Ben Ciriacks PN2 (former CTI) 1960-1967


So, after the recruiter in Milwaukee said, "Sure, you can go to
language school once you join the Navy", I sent away for my father's
signature, added it to my mother's and quit high school at age 17
after the junior year in June 1960 to join.  (Tested for both high
school and college level GEDs while in Okinawa - most of the basic
course in high school already taken before I quit.)
 
It wasn't until Classification in boot camp that anyone confirmed that
there was such a thing as language school.  The classifier asked what
I wanted to be.  I said, "Anything that has a lot of variety.  I don't
like doing the same thing over and over."  (And, I mentioned that I
wanted to go to language school.)
 
He asked if I'd like to be a Communications Technician.  I asked if
that had a lot of variety.  He said sure.
 
From San Diego I was sent to CT-A school in Bainbridge, Maryland where
the language test was finally administered - I chose Russian, Arabic
and Burmese - attempting to signal that a wide range of options was
okay.  Orders came for Chinese Mandarin at the Army Language School in
Monterey.  (We had to type 30 words a minute to get out of work
details and enter the next class, so I learned to type that fast in
the first couple days but still had to stay in the work details
because the next class didn't start for a couple weeks anyway.  The
work details were much more interesting than sitting in front of a
typewriter.)
 
From there I was ordered to Futenma, Okinawa and after waiting another
month for my clearance, met Harry Lowe, passed his first test of my
abilities and became a fellow CT-I.
 
-- 
Ben Ciriacks