[CW] A Radiomans Dream

[Rick Dettinger]

I wanted to join the Navy in 1964, to avoid the Draft.  Too color blind.  The Army didn’t care, I got drafted later that year.  They said that I passed the written tests high enough to get Radio school.  After Basic, they sent me to Cook school instead.  They lied!!

73,
Rick K7MW


> On Apr 13, 2018, at 5:02 PM, <w9oj at indy.rr.com> <w9oj at indy.rr.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> I was a 20 WPM ham when I joined the Navy in 1971.
> They put me in the engine room.
> 
> 73 de Mike W9OJ
> 
> 
> ---- Radio K0HB <kzerohb at gmail.com> wrote: 
>> Some of you old USN RM’s will enjoy this.  For the rest, imagine what you
>> missed.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> <http://forum.goatlocker.org/post/printadd?id=9712038&pid=1303877556>1
>> <http://forum.goatlocker.org/post/show_single_post?pid=1303877556&postcount=1&forum=108044>
>> 
>> ------------------------------
>> 
>> A Radioman's Dream
>> 
>> By: Anonymous
>> 
>> 
>> You awake with a start to the 3rd Class's shake,
>> Feet hit the deck before you're awake.
>> Out of your rack and into your dungs,
>> Then crawl up the ladder, rung by rung.
>> 
>> Onto the mess deck with lights too bright,
>> Grab a horsecock sandwich to last through the night.
>> 
>> Sip a cup of Joe, drag on a butt or two,
>> Then off to the shack, your duty to do.
>> 
>> You climb to the Oh one deck through salty spray,
>> While dark clouds sweep past in their ugly dress grey.
>> 
>> White water amidships, bow goes under green
>> Water swirls aft, washing weather decks clean.
>> 
>> You enter the hatch, fresh coffee you smill,
>> Along with the slosh in the new man's pail
>> 
>> Transmitters emit a hot bees wax odor,
>> Aging capacitor growl like outboard motors.
>> 
>> Two outgoings are pending, NHY is not there.
>> We lost him on twelve, faded into thin air.
>> 
>> Eight was tried without success,
>> Four's no better, atmospherics a mess.
>> 
>> Five hundred is alive and noisy with code.
>> Dyess tried to relay but lost her M.O.
>> 
>> The Chief will be up at quarter to six
>> To copy press and publish the Daily Mix.
>> 
>> With the watch relieved and gone below,
>> I adjust my key, sending real slow.
>> 
>> Searching for a station to get rid of the traffic,
>> Hearing nothing out there but that damned static.
>> 
>> Fired up the TBL and started transmission,
>> Braced myself, wedged in the position.
>> 
>> Ship rolls to port, then lurches ahead,
>> Banging into a wave, she seems to stop dead.
>> 
>> Shuddering up, shaking her bow,
>> Ridding herself of the water somehow.
>> 
>> Through all of this with coffee cup balanced.
>> I've spilled not a drop to foul the Chief's palace.
>> 
>> On the eight get a call, the signals come throug,
>> I tap out the SITREP, and another message or two.
>> 
>> The silent period over, you type in the log,
>> Quite proud of yourself, you're a lucky dog.
>> 
>> Your watch draws to an end, how long has it been?
>> You think of the wife, and start to grin.
>> 
>> For it's day twenty on station for you,
>> You'll head for port, when it's over and through.
>> 
>> Underway watches leave little to be done,
>> When homeward bound from the Med, "Ol' Son"
>> 
>> But suddenly you wake, to find you've been dreamin'
>> Of Ocean Station days, your youth's past is streamin'.
>> 
>> No more station in the middle of a grid square,
>> Nor a Radioman to be found, not one anywhere.
>> 
>> A key of brass, an Underwood mill,
>> Are all in the past, all over the hill.
>> 
>> The mission's still there, waiting to be done,
>> The challenge has been accepted by the newer ones.
>> -- 
>> 73, de Hans, K0HB
>> --
>> "Just a boy and his radio"™
> 
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