Call signs with Air Force, Navy, and Marine Fighter and Attack pilots have two different facets. There is a call sign we have which we use in the airplane to local air traffic controllers and in combat. I was "Basher" in the A-10. This was a famous Vietnam Forward Air Control Callsign. As flight lead, I was Basher 1. My wingmen were Basher 2 thru 4. In the T-38, I am Lynx 69 locally, and Duke XX cross country (XX being numbers from 06-70. 01-05 are reserved for our Wing CC, 02 Vice Wing, and so on to the top 5 ranked T-38 pilots).
Call signs for bombers, tankers, and transports usually follow the plane/mission and not the pilots.

Our personal callsigns which will follow us to the grave are "earned" by fortune, misfortune, truths, or half truths. I was K-Dog in 1987, but became "Hack" when I deployed to Kuwait/Iraq with pneumonia (hacking cough). I also had a "questionable" time hack, but I can't get into that. I'll give you a few of my favorites:

"SLAG" Tonnesson. He had a high-pitched voice (Screams Like A Girl)

"FRIBAT" Flew Right Into a Big A@@ Tower (and crashed an A-10 in the process, but lived to tell the tale)

Chris "Simple" Simon

"Chocks" Ewald (started to taxi the Hog with the chocks in front of the gear still, causing the jet to jump the wooden chocks)

"Shed" McTee (short for "sh#t head, but he's a great guy who had one bad day in the jet long ago)

The ground rules are that a callsign must be based on 10% truth and can't be more than two syllables. Hope this wasn't too much of a goodnight story.

Kevin "Hack" King