[Milsurplus] More LBG re: radio ops

[Joe Foley]

Same type of training for pilots and navigators, too.

Don't forget this radio technology was only about 15
to 20 years old, not 50 to 60 like it is today, for
us.

A radio in use 20 years before WWII was a sparkgap
rig, and there were VERY few of those in use, this was
NEW stuff, unknown to most people.

Joe




--- telegrapher@att.net wrote:
> Radio News of June 1943 has an article "Radio
> Operators for our
> Bombers".
> 
> Operated under the "Technical Training Command", the
> largest
> installation was unit No. 1, (formerly the Stevens
> Hotel), Unit No. 2
> (formerly the Congress Hotel), The Coliseum, The
> Eighth St. Theater, The
> Wetten Building, and the Electric Garage, all in
> Chicago.  
> 
> Started in Sept. 1942, the complete radio course
> taught in the Army Air
> FOrce techincal schools consists of 18 weeks of
> intensified training in
> which half of the day is given to radio mechanics
> and the other half to
> radio operating.
> 
> The first 10 weeks of this course is called the
> basic instruction course
> and the remaining 8 weeks is called advanced course.
> 
> The first 10 weeks pf operating consists of simple
> code instruction. 
> The last 8 weeks of radio mechanics are devoted
> entirely to operation
> and maintenance of the signal equipment.  The last 8
> weeks of radio
> mechanics are broken up into the following
> components: 2 weeks of
> instruction and operation of the high power liason
> equipment; 2 weeks
> are spent with the multi-unit command set; 1 week
> with the Ultr high
> frequency command set; 1 week with the radio compass
> equipment and the
> last 2 weeks a review of the operation, testing and
> repairing of all
> aircraft equipment.  
> 
> After satisfactorily completing this course the
> student is given his
> corporal stripes and sent to a duty staion.  Etc
> etc..
> 
> Lots of stuff in the middle that i didn't mention. 
> Reading the course
> agenda could lead one to believe that perhaps this
> was nothing more than
> a crash course to get folks out in the field, doing
> a lot of OJT and
> while it may have been fairly comprehensive in
> content, understanding
> all that you saw and heard in a short period of time
> doesn't mean you
> have a real good retention of all its functional
> capabilities, not that
> you can actually make something work just because
> you spent a few days
> tinkering with it. For those headed into the air, it
> must have been
> little more than a familiarization of equipments and
> i'd be willing to
> bet that some of them viewed it as just that, not
> realizing what was in
> store for them. 
> 
> This could be asking some questions of the folks who
> were involved with
> LBG on her last trip.
> 
> Larry
> W0OGH
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