6 yrs USN. Electronic Tech rating, got out ET6... Last Navy assignment was USS New Orleans LPH-11.
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Correction ET6 should be ET1 was E-6...
7 years nuclear submarines, 1 fast attack and 2 Polaris boats (9 patrols). MM1SS, wanted to be ET but recruiter screwed me because they needed engine room machinist mates, played with steam for those 9 patrols.
Inside plant telephone maintenance, central office stuff. Spent 6 months of my enlistment in electronics school. Kinda funny, learned oscilloscopes, component level and then all I did was swap boards out.
7 years nuclear submarines, 1 fast attack and 2 Polaris boats (9 patrols). MM1SS, wanted to be ET but recruiter screwed me because they needed engine room machinist mates, played with steam for those 9 patrols.
I went in the Army in 1966....Airborne Infantry.....got wounded pretty bad during Tet of 68......after a year in the hospital they offered me a new school, so I went to Fort Monmouth for electronics school.
Bu the time I got out and went to Purdue on the GI Bill, I knew more than the professors.
The military teaches electronics better than any university or tech school.
I salute all of you, and thank you for your service. We are members of a fraternity that only we can appreciate!
To GonzoEngineer, I am a Army veteran also. I served in RVN in 1969. I already knew electronics before i ever went to the Army. My father taught me all he knew. He built tube radios and the coils they used. I was in the infantry but tinkered with jet avionics while i was there. We would sometimes check out crashed jets and you could take anything you wanted from them. I took the flight instuments and later would take them apart at base camp for fun. My sargent thought i was crazy but he was the only one and he did not know how great electonics can be.
To GonzoEngineer, I am a Army veteran also. I served in RVN in 1969. I already knew electronics before i ever went to the Army. My father taught me all he knew. He built tube radios and the coils they used. I was in the infantry but tinkered with jet avionics while i was there. We would sometimes check out crashed jets and you could take anything you wanted from them. I took the flight instuments and later would take them apart at base camp for fun. My sargent thought i was crazy but he was the only one and he did not know how great electonics can be.
Gonzo, i served with the 39Th engineers. Our base camp was in Chu lai. I left the USA at Oakland,Calif. on New Years Eve and arrived in Viet-nam on Jan 1, 1969. Four months latter i was in a hospital in Japan and then Walter Reed. I took a direct hit by a RPG. Two years later i was at Fort Dix, N.J. I quit the Army there at the end of 1973.
Yea they were pretty much mechanical monsters alright. Not only did we have to learn good basic electronics theory, 13 weeks, but then when moving on to these sets we had to be able to disassemble them to bare parts, put all the parts in a large paper sack, shake them up and reassemble the set and make it work.
Must be a couple of thousands parts in a old Kleinschmidt set, the more modern Teletype Corp model 28 was much simpler to learn and work on. We also had to be able to name every part by the proper manufactures name, for example it wasn't called a spring but rather a code bar latch lever spring! It was a 9 month, 5 days a week, 6 hours a day course and you never knew the machine better then when just out of school.
I did well because I had good natural troubleshooting skills that is somewhat difficult to teach, as it's more of a thought process then a learned skill. Anyway I think that military service is a wonderful opportunity for anyone looking to gain Independence from their home but still be provided some good guidance. Those pay checks were awful small though... Oh, time for another Hotel Juliet card change.......
No ****!....People asked me why I volunteered for Airborne. I used to tell them, "My base pay was $112 a month, jump pay was $55 a month, you do the math!"
I had an old Friden Flexwriter back in college, (Before the days of home computers). It was hard to find the paper tape for the punch, but my reports and papers were flawless!
As an E2 in 1991, I was clearing about $200 every two weeks. Fast forward 3 years, I'm married living on base with COLA pay on Guam and I net $650 twice a month.
People ask me why I don't go back in... cause I make the pay of a 2 star now! Well that, and I have a problem with authority mostly in the form of 22 year old butter-bars.