Can any of you military or ex-military answerers please tell me what the military use to denote " afternoon "?

Phew ... after a trawl of t'internet, I've found this, which looks promising:

pip emma

a.,adv. World War One signaller's slang for post meridiem

Good luck!

Note that the military clock begins with 0000 hours, sometimes called 2400 hours. When spoken aloud, this is said, "twenty-four hundred hours," which is the equivalent of midnight.

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Name morning hours as follows: 1 a.m. is 0100 hours, called "oh one hundred hours"; 2 a.m. is 0200, "oh two hundred hours"; and so forth. This pattern continues for the morning hours just as with the standard method of telling time until noon, which is 1200 hours ("twelve hundred hours").

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Remember that military time continues to ascend for the afternoon hours rather than beginning a new 12-hour cycle. Thus, 1 p.m. is now 1300 hours, or "thirteen hundred hours"; 2 p.m. is 1400 hours; and so forth. This pattern continues until midnight, at which point the military clock begins again.

Maybe you can post the whole clue

The military uses a 24 hour clock, there is no AM or PM. midnight is 0000 hours, 8 AM is 0800 hours, 2 PM is 1400 hours, 11 PM is 2300 hours (see the pattern). How that fits into your puzzle - I do not know. I am guessing that "24 hours" is not gonna work for you. Sorry if this does not help.

They just tell you the time, it can't be confused. There are 24 hours in the day, not 12, so 10:00, 11:00, 12:00. 13:00, 14:00, and so on.

post meridian ? how mamy letters ? the second p would be incorrect though