David J. Doyle, CDR USN/USNR Retired, 1961-1990 It has been fascinating, reading all the accounts of former CT's that I was compelled to make my very first post - please excuse me if I make any procedural errors! I graduated high school in 1961 in small town (Ponca City) in North central Oklahoma and had never been hardly anywhere --never had seen the ocean. My best buddy talked me into joining the Navy on the buddy program and since I was only 17 I was also a "kiddy cruiser". (By the way, a fellow who went through Bainbridge back in the 50's wrote a book about his experiences. The title of the book is "Kiddie Cruise" -- very interesting read!) We went off to San Diego for boot camp and parted ways after that -- I tested well for either Sonarman or Yeoman and I chose YN with orders to Bainbridge for YN "A" school, while my buddy was headed for training to be a Boiler Tech (BT). At Bainbridge, I got put to work policing the grounds and taking typing in night school and eventually got into a class after about a month of learning to touch type. When they came around a couple of months later offering the Foreign Language Aptitude Test, a couple of us tested well enough to be offered language training at the Army Language School in Monterey CA (now known as DLIWC). I imagined that I would be able to learn French or German and be posted to some exotic duty station in Europe. Instead I was assigned to learn Chinese Mandarin and my friend got Russian. (at that time they were mainly training Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese and a few Spanish linguists). I was terrified. I remember very well that my first room mate at the language school, who was a Spanish linguist trainee, got jerked out of class a couple months early and shipped to Gitmo, as the Cuban Missile Crisis was just about to happen. This was in 1962. No exotic duty station for me: got orders to NSGA Futenma, Okinawa in early '63 -- which actually turned out to be JSPC-2 at Torii Station and that's where I would stay until my kiddy cruise was up. A lot of distractions and "coming of age" experiences there! I served with a great bunch of Navy, Army, Marine and Air Force guys there, some of whom I still stay in touch with over 45 years later. I can well remember being on TA watch at J-2 the night the Gulf of Tonkin "incident" happened and also remember being awaked at approx 3:00 a.m. Okinawa time and informed that JFK had been assassinated. I got to know CDR Jim Lusk, while I was on the "rock". Jim was later a chapter president in the NCVA and got me to join. God rest his soul. Would meet up with Jim later when he was Regional Active Duty Crypto Officer out of Dallas in the 80's and 90's. Got off active duty as a CTI2 and went back to school. Didn't have much money for college so I enlisted in the Naval Reserve and started drilling in Stillwater, OK where I was attending Okla State Univ. What a Godsend the Chinese Mandarin course turned out to be!! The registrar at OSU informed me that the U.S. Army Language School was accredited by Yale University and that the 47-week course I took was worth 26 hours of college credit, which enabled me to graduate nearly a year early. I had some good ACDUTRA experiences, namely the summer of '66 when I returned to Bainbridge for a couple of months as an instructor in the Basic Cryptanalytics Course. It was interesting revisiting the base where I had been through A school five years earlier. Many of you know that Bainbridge is now completely gone but there is a well-organized group of folks who have kept the tradition alive and there's a very nice museum in Port Deposit which is well worth visiting. After graduation, while I was working at a newspaper in Okla City, the C.O. of our reserve unit told me about some opportunities to get a direct commission as a Special Duty Cryptologic Officer (1615). I didn't hold out much chance but took the tests and much to my surprise my commissioning orders came thru and I was commissioned as an Ens in Feb of 72. Quite a comedown from CTI1 but the upward career path for a reserve officer in those days (1972 onward) was pretty smooth and the promotions came like clockwork. Spent many drills chasing young men around who had joined the Navres to escape the draft during the Viet Nam war, and had some very good Summer active duty stints at places like NSA, Corry Station, Skaggs Island, Sabana Seca, etc. Some 18 years later, with around 28 year's service I was fortunate enough to retire in 1990 as an 05 CDR and now enjoy the considerable benefits of both retirement pay and TriCare medical insurance. Joining the Navy and becoming a CT made all the difference in my life. I have been humbled to read the accounts of some of the true "heroes" who were CT's - - those who served on the Liberty, the EC-121 shootdown, the Pueblo and others-- including many of you whose stories I have read over the past few years as you posted e-mails on this site, describing your experiences. If you get the chance, I highly recommend visiting the National Cryptologic Museum which is where the old "Colony Inn" used to be, next door to NSA. They have done a great job of immortalizing the cryptlogic services and there are outstanding tributes there to the Liberty, Pueblo, and the EC-121 crew, as well as their own "memorial wall". "Bravo Zulu" to all you fellow CT's! David Doyle CTI1 - CDR 1961-1990 Houston, TX