Your handle/name meaning and why?

[Catless]

Here I think it means you removed your catalytic converters😁

The secret is out now. If I miss the smell of no catalytic converter and burning eyes I just go fire up one of my old Pontiacs or go to a local car show.

 

[Markp]

First name Mark last name starts with a P. I know I know I put zero effort into it.

 

[Whatknot]

Mike Lovrich
I used to use Transman back in the old days as thats what I do for a living. Seems a lot of guys started using that name so I just used my own.

So you were out, and now went back into the closet 😂😉😁

 

[Finface]

Back in my Navy days nicknames/radio callsigns were usually bestowed by the pilots in your first fleet squadron. Unless you already had a fitting one.

One morning soon after I'd reported to the squadron our Intelligence Officer, who was very short and therefore christened "Inch High Spy" decided to enter me in a National Enquirer "Biggest Nose In America" contest. As he approached me with a measuring tape and a maniacal grin I objected that another new guy pilot obviously had a much bigger nose than me. His was curved, mine was straight - his HAD to be way bigger.

"I'm entering him too. Stand still, dammit!"

This travesty, and the commotion that ensued while he was trying to measure me, led to Inch High Spy conducting a contest to give me a call sign related to my alleged big nose. The other guy's even bigger nose was forgotten. I wasn't too upset because "Snail" had been my nickname/callsign for over a year while in the Training Command and, well, who wants to be a snail? It had followed me to the fleet and I was getting used to it. I even had started a collection of snail art - figurines, carved wooden snails, etc. Snail had been imposed on me by two Marine Corps instructor pilots during my first formation flight briefing because they'd heard I went to a hippie college where the mascot was a Bananaslug, which was true. They immediately had rejected my wannabe fighter pilot suggestion of "Slashing Avenger" when they asked me what I'd like to be called on the radio. "Slash" would have been pretty damn cool. My Marine Corps next door neighbor in married base housing and fellow student pilot for that formation flight had tipped them off.

The contest lasted more than a month, with lots of callsigns written up on the Ready Room white board for consideration. We were forward-deployed in Japan, flying off the USS Midway, so somebody immediately put up "Fujiface". Rudderhead was next, which was appropriately nautical. The mental image of turning my head while swimming and veering wildly off to conk my head into the side of the pool amused me, but call signs have to fit into tense radio transmissions between wingmen. You never heard "Maverick break left, break left! Bogie seven o'clock, three miles!" So Rudderhead, like Maverick...way too long and sure to get garbled. You heard, "Mav! break left!"

Would "Rud! break left!" have worked? With my luck Rudderhead would have morphed into Rude. Well, that might not have been so bad...

Hosenose. Dumbo. Snot. Booger. Pinnochio. Blowfish (I'm like, Blowfish? I don't have fat cheeks), the candidate list grew and grew. If you can imagine it it probably got up there. Within hours Inch High, delighted by the participation, created a "Daily Changing Call Sign" kneeboard card. He had a different nickname/callsign for each day of the month. After consultation with the kneeboard card I was referred to, and addressed, by a different callsign every day. Even the squadron CO made a big deal about consulting the kneeboard card.

Growing up in San Francisco I'd read about white shark attacks often enough to develop something of a phobia about them. And, maybe, perhaps, my joining the Navy had something to do with facing that fear - I dunno - but today my being glued to the TV every summer during SharkWeek isn't helping. I'd mentioned my concern about being turned into shark poop after ejecting into a feeding frenzy to a squadronmate. He entered Finface. Thankfully he didn't enter "Poop". You'd think I'd learned not to divulge things.

Shortened to "Fin" it may well have won Spy's contest, except someone then yelled out, "I got it! He's got a horn on his face! He's ugly, slow-witted, has poor eyesight, has a squatty-body, and is stubborn as hell! He's Rhino!"

In signing up for forums it seems many people like the handle Rhino. Finface became my shark-phobia induced fallback.

I pretty much answer to anything.

 

[BULL]

Back in my Navy days nicknames/radio callsigns were usually bestowed by the pilots in your first fleet squadron. Unless you already had a fitting one.

One morning soon after I'd reported to the squadron our Intelligence Officer, who was very short and therefore christened "Inch High Spy" decided to enter me in a National Enquirer "Biggest Nose In America" contest. As he approached me with a measuring tape and a maniacal grin I objected that another new guy pilot obviously had a much bigger nose than me. His was curved, mine was straight - his HAD to be way bigger.

"I'm entering him too. Stand still, dammit!"

This travesty, and the commotion that ensued while he was trying to measure me, led to Inch High Spy conducting a contest to give me a call sign related to my alleged big nose. The other guy's even bigger nose was forgotten. I wasn't too upset because "Snail" had been my nickname/callsign for over a year while in the Training Command and, well, who wants to be a snail? It had followed me to the fleet and I was getting used to it. I even had started a collection of snail art - figurines, carved wooden snails, etc. Snail had been imposed on me by two Marine Corps instructor pilots during my first formation flight briefing because they'd heard I went to a hippie college where the mascot was a Bananaslug, which was true. They immediately had rejected my wannabe fighter pilot suggestion of "Slashing Avenger" when they asked me what I'd like to be called on the radio. "Slash" would have been pretty damn cool. My Marine Corps next door neighbor in married base housing and fellow student pilot for that formation flight had tipped them off.

The contest lasted more than a month, with lots of callsigns written up on the Ready Room white board for consideration. We were forward-deployed in Japan, flying off the USS Midway, so somebody immediately put up "Fujiface". Rudderhead was next, which was appropriately nautical. The mental image of turning my head while swimming and veering wildly off to conk my head into the side of the pool amused me, but call signs have to fit into tense radio transmissions between wingmen. You never heard "Maverick break left, break left! Bogie seven o'clock, three miles!" So Rudderhead, like Maverick...way too long and sure to get garbled. You heard, "Mav! break left!"

Would "Rud! break left!" have worked? With my luck Rudderhead would have morphed into Rude. Well, that might not have been so bad...

Hosenose. Dumbo. Snot. Booger. Pinnochio. Blowfish (I'm like, Blowfish? I don't have fat cheeks), the candidate list grew and grew. If you can imagine it it probably got up there. Within hours Inch High, delighted by the participation, created a "Daily Changing Call Sign" kneeboard card. He had a different nickname/callsign for each day of the month. After consultation with the kneeboard card I was referred to, and addressed, by a different callsign every day. Even the squadron CO made a big deal about consulting the kneeboard card.

Growing up in San Francisco I'd read about white shark attacks often enough to develop something of a phobia about them. And, maybe, perhaps, my joining the Navy had something to do with facing that fear - I dunno - but today my being glued to the TV every summer during SharkWeek isn't helping. I'd mentioned my concern about being turned into shark poop after ejecting into a feeding frenzy to a squadronmate. He entered Finface. Thankfully he didn't enter "Poop". You'd think I'd learned not to divulge things.

Shortened to "Fin" it may well have won Spy's contest, except someone then yelled out, "I got it! He's got a horn on his face! He's ugly, slow-witted, has poor eyesight, has a squatty-body, and is stubborn as hell! He's Rhino!"

In signing up for forums it seems many people like the handle Rhino. Finface became my shark-phobia induced fallback.

I pretty much answer to anything.

I always thought it was bogus that individuals weren't in some level of control of their own callsigns....

 

[Whatknot]

Knot, knot man, what knot, were all nicknames people gave me over the years, it has stuck still more than 20 years later.

Most people probably wonder wtf it means, but flying is in knots, not mph, and I liked speed, so the gang started to call me knot, and it got modified from there over time.

So Whatknot was the one that finally stuck hardest,
The name was given to me, but it seemed fitting enough.

After I was shot many times in Afghanistan, they briefly called me Lead, I guess because a lot of lead was in me. But soon went back to Whatknot.

 

[jroyk]

Knot, knot man, what knot, were all nicknames people gave me over the years, it has stuck still more than 20 years later.

Most people probably wonder wtf it means, but flying is in knots, not mph, and I liked speed, so the gang started to call me knot, and it got modified from there over time.

So Whatknot was the one that finally stuck hardest,
The name was given to me, but it seemed fitting enough.

After I was shot many times in Afghanistan, they briefly called me Lead, I guess because a lot of lead was in me. But soon went back to Whatknot.

Kind of figured you’re not a Boy Scout. 😁

 

[Jimmy N.]

I always thought it was bogus that individuals weren't in some level of control of their own callsigns....

Oh, so it wasn't you that removed "sh!t" from the end of yours??

 

[Hellcatcfp]

Oh, so it wasn't you that removed "sh!t" from the end of yours??

Damn @Jimmy N. 😂🤣😅🤣😂🤣.

 

[Whatknot]

I wrote a novel a while back and this was one of the main characters.

Published?
Title?

 

[AeroF16]

I always thought it was bogus that individuals weren't in some level of control of their own callsigns....

It's a right of passage in the Fighter community, a badge of honor. It's the Squadron's way of signing off on taking you to war with them, you've passed their test and now you're part of the club. You're not just some dumbshit new guy anymore, you're some dumbshit new guy with a callsign that is ready for combat.

We give eachother a lot of crap and, if you're not getting crap from guys in the squadron, that means nobody likes you or you're too high ranking to trust.

Most of you know this but my handle is my callsign and the jet I fly.

 

[Finface]

I always thought it was bogus that individuals weren't in some level of control of their own callsigns....

We had a pilot with the last name of Bates in the A-7E community of the 1980's.

"Master" was his call sign until the Admiral heard about it. Something about not reflecting well on the Navy should that pilot ever make high rank and be on TV.

 

[Whatknot]

We had a pilot with the last name of Bates in the A-7E community of the 1980's.

"Master" was his call sign until the Admiral heard about it. Something about not reflecting well on the Navy should that pilot ever make high rank and be on TV.

LMAO 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂


Probably wasn't allowed to call him Motel then either I assume lol

 

[Magnified]

not radio call signs, but still funny. Girl I worked with at Compaq, Donna Hill, by the conventions set up for e-mail addresses before the merger, she was assigned "HillDo" which tickled her no end. But the best was Tom Estes at Waste Management, by their conventions became testes@WM.com. lol, I chuckled every time I sent him an e-mail. Damn, that place was funny. Secretary dropped a pen into the feed slot on the copier / fax / wonder of the world and put a post it on the top that said "Pen is stuck in fax machine" and she'd run it together so it looked like it said "Penis stuck in fax machine." There's some stories from that place. They were responsible for my one direct, uncontroverted run in with New England organized crime, for one.

Anyway, duty calls.

 

[Hunter]

not radio call signs, but still funny. Girl I worked with at Compaq, Donna Hill, by the conventions set up for e-mail addresses before the merger, she was assigned "HillDo" which tickled her no end. But the best was Tom Estes at Waste Management, by their conventions became testes@WM.com. lol, I chuckled every time I sent him an e-mail. Damn, that place was funny. Secretary dropped a pen into the feed slot on the copier / fax / wonder of the world and put a post it on the top that said "Pen is stuck in fax machine" and she'd run it together so it looked like it said "Penis stuck in fax machine." There's some stories from that place. They were responsible for my one direct, uncontroverted run in with New England organized crime, for one.

Anyway, duty calls.

That is similar to the "5&2" our company mandates.

 

[coolblue]

Walked into work one morning and my manager was laughing his ass off. They had just hired a new guy named Leon Foo. He said "this is the new guy we hired". The paperwork read FooL. Last name first initial. They just started calling him fool.

 

[Hickster]

I guess why the hell not??

 

[Hickster]

i should replyted ster. Just spent a week at Mottom Plant Clw, Fl. Lost BP and haeart stoppage 3 times. Flat linned 2 times and came out with 1 hell of a head acche. Still talkomhg yo myself beeing tech dead. The mail I recieve on Friday will tell the tale. Fl Safety Board yanking my linsceee. Start another fight. Be careful whom younsign hourmmlast rights over to/ I have and it hutts.

 

[AeroF16]

So you guys may remember the Growlers (EA-18G) drawing a sky penis up at Whidbey Island. If you don't, this is a pretty funny and accurate article regarding it:

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a27471645/navy-sky-penis/

The funny part is the call sign of the incoming Commander after the incident, Commander Brenden "Tess" Stickles...

 

[BULL]

^^^^^^^


Ballsy