[R-390] Good morning question.

[John Kolb]

On Fri, 19 Apr 2002 Mercxx@aol.com wrote:

> Anyway the Navy guys always were on top of the copy,
> of course when the KSR came along us army types did
> speed up a little.  But then again the sound of a mill
> always was music to my ears...
>

Shortly after I reported to my first ship, fresh out of
Navy Radioman "A" School, we went to Hong Kong. We had a
hotshot CW operator, very proud of his newly purchased
Hallicrarters TO Keyer (1967), whom I'll call Harb here.
As we pulled into port, Harb was on the ship to shore
circuit with the British operator and as they talked back
the speed got faster and faster, Harb banging away on the
bug and pounding on the mill. After awhile, when the speed
got unbelivably fast, the British operator sent
"wait one mate, gotta sharpen my stick." (pencil) Harb tore the
phones off his head, stormed out of radio central and wasn't
seen for the rest of the day. We later heard the British
operators sign up for 12 years, and spend the first 4 in
school where the US navy had a 4 year enlistment, and 3 or 4
month radioman school.

John