[GreenKeys] AN/MRC-2 US Army's first deployable RTTY??

[Randy and Sherry Guttery]

Howard Weeks wrote:
> In the mid to late 60's, the U.S. Army Signal School gutted their 
> various repair courses, quit training or teaching theory, and went to 
> a "task" oriented approach to training repairmen.  In other words, 
> they taught you how to change a fuse or a board but not why.  Since 
> that time, they have turned over all or most of the pure repair MOS's 
> to the Ordinance Corps.  About all they teach at Gordon these days is 
> how to operate along with operator oriented maintenance.  
>
> The Army Signal Corps was a good place to learn the communications 
> repair field at one time but not any more!
Well let's see:

Choice one:
Lobby congress for funds for recruiting, training and retaining highly 
skilled technicians to maintain critical systems. Congress is looking 
for places to slash spending so this is an extremely difficult task -- 
sorta like pulling teeth - over and over; year in and year out. You 
might get some of the funds you desperately need to keep things running 
- then again -  you might not.  Makes planning a bitch - and often as 
not it effects your later decisions of what systems to acquire - the one 
better for the task - or the one easier (cheaper) to maintain.  Any way 
it goes - compromise is the order of the day.

Choice two:
Propose a juicy contract with lots of high paying (civilian) jobs and 
infrastructure spending that every senator and congressman would love to 
land  - to "bring home the bacon" yet again.  Sit back and watch 
congress not only fight over it - but pump it up with additional pork 
you didn't even ask for. "Here's $200 hammers to adjust those $1200 
toilets!"  No more begging, no worries about future modern systems you 
truly need; and there might be just a bit of "pork" left over for a 
General/Admiral or two...  

Now if you were the military - looking at these two "choices" - which 
would you choose?

That's why most maintenance is now civilian contracted - for instance - 
all of the trainer jets here at NAS Meridian are now maintained under 
contract by civilians; most depot level maintenance of all types is now 
done by civilian contractors on most military facilities. We have 1 
(that's spelled ONE) Tender fully Navy manned and sailed left in the 
U.S. Navy - and it (as it's sister ship before) is due to be turned over 
to the MSC to be crewed and maintained (with a minimal Navy technical 
crew aboard - was scheduled for last year - but thankfully the 
"turnover" is currently on hold - last we heard).  Tell me - what do you 
think the chances are of 145 sailors doing the same amount / level of 
work as was done by the previous crew of 1200?  Even allowing 1/3 
dedicated to ship's own work (which is actually way high - but for the 
sake of discussion) - that means 145 sailors are going to try to do the 
work previously done by 800 sailors.  Let's see how things go at Diego 
Garcia (they have orders to deploy there shortly).   Wanna bet there are 
a lot of Tiger "fly-in" teams from Guam "helping out"?   Then what 
happens when the last tender (Frank Cable at Guam) is turned over to MCS 
- where will the help come from then?   Sad times we live in.

best regards...

-- 
randy guttery 

A Tender Tale - a page dedicated to those Ships and Crews
so vital to the United States Silent Service: 
http://tendertale.com