23 O'Clock

One of the biggest issues for me in regards to the Army was the telling of time. Truth be told, it still is.
We wake at 600 hrs, not 6 am. We go to bed at 2300 hours not 11pm. Its all very confusing for anyone who learned to tell time the "civilian" way.

For the first several years of my "military" experience, the embarrassment of asking was a bit larger than being late for something. I thought I was doomed to a life of timeline insecurity. I was watching a re-run of Tool Time, when it finally set in.
In this episode, Jill's father was a retired service member, and Tim had the same issue I was having. She was explaining to Tim, that if it is after noon, you add 12 hours to the number. Ex: 1pm is 1300. The opposite is true when converting. Ex: 2400 hrs (-12) is midnight.(who says you don't learn anything from tv)
So at that very moment a lightbulb went off in my head. Screw math. Its all way too much trouble, I'll memorize the clock. If that doesn't work, cell phones and wrist watches now have time converters.

My husband still makes fun of me for my inablity to tell time. I'll occassionally catch myself adding an O'clock to the time, or asking if its am or pm. After all these years, you'd think I'd know its 2000 hours and not 20 O'clock. Apparently not.
I still show up late for appts because my watch does not have a 15.
My husband still gets irritated when he says be ready by 1700 and at 5 pm, I think I still have another hour.
So to wrap up tonight, its almost 2100 hours, so by MY calculations I should have been in be 10 hours ago.