[CW] learnin CW

[Donald Chester]

> > A retired army colonel friend of mine was a communications guy who 
>learned
> > the code at Ft. Devens, Mass, and came out of it at just 18-19 wpm..And 
>that
> > was in 1965
I am a graduate of that
>program also, circa July 1960.  When I went in, I managed to fail the 
>little three
>letter CW test the army gave us .  ( I had no desire to use that and wanted 
>to
>go to language school).  The army conveniently lost my security paperwork
>(twice) and wouldn't send me to The Presido (sp) even though I had passed 
>the
>language test, because I didn't have a clearance yet.  So, they sent me to 
>code
>school. ([(The idiots, in the meantime -- had me counting classified 
>documents
>in the vault))) The first day, I asked what happened if we didn't pass 
>their
>intended 5 wpm the first week.  The response was: Security guard school, 
>pole
>lineman, or cook.  I took the 5wpm and passed it within 10 minutes.  I 
>passed 32
>wpm a few months later (the fastest tapes they had then), and graduated 2nd
>out of a class of 110.  Walked out of there and went down and took my 
>General,
>Advanced and Extra and packed for Ethiopia the next day.  That was my 
>"award"
>for being high in the graduation class.  HI.

I assume you were sent to Kagnew Station in Asmara.  I was there from 
1967-1970.  I went to the Presidio to study French, even though I already 
spoke it fluently, and came out an official French linguist.  Also spent 
several months TDY at Devens at their 98C school before leaving for 
Ethiopia.  I found the experience at Asmara very positive.  The radio 
junkyards both on-post and off-post were a homebrewer's paradise.  I must 
have shipped half a ton of high power transmitter parts back to the USA via 
the APO system.  Also picked up a 2nd foreign language while living there - 
Italian.  I developed a taste for and loved the native food and drink.  
Whenever I travel to a large city I always check to see if there is an 
Ethiopian or Eritrean restaurant (I have found good ones in Denver, 
Nashville and London).  I operated some ham radio at ET3USA, both cw and 
phone.

Don K4KYV

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