[Qcwa] Radio man to non radio man

[Joseph Fenn]

Well very interesting.  About Monmouth and all.  Most of the
WD radio ops I worked with at WVN WVR WUO WUVJ etc were out of
Monmouth when first got into SC at Ft Benning.   I went straight
from swearing in to work at WUO (no basic trng camp and no
SigCorps training of any kind.   I could do 20 to 30 at that time
already.   I went straight from a CCC camp (radio CW ops job) at
Starke Fla to Ft Benning on their request.   They rejected me
in the physical exam line.  A LT Dental officer said my teeth
were'nt up to snuff.   I called the WW1 Master Sgt at WUO and
told him I was leaving back to Fl. He said like hell you will,
just sit tight while I get a waiver from 4th C.A. CG's office.
So I stayed in Tent City for a few days, and the recruiting
sgt called me into the office and advised me to get my stuff
ready as a jeep was coming to pick me up and take me to WUO.
He also was amazed that I was going to that job as he said
no recruits had done that before.  In fact he wanted to send
me to Gen Pattons 2nd Army Divn (all tanks as a RO).
I guess I just got all the breaks, but found out on this
QCWA group that others got even better breaks like the guys
at WAR  that were recruited straight into SigCorps in top
3 grades,  most as Master Sgts!!!!.   Dam It took me 5
years of overseas duty to achieve that rank.  Still I felt
lucky as hell.  I could'nt shoot a carbine if my life
depended on it, and the only gun I got near during entire
5 years of duty was when was Chief Opr at WVN also had to
be crypto ceftified to enter the code rooms and they had
Thompson sub machine gun hanging on the wall ready for
use on a seconds notice.  I would'nt have been able to
shoot the thing as had never seen one before or since.
             Joe/KH6JF


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* Ham KH6JF AARS/MARS ABM6JF QCWA WW2 VET WD RADIO *
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