"Back to the original puzzle: the reason I tend to think in 24 hour time mode is because of my last job, dealing every day with hundreds of digital images with date and time identification on them.

Out of curiosity, how do others use the 12 and 24hr formats? Most (all?) of my things with a digital display (eg. phone, computers) are set to the 24hr clock and I like that but I tend to think in terms of the 12hr clock (conversion is quick) and don’t imagine myself telling someone the time in the 24hr format or say posting on Mudcat “we had tea at 17:00”.

Although, I’ve come across it before, I had to look up Don’s usage of “military time”. It’s not usual UK usage. In looking this up, I found that the term has a more specialised usage “between the United States and allied English-speaking military forces”.