Graydon A. Lewis, CTTCS USN Retired, 1945-1967
 

I must confess, I am still surprised I made it!  I  was in San Diego boots when 
the bomb was  dropped in 1945.  I was smart enough to realize that with many 
thousands of folks being discharged and heading for home, what was this kid going 
to do for a living?  So, the navy offered $500 to ship over to the regular USN 
and go to a school.  I took the $500, returned home to Eugene, Oregon and married 
my HS girlfriend at the grand old age of 18. (still married to the same girl).  
When the war was, on we seniors  in high school were required to  choose one of 
several "pre-induction courses."  I took "Radio Repair", and learned about tube 
sockets, and the "Kennely-Heaviside" layer, (now the ionosphere).  Also  took a 
Morse code class where I bombed completely. So naturally I was sent to Radio School 
Class A in Bainbridge Maryland.  Here again I bombed in Morse code, and although I 
did not meet my weekly speed requirements they did not kick me out as they  did a 
lot of guys.  The reason seemed to be that they decided I was a 'good guy' at the 
kicking out interviews. Perhaps  this was why  I had to fill out a PHS and have 
my photo taken. Was this because they did not want to it me to louse up navy radio 
because of my poor CW performance?  On the other  hand it may have been easier to 
clear people from the  Pacific Northwest, and from the Northeast U.S. because generally 
we could trace  no known  relatives in foreign countries. At Bainbridge Island, Washington 
my Cyrillic Morse was just as poor, but LT, Carmichal choose not to boot me, again, 
I learned, because it seemed I was a 'good guy'.  On the other land, I could copy slip 
(undulator tape) as fast as I could type. It seems my eye-hand coordination was great 
while my ear-hand coordination was not. Or perhaps it was because a B. I. instructor  
( Tom Gilmore?) had put some 'dirty stories' on the undulator tape?  I was told there 
were jobs in SUPRAD  I  could do even with poor CW. So, I went to Guam in 1946 helped  
to work on the big Quonset hut which was operations and transcribed undulator tape like mad!  
In  MY spare time I hung out in the darkened end of the building,  called Radio Printer, 
and watched the flashing sync lights.   I saw these guys wore cans around their necks and 
thus did not get fungus of the ears like a lot of Morse ops  were troubled with!  I was sold!  
And spent the rest of my 21 years in  what because non-Morse. Did duty at   3801,  Wahiawa, 
AFSA, Bremerhaven,   Kami  Seya and many flights from Atsugi, Guam again, and finally NSA.  
Except for flights on the  Willie Victors,  the  cans remained around my neck!

Graydon  (Grady) Lewis CTTCS (Ret). ( N7FCO)