whiskey tango foxtrot

Ok, I heard something stupid this morning, and I wanted to share.
My officemate is a really nice guy, but dude spends a lot of time on the phone, and not always for work-related matters. I'd say the first two or so hours of his day each morning is dealing with outside-of-work shit. Today, por ejemplo, he was trying to square away the insurance for his new car. Which he had to get cos his died last week, which necessitated more phone time than normal, cos his gf is also moving in, and he's got some pretty serious health concerns...You get the idea. Lots of phone time.
Anywizz, this morning, he's spelling out his last name to the insurance dude, and I hear this:

"...'k'...'e'...'l'...no, it's 'l' as in "elle..."

Ok, the idea of the phonetic alphabet is that critical combinations of letters could be pronounced and understood by aircrew and air traffic controllers regardless of their native language. People mangle this all the time, and it frankly really bugs me. Not to the point that I'm going to learn the whole list or anything. But still. Using an example of " l as in elle" is just retarded. "Elle" doesn't even start with an l! Whiskey tango foxtrot, dude?!?!