[GreenKeys] AN/FGC-38 Torn-Tape Relay Equipment

Sun Aug 27 00:49:05 EDT 2017

Jim:

Never saw any real women in any tape relay station on roller skates....but, 
 we did
have some women in the relay. Back then, they were called "WACs" = Womens  
Army Corps,
now long abolished. This was in a time before Army women were called  
"soldiers". Most
did all kinds of work: commcenters, admin, medical, clerical, etc. They  
were pretty good
operators and all were assigned to fixed-station facilities  (WACs did NOT 
serve in tactical,
field or combat units and did not deploy with the men). They were  
considered non-combatants.
They lived separately too, and on their uniforms, they wore distinctive WAC 
 brass (collar
insignia), rather than branch insignia (for those who don't know). The  WAC 
insignia was of
Athena.....a mythological female goddess of Greek origin (daughter of  
Zeus).

What we did have however, were in-house jokes, especially with FNGs' -  
F---- New Guys
right out of Signal School at Fort Gordon, GA. It was common practice  to 
have
the FNGs separate the yellow chad from the pink chad in the relay bins.  
Pink (or purple)
denoted the last 14 feet of a tape reel that needed to be replaced in the  
perforators. We
used to tell them that the yellow chads were "classified" and the "pink"  
ones were 
"unclassified". This of course, took all night...and lots of newbies fell  
into that trap,
spending an entire shift (uselessly) separating the different colored  
chads.

Another favorite was to send a newbie to see the Supply Sergeant and ask  
for a
"tape stretcher".......no such thing of course, but the newbie didn't know. 
 Often times,
the Supply Sergeant was in on the trick, and would holler and scream at the 
 newbie
until the hole in his butt fell out onto the floor and screamed for mercy.  
Part of FNG break-in.

Another gag, back when we still had antenna farms at most tape relays in  
the 60s
overseas, was to send a guy to the Radio Section and ask for a jar of RF or 
 a can
of antenna grease. Again, the trick was on the newbie, but it is  how they 
learned
the "traditions" of working in a relay. Sometimes, a newbie was sent to get 
 a
case of megacycles (back before they became MegaHertz).

Some were sent to get a kilocycle only to be told that all the kilocycles  
had escaped
on a megacycle the night before.....and there was the one about the newbie  
being told
to go get us some Upper Side Bands because all we had were Lower Side  
Bands. The
supply guy sent him back with a bag of Rubber Bands saying Upper Side Bands 
 had
to be requisitioned. One more was to have a newbie stand outside the  
CommCenter
(Relay) and try and catch and capture "spurious signals" that might have  
emanated
out the doors (no such thing, of course, since everything was RF shielded). 
 He was 
given a jar in which to place the "spurious signals". If the jar was empty  
at the end
of his shift, he caught hell for "sleeping on the job"....or "not paying  
attention to detail".
All in fun, of course...made for some fun times with the new guys. 

The hardest job was getting people to learn to read the holes in the  
punched tape.
In some relays, this was an absolute necessity, as some of the older  
non-Kleinschmidt
equipment did not have printing on it.....so, you had to know the holes by  
rote.
Many learned (including me). Most relays also had a large wall chart that  
showed
the Baudot code with punches for each letter, character and number...(every 
 operator
was also issued a "chicken plucker" to punch a hole in a tape when needed  
in case
the perf screwed up, and this was required to be worn on the dog tag chain  
(required
part of the uniform in many Army units that operated tape relays in the  
early 60s, at
least in Germany -- Signal Service Units)..

As we generally used Kleinschmidt teletypewriters, these usually required  
the use
of a hexagonal Allen wrench to make adjustments. It was common practice for 
 a
31J (TTY repairman) to send a guy out to find a left-handed one! No such  
thing, of
course, but the FNG didn't know that.

Another one from the relay floor was to send a guy to Supply and get a box  
of
Channel Numbers (those didn't exist either).....Channel Numbers were  
automatically
applied to messages by the relay equipment itself just before a tape was  
transmitted.

A favorite nit pick when doing HJ online (changing the crypto gear settings 
 for the
new day), which was often difficult for some newbies, was for the distant  
end to
reply back with "INT ZBM-2 K" which mean "Will you place a competent  
operator on the
circuit"....(INT is the interogative when using Q and Z Signals (See  
ACP-131 ( ) for
Q and Z Signals in the US military and NATO units rather than a question  
mark)).

Today, of course, in this all-sanitized, politically correct, digitally  
automated military, 
all of that would be considered "troop abuse" or "harassment" and  could 
(today) subject 
a supervisor to extreme punishment or disciplinary action, or even  
dismissal and discharge 
from the Army. Back in the day, it was routine, part of the old "brown shoe 
 Army of WW II and
Korea", and no one ever gave it a second thought. It never hurt anyone,  
except maybe 
a newbies pride, but he/she always recovered. It was a learning  experience 
too. The
softies (lawyers) of today have taken all of the fun out of it!!

Dave
DE RUMLNHA

# # #

In a message dated 8/25/2017 7:04:56 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
jhhaynes at earthlink.net writes:

Added  note - large torn-tape offices are where you see pictures of girls 
in  roller skates handling the  tapes.

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