year’s Day
18 JAN 22 = Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
15 FEB 22 = President’s Day
04 APR 22 = Easter
31 MAY 22 = Memorial Day
04 JUL 22 = Independence Day
06 SEP 22 = Labor Day
11 NOV 22 = Veterans Day
25 NOV 22 = Thanksgiving
25 DEC 22 = Christmas

This military date format differs from the standard civilian date format, which uses dashes: MM – DD – YY (-).

Aside from that, you may come across the DTG system, which stands for Date Time Group. The year, month, day of the month, hour of the day, minute of the hour, and time zone are all represented by a sequence of characters.

All military personnel must be familiar with the DTG format.

It is also known as the army date format.

Army DTG example is traditionally formatted as DDHHMM(Z)MONYY, where:

The letter “DD” represents the month’s day.
“HHMM” represents the time in 24-hour format and the military time zone.
The military identification is “Z.”
The month code is “MON.” (Month code refers to the first three letters of the month.)
The year code is “YY.” (Year code refers to the year’s final two digits.)

For example, 051830RJAN13 would be 6:30 p.m. on January 5th, 2013, in Fayetteville, NC.

“DD” = 05
“HHMM” = 1830
“Z” = R (Refer to chart of the military time code letter reference below)
“MON” = “JANUARY”
“YY” = 13

As GMT is regarded as hour 0, the military time designation is Coordinated Universal Time — UTC plus (+) or minus (-) Greenwich Mean Time — GMT.

Greenwich Mean Time is known as Zulu (Z) in military time code reference. It is often assigned as the standard time zone to operational units in several time zones, so everyone is on the same page.

Military Time Code

The military time zone indicates Coordinate Universal Time (UTC), based on hours + or – Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is hour 0.

Greenwich Mean Time is called Zulu in military time coding (Z). In activities spanning many time zones, Zulu will be utilized to assign a time zone to all operational units so that everyone is on the same page.

When using the military time code, one frequent error is to use “L” for Local time. In reality, the letter “L” indicates the time zone UTC+11, which includes portions of Russia and Australia. When referring to your time zone, make careful to check the reference below to determine what your local code identification is.

Military Time Code Reference Letter

UTC -12: Y- (e.g., Fiji)
UTC-11: X (American Samoa)
UTC-10: W (Honolulu, HI)
UTC-9: V (Juneau, AK)
UTC-8: U (PST, Los Angeles, CA)
UTC-7: T (MST, Denver, CO) (MST, Denver, CO)
UTC-6: S (CST, Dallas, TX)
UTC-5: R (EST, New York, NY)
UTC-4: Q (Halifax, Nova Scotia
UTC-3: P (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
UTC-2: O (Godthab, Greenland) (Godthab, Greenland)
UTC-1: N (Azores)
UTC+-0: Z (Zulu time)
UTC+1: A (France)
UTC+2: B (Athens, Greece)
UTC+3: C (Arab Standard Time, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar)
UTC+4: D (This time zone is used for Moscow, Russia, and Afghanistan, although Afghanistan is +4:30 from UTC).
UTC+5: E (Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan)
UTC+6: F (Bangladesh)
UTC+7: G (Thailand)
UTC+8: H (Beijing, China)
UTC+9: I (Tokyo, Australia)
UTC+10: K (Brisbane, Australia)
UTC+11: L (Sydney, Australia)
UTC+12: M (Wellington, New Zealand)

Reading The Military Time Format

Reading and writing time in military time format is simpler and more compatible with communication, which is desired for military purposes. It operates on a 24-hour clock that begins at midnight and is referred to as 0000 hours, which means that 1:00 a.m. is now 0100 hours, 2:00 a.m. is 0200 hours, and so on until 11:00 p.m. is 2300 hours.

How To Convert Military Time

Use the following cheat sheet to convert the “regular” time of military date time group converter.

Morning Hours

0000 = Midnight
1am = 0100
2am = 0200
3am = 0300
4am = 0400
5am = 0500
6am = 0600
7am = 0700
8am = 0800
9am = 0900
10am = 1000
11am = 1100

Evening And Afternoon Hours

1200 = midday
1pm = 1300
2pm = 1400
3pm = 1500
4pm = 1600
5pm = 1700
6pm = 1800
7pm = 1900
8pm = 2000
9pm = 2100
10pm = 2200
11pm = 2300

FAQs

How do you enter the military date?

Requirements for Military Date Format

Considering the character limitations, the format is DD MMM YY with no commas. This means that the day should include precisely two integers. The month must have precisely three letters.

What is the correct way to write time?

The 12-hour or 24-hour method may be used to write time. The abbreviation a.m. or p.m., the word hours, or the phrase o’clock are often used following the time number. In casual conversation, the number alone is often adequate to communicate time. At 12:17 a.m., the train departs.

How do you say 2000 in military time?

I was instructed to add hours to represent the 24-hour clock. It is common to see 20.00 and 20:00 in the United Kingdom and portions of Europe; I also notice 2000hrs or 2000h. Because we don’t say “twenty hundred hours” in the US Navy, we simply say “twenty hundred.”

Conclusion

The proper way how to write date and time in military is by using the 24-hour clock. For example, if it is 10:00 am, you would write 1000. How to write military date? The date is written in the order of month, day, and year. So, if today is October 10th, 2016, you would write 10102016.

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