Jim White, CT2  11/63 to 11/67.  Guam, Hawaii

I got my Novice ham license when I was 15 and my General at 16.  I did a delayed 
enlistment while still in high school in Littleton, CO, to avoid the draft and Vietnam.  
When I finally went in in November, 1963, I took my first airplane ride to San Diego to 
boot camp.  I was petrified.  By the time the day of testing came along I had pretty much 
settled in to boot camp and how it worked and felt good and alert that day.  I got very 
high scores.  I don't remember if there was a code test that day but if there was I’m sure 
I aced it.  When I marched up to the desk at "assignments" a few days later the 1st class 
looked up at me then down at my service jacket and said "We have a special place for guys 
like you.  Last door on the left."  I didn't know if that was good or bad and was pretty 
much petrified again.

I marched down the hall afraid to look left or right but overhead guys getting told what 
ship they were going to.  I could see my fellow recruits standing at attention and being 
barked at.  By the time I reached the last door on the left I had some sense of how this 
worked.  I did a smart left face took two steps into the room and tentatively said something 
like "reporting as ordered sir".  There was a chief and first class CT behind a desk causally 
drinking coffee.  I handed the chief my jacket and he looked it over for a second, stood me 
at ease, and said "what's your callsign?"  I told him and he told me his.  I started to relax 
just a bit and we chatted a little about ham stuff. They were both hams of course.  They 
finally told me I'd be going to Pensacola for an A school and to "have fun".  I marched back 
out feeling a bit better about what the NAVY was going to do to me.

Through A school my code receiving and sending  got me into the C school for HFDF where I 
helped teach some of the other 5 guys how to send cleanly with a straight key.

Assignments in HFDF on Guam and in Hawaii were quite rewarding and at times pretty good fun.  
That experience took me into working on communications for missile testing and the Apollo program.

So having a ham license and good test scores is how I became a CT.