Glen Dwayne Warner, CTM2 USN, 1984-1998 I started out as a Radioman, where my first duty station was the USS MISSOURI. On the MISSOURI, they had the Model-40 Teletypes, much cooler than the ancient teletypes the rest of the fleet RMs were using. Turns out the school for learning to repair these was a CTM source NEC ... and due to my year-long course in electronics a few years before (not to mention helping the first tech they had sent diagnose a rather difficult to find problem with one of our tape drive units: a burnt out pico fuse), I was one of those recommended to attend the school. After I had been working on the system for a few months, a new RM3 told me that I would make a great CTM. I asked him what that was, as I had never heard of a CTM. He told me that I would be working on electronic equipment instead of typing messages all the time (or, as I explained my first job to my young niece when I got out in 1998, "typing e-mails and talking on cell phones"). I looked into cross-rating, and discovered there was an SRB ("Selective Re-enlistment Bonus") so I said, "Sign me up!" ... and a few months later, it was off to NTTC Corry. One of my better decisions! :o) One of my worse decisions was listening to my detailer when he told me I had to take a sea billet, which is how I ended up on the CARL VINSON, which resulted in my being forced out at 14 years. For that detailer, "Thanks a lot. No, really." --gdw Glen Dwayne Warner, CTM2 USN, 1984-1998