Help with a military term

Question

OK, so being a civilian, I get the majority of my military info from either glorified movies, CNN, or one of the channels of the Discovery Corporation. So, don't waste your time blasting me for it.

I understand the word "Mike" is part of the phonetic alphabet. I was watching "Generation Kill" and they used the word "mike" as either a measurement of time or distance. They said something to the effect of "we are 20 mikes out [from a target]" and "we are leaving in 40 mikes".

So what does it mean? Minutes?

Thank you.

Answer 1

sure does. 1 mike means 1 min and heres somthing new if you dont know, if you ever hear someone in the military say "click" this means 1000 meters. so if i were to tell you we walked 20 clicks that means 20,000 meters.  

Answer 2

"Mike" in the U.S. military is a term used for minutes.  

Answer 3

As some have already told you it stands for the letter "M". AS in A=Alpha B=Bravo C=Charlie etc. In the example you've used, it stands for miles. It can also mean minutes.If you say "40 Mike Mikes" it means millimeters.

Below is a link to everything you ever wanted to know about military acronyms.

Answer 4

Mike stand for minutes in the phonetic alphabet.  For distance they would use clicks for kilometers.

Answer 5

As "Mike" is in the Phonetic Alphabet it represents "M" M would probabaly stand for Min's.

Answer 6

thats an A-firm ...in the marines while talking in tha radio we abbreviate several words and the term MIKES is used as an abbreviation for minutes as it begins with an M