In 1985-86 I was in New Zealand, having arrived there, along with hundreds of others, aboard a sailboat. I ended up teaching a course in how to get your U.S. Amateur Radio license to a multi-national class of fellow cruisers.

During one class we were reviewing the phonetic alphabet, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, ......Zulu. I commented that I often heard the word Zed substituted for Zulu or for the letter Z (zee). I said I did not know why people did that but it was relatively common. Up shot a hand. An old British fellow, old enough to have been a fighter command pilot in the Battle of Britain, was ready to make the world a bigger place for this young, provincial American. Ed said, "The reason they use Zed is because Zed is the last letter of the alphabet."

Michael