[QCWA] drinking for code

[Henry Schickler]

Hey Joe;

I may have been kidding a little about the drinking. I was in Camp Crowder first for basic. Then I went to Monmouth. How the army plays dirty tricks. When I got there a train load was supposed to have had radio training at Crowder. They sent us all to school in Monmouth. Wasn't bad for me as I came from New York City. Weekends were great, I went home to see my wife. Then came the turnabout. I was asked to take a sending test at 25 wpm. I told them you are nuts. I wasn't copying 25 at that time and didn't know the sound. Okay they said, forget it. Next thing a trainload was back in Crowder in what was call the unit training center. There was only one guy in the company that was a qualfied fixed station op. The wholw battalion went back to school. As far as ops are concerned, I was in the typesetting business with linotype operators on a linotype machine that had 90 keys. We had people then who could type and talk at the same time. There is something in some peoples brain that can do this, same as cw ops. I really hadn't met lino ops who were drinkers but some could really set type. We called them swifts.

Hank w2icw