George Thompson, CTMCM USN Retired, 1959-1989 Anyhow, mine came as the result of a failed experience in college immediately after high school. My Dad then got me a job ($1.63/hr) as a janitor in a power house supplying power and water to a rayon plant (yes, it was a long time ago!). On the day before I was to achieve permanent status, I was fired because the boss had a nephew that just got out of jail and "he needs the job more than you do, kid." Needless to say, I was a bit upset -- so I drove to Cleveland and enlisted in the Navy as a high school seaman recruit. After we resuscitated my Mom, I went to Great Lakes for boot camp -- a proud member of the only company that never won any flags -- and, after taking all the BB tests, was selected to be a YN because I already knew how to type. After 2 1/2 years as a Yeoman, the last year+ of which was on a DER, a radar picket ship operating as a seaward extension of the old DEW line, I was getting pretty fed up with a lot of sea time and no port calls -- in fact, the only port we ever made was Adak to offload some dude who had appendicitis. We were then sent to Christmas Island as a picket ship for some H-bomb tests -- and guess what: we embarked a bunch of CTs. Well, was I impressed; they didn't do anything the crew did -- no drills, no nothing -- and I thought that was pretty cool. The XO had me type some of their stuff, telling me to lock myself in the office, with the heading "HVCCO". When I asked him what it meant, he told me to forget I had even seen the words. Well, hell, I was hooked. Then, miracle of miracles, the SCORE program arrived. I applied and when asked what I wanted, I entered "CTR" because I wanted to repair electronics. I have thanked providence ever since that the person who read the application realized my mistake and sent me to CTM "A" school at TI since I could in no way even contemplate copying code. And, as they say, the rest is history. I never regretted the change and never even looked backward to the "regular Navy" with anything other than sincere thanks for having left it and sincere gratitude for being accepted into the "Group". My mother, however, was convinced that I had assassinated somebody important when the background check people came to town. George Thompson CTMCM Ret