[K6NCG] The Pre ET School nightmare

Fri Jun 28 12:53:51 EDT 2013

It's a small world!

After ET school at TI, I went to the Mount Baker (AE-4) out of Port Chicago (officially NWS Concord) CA.  When I reported aboard, the B's BMCM had the quarterdeck, and told me I was going to Division 1.  The chief radioman was there, too, and I looked at him and blurted, "I'm a ham radio operator and can copy Morse code."  "Sorry, Chief Mills," the RMC said to the boats.  He's mine."  So I never did a day as a deck ape.  For unreps, I was the bridge radioman, a lot better than being down below.

The B might have been the oldest AE in the fleet, but there was an advantage to being on her, as opposed to some of the newer ones.  She was powered by twin Nordberg straight-eight diesels instead of steam, so rather than the Navy scrubbing out an oiler so we could get diesel fuel, we always headed back to port after about three to four weeks at sea.  Admittedly, it was usually Olongapo, but it was better than nothing.  Only one time did we take some JP from a carrier, and then just enough to get us back to Subic.

Interestingly, I just got back from an Alaska cruise on the Star Princess.  One day at sea, they had a veteran's gathering (free champagne, no less!), and one of the guys there had been stationed at Port Chi on the Haleaka.  Like I said, small world.

With all this reminiscing, do I sense that an in-person reunion for K6NCG might be in order???  Perhaps we could impose on the Commodore of the TI Yacht Club to set something up.

Bill, K1NIT

Please reply to k1nit at arrl.net

________________________________
 From: Dave Sublette <k4to at arrl.net>
To: k6ncg at mailman.qth.net 
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2013 7:20 AM
Subject: Re: [K6NCG] The Pre ET School nightmare

Well this thread has certainly been interesting reading for me.  I 
enlisted after my second year of college where I studied Electrical 
engineering.  By that time I had also been a ham for four years and 
could copy code at about 25 wpm or so.  I enlisted to avoid the draft. 
My grades in college were not that good and I needed a break. I was 
about to get one, one way or another. I took the battery of seven tests 
at the induction center and out of the entire battery, I missed one 
question. At the time, the Navy "boasted" that fully fifty percent of 
their enlisted people had a high school diploma. After they saw my 
scores, they were hot after me.

After I finished the written tests, they sent me for the physical.  
Everything went well until it came to the color perception exam.  You 
probably remember that it was a small book of 16 pages covered with 
colored dots of varying pastel shades. Embedded in the pattern were 
patterns of numbers.  Of the 16 images, I failed to identify all but 
three.  They marked the little box on the form as being "color blind".  
This was wrong.  I had been building kits and reading the color code 
without problems. I can tell red, green, and all colors as long as they 
are bright and not too subtle.  I also have a variety of astigmatism in 
each eye.  Pale colors plus the myriad of dots had done me in.

I was attempting to enlist in the SREF program (Seaman Recruit 
Electronics Field).  That would have given me a choice of such things at 
ET or AET (Aviation ET) etc....   Well after the physical, they sat me 
down in a room and the officer told me(with a very sad face) that I 
would not be able to be an ET because I was "color blind".  I explained 
to him, politely, of course, that he was full of it and that I was 
already an experienced ET of sorts having built several pieces of 
electronic equipment.

Well he wouldn't accept that, but explained that instead of ET school I 
would be accepted into the Navy's nuclear school. All I had to do was 
sign for six years instead of four.  I thought about it for a moment and 
decided I would just have to take my chances with the draft.  I thanked 
him and stood up to leave. He immediately said, "Wait a minute,. I think 
we can do something about this color blind thing." And immediately he 
rubbed out the entry in the box that indicated I was color blind and I 
enlisted for four years.   I believe the fellow was trying to con me 
into an extra two years. Tsk, Tsk.

When I completed boot camp in San Diego,  the story they gave me was 
that there were no billets available at ET school for the moment and I 
was assigned to the USS Haleakala, the Navy's newest ammunition ship, 
then  being modified  in Todd Ship Yards, Alameda, CA.  My entry to ET 
school at TI was delayed six months. After five months the Haleakala was 
deployed to WestPac and they transferred me to the Mount Baker, the 
oldest Ammo ship in the Navy because they didn't want to fly me back fro 
the Far East for school.  One interesting fact -- the Navy names all of 
its Ammo ships after volcanoes ... Hmmmmm.  I wonder why.

While at sea, I was assigned to the infamous First Division, where all 
the screwups, juvenile delinquents and otherwise incompetents were 
lodged.  At least that was my opinion at the time.  Since then I have 
come to realize that some of those guys, especially the ones who stayed 
to make a career out of being a Boatswain's mate must have been near 
mechanical geniuses.  That work is some of the most dangerous and 
complex that is done on board ship.

I volunteered to help the radio shack copy some of the faster nets 
because they had all just come off of shore duty and had done nothing 
but run teletypes.  Their code was very rusty.  But the RMC found me in 
the radio room and politely invited me to stay in Division one. 
Translation: "Get the Hell out of my radio room."  So they didn't get 
their 22 wpm net copied for awhile after that.  Then the young Ensign 
who ran Division one found out I had two years of college and pulled me 
in to  be the department yeoman.  It seems he spent most of his weekends 
confined to the ship by the Captain because he couldn't keep up with the 
paperwork.  He needed the help and I was happy to give up chipping paint 
and smearing grease on cables.

The day I transferred from Haleakala to Mount Baker, they worked me all 
day on Haleakala, then I had to hoist my seabag on my shoulder and walk 
1000 yards down a long pier to the Mount Baker. I struggled up the 
gangplank with the seabag and a five O'clock shadow, saluted, and asked 
permission to come aboard. There was a BM petty officer acting as 
assistant OD on the Quarterdeck. He looked at me and said, "My God! It's 
a 40 year old Seaman!"

After a month on the Mount Baker, I went to TI.  I don't remember how I 
found K6NCG, but I suppose I saw the antenna as many of you did.  
Interesting note: If some of you found the shack under the 120 foot 
tower, I helped put that up in '62 or '63.

There are many memories that have been triggered by your stories.  I'll 
quit for now.

73,

Dave, K4TO

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