"...still can't stand it at all." That's mostly a you problem. Honestly, it's not just a military thing. Do you have a job? Besides being in the military, most jobs I've worked in or been familiar with have used 24 hour time. Power industry, medical/hospital operations, police, fire, any kind of emergency services, network engineering, broadcast services, utilities, airline operations, train operations, marine, truck transport operation, etc. I could go on. It's not even a matter of "being able to figure it out", it should be a matter of learning it early enough that it's like learning a second language at a young age where your brain just processes without really having to interpret from one to the other. It's kind of a pet peeve of mine, because it's always been one of the excuses for people that relieved me late... "Oh, my alarm clock didn't go off. I must have set it for pm instead of am." It's the whole am/pm thing that is stupid. If everyone learned 24 hour format from the time they learned to tell time as children, am/pm wouldn't even exist, and that would be a good thing. Whew! Rant over.