David D. Nims, CTO2 USN, 1968-1973 My memory of becoming a CT is somewhat similar to Lou's. I bought a used BJM a few years ago. Same edition as mine in 1968. The prior owner did exactly what I did which was rank the Ratings based on his preferred selection order. His was Yeoman (YN) 1st, Personnelman (PN) 2nd, Postal Clerk (PC) 3rd, Machine Accountant (MA) 4th, and CT 5th. He was looking to the future I guess. Mine was Photographer's Mate (PH) 1st, Radioman (RM) 2nd and then I had no clue. Someone in our company said his cousin was a CT, couldn't tell him what he did but it was good duty. I looked it up in the BJM and whereas most other ratings had full paragraphs with multiple sentences CT said "Perform special communications duties under cognizance of the CNO". Since I had said, for no particular reason, RM 2nd I said "Hmmmmmm!, why not?" and put it 3rd. I scored high on most tests (like all CTs I think), knew I didn't want to be a Sonarman (SO) (almost off the charts on that) so I filled out the last two with Radarman (RD) and I don't recall. I had typing in High School as well and scored high on the Foreign Language Aptitude Test (FLAT) even after falling asleep before it was done (27 out of 50). Later, while in A school, they came looking for candidates for CTI and wanted me to volunteer but, of course, it was all going to be Asian languages - no western languages then so I stayed "O" branch. It was quite an interesting experience. Later I learned there wasn't a chance in H**l for PH but I probably would have made a deal with the devil for that school. It was in Pensacola then and had a national reputation for the skills it imparted. There just wasn't many billets for Photographers. David