James C. Wheeler, CTM1 USN/USNR, 1969-1986 It was 1969, I was 17 and in High School. I was interested in electrical engineering but my grades were not good enough. By1969 they landed a man on the moon and cancelled the SST program. That ended a lot of engineering programs. Our small Minnesota town had a "ace" Navy recruiter who came in and told our senior class about the Navy and the Advanced Electronics Program. This guy could sell a frig to a eskimo. I proceeded to ask questions and before you know it I was taking math entry tests and got into the delayed entry program for boot camp. I got to San Diego in September and took the GCT/ARI and ETST tests in boot camp. I got a average score for the GCT/ARI but almost "aced" the ETST. I had studied a electronincs tutorial textbook over the summer and it paid off. During the time I was deciding what field I was interested in pertaining to electronics, a YN saw on a form that I was interested in radio and asked if I wanted to talk to the guys behind the fancy door. I asked what he meant. He said they were in a special communications branch of the Navy. I thought that sounded interesting so off I went. I swear I spent the rest of boot camp filling out security background forms to be a CTM. >From bootcamp at RTC San Diego, I went across the grinder to NTC and BEEP School followed by ETA School at Treasure Island as there was no CTM "A" school. When I graduated from ETA in 1970 I still had little idea what Naval Security Group was. That was a long time ago..... 73, James C. "Jim" Wheeler