I'm off AD, but still doing th Guard thing. H3's Charlotte. Glad it's slowed down some. We got a year off from OIF, and are doing the Germany thing 2x this year. Stay strong. Thanks for serving.

Charlotte?! No Sh*&t!! I was out there last June to get H3 qualified with you guys. I loved it! Really seemed to be a great unit with some great folks. We also flew your planes out in Kuwait. I've got 3 years before the big decision and am considering going Guard if I decide to get out. I thought Charlotte would be a good place. I really enjoyed the week I spent there. How do you like it? You from NC?

One thing to add - it appears you have been in the same airspace as a military aircraft but have not heard them on the radios. If they are in fact on with the same controller it may be something as simple as the controller talking with you on VHF and the military traffic on UHF. Some military aircraft only have the capability for UHF comms (although I don't think it is many any more). At my Air Force base, we have military tower controllers who utilize UHF. When being handed of to the civilian controller on departure we are given the option to switch to UHF or VHF. Personally I much prefer switching to VHF once with civilian controllers - I think it gives me much better situational awareness of things going on around me. Hope that helps.

also some call signs are mission specific, for example an A/R mission may be Hunt 54, an airdrop mission, Claw 76, same jet same unit different mission

USAF only...Our squadron has its own unit call sign. We use that on the day to day training missions. The fighter squadron in our unit uses the call sign of the lead pilot of the formation or single ship.. I.E. Stroker, Killer, etc. Just input for the conversation.

Forgot something. Sometimes we are on UHF radios and you DO only here one side of the conversation

We have several callsigns at my squadron. Some are used for air-air some air-ground. They are the same no matter who is flying in the formation.