Source: Terrie Hanke – North High School – Eau Claire, WI
CIVILIAN & MILITARY TIME CONVERSION
Time arriving and time departing from checkpoints on the Iditarod Trail is reported in military time. In
military time, the hours are numbered from 00 to 23. Under this system, midnight is 00, 1 a.m. is 0100, 1
p.m. is 1300. Military time is always referred to in hundreds of hours. For example, 0200 is reported as
“zero two hundred hours” and 1700 is reported as “seventeen hundred hours.” The last 2 digits refer to
the minutes while the first two refer to the hour. Civilian and military time express minutes and seconds in
the same manner. Civilian time requires the use of a.m. and p.m. to clearly identify before noon and after
noon times. Since military time uses a unique two-digit number to identify each of the 24 hours in a day,
a.m. and p.m. are unnecessary. To determine the afternoon hour in military time simply subtract 1200. If a
musher arrives at Shageluk at 2130, subtract 1200 to find the civilian time of 9:30 p.m. Convert the
civilian time to military time and the military time to civilian for each musher.