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Careers: Military--Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, Coast Guard/Navy "time" question...
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Question
Sgt. Powers:
Not sure you're the person I should be asking this, but didn't see any Navy personnel on the All Experts board.
How is shipboard time calculated? You're always hearing (in movies and TV shows) some naval officer calling an "officers meeting" at seven bells...or some sailor saying that he was on watch from two to six bells. And I've just always wondered how "bell time" aboard ship is computed.
Any info you could share is greatly appreciated.
Warm regards,
David Gardner
Hi David,
Military time is run on a 24 hour clock. In other words, 1:00 AM is 0100 hours. 1:00 PM is 1300 hours.
1 Bell would be 0100. 13 bells would be 1300 hours, etc. While in home-port, times are generally the time-zone for the home port. When deployed, time is generally Zulu Time (see: http://usmilitary.about.com/od/glossarytermsu/g/u6629.htm)
For more information about the United States Military, feel free to visit my military information website at: http://usmilitary.about.com
Hope this helps!
Rod Powers
http://usmilitary.about.com
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Rod Powers
Expertise
Rod Powers is considered one of the premire experts about U.S. Military career information on the planet. He has more than 30,000 articles about U.S. Military career information on the About.com U.S. Military Careers Information website at: http://usmilitary.about.com. Additionally, he is the author of "ASVAB for Dummies," "ASVAB AFQT for Dummies," (available in Dec 2009), and "Veteran Benefits for Dummies," all published by Wiley Publishing. He is also the author of "Barrons' Guide to Officer Candidate School Tests," published by Barron's Educational Series.
Experience
Rod Powers is a retired Air Force first sergeant, with 23 years of active duty service, 11 of those years as an Air Force First Sergeant. He has helped thousands of military members, recruits, and military applicants since he took over the About.com U.S Military Careers Information site in 1999. He has a reputation for "telling it like it is," so questions may not be answered based on "what you want to hear," but will be answered based of the bast available information, concerning the service/situation.
Education/Credentials
Rod is a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Noncommissioned Officers Academy, the Air Force Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy, and the Air Force First Sergeant Academy. He also holds an Associates Degree in Personnel Administration from the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF).
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