What does the term 'actual' mean in military-speak?

Question

I hear it alot on Battlestar Galactica, which is , of course fictional, but the way they use it feels like it's based on something real. Am I right?

Answer 1

When you communicate thru radio to a command element you normaly speak to the radio operator for the commander, the commander usually has several operators and radio nets up any one communicating with command will usually talk to the operator who then communicates the message to the commander or his designated rep, actual comes in when you are actually speaking with the commander.

Answer 2

Military Term

Answer 3

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The 'actual' designation is for whoever is in charge that you are calling. So if a truck crew is say White 2. The Driver is White 2 Delta. The Gunner is White 2 Golf. And the TC is either White 2 or White 2 actual.

Answer 4

The term "actual" is real and used in military radio communication. It's used to ensure contact with the commander of an element like a tank crew or fire team. Most everyone is on the net, but having a call sign for everyone would get confusing. So smaller elements share a call sign. For example everyone on a tank falls under the same call sign, but in reality only the tank commander is the actual representative on the net. At times the gunner or loader may take over radio operation, so if a message needs to go to the tank commander you would ask for what ever the call sign is followed by actual, then radio ops would be turned over to the TC.

Answer 5

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RE:
What does the term 'actual' mean in military-speak?
I hear it alot on Battlestar Galactica, which is , of course fictional, but the way they use it feels like it's based on something real. Am I right?

Answer 6

The first person who answered got it right. In Marine voice radio transmissions, if the person speaking is the commander of that unit he would use the call sign of the unit, followed by the suffix "six actual" to indicate that he's the commanding officer.
You can hear some of that in the movie "Platoon". My old friend, Captain Dale Dye Marine Corps Retired, who was the technical advisor on that film used Marine radio parlance, even though the movie dealt with an Army unit. I kidded him mercilessly about it.

Answer 7

Answer 8

George has the correct answer. That's the way we do in in the Infantry. It is used to differentiate between speaking with the "actual" person who holds that radio call-sign/ designation, and their radio operator /RTO.

Answer 9

When I was in Iraq as a Gun Truck Commander "Gun truck 4 actual" meant that they wanted to speak to me as the Commander of the truck versus the truck in General.

Answer 10

If it were a commander in the field, he might use his call sign followed by "actual" to say that it is the commander speaking and not his RTO speaking...