Orion F. Green, CTO1 USN, 1955-1963 I have enjoyed reading all of the stories about how each one became a CT. A lot of them have the same events that took place. My story is very similar with many of them. In January on 1955 I wasn’t finding a job that appealed to me. A close friend decided to join the Navy so I thought “what the heck”, we could just go together. My favorite Uncle had been in the Navy during WWII as a radio operator, so that was a no brainer. I signed up to go with him, but as luck would have it they called and he left a week before me. When I went to St. Louis to take the tests the Chief that took us over said that no one had gotten a perfect score on the exams. I don’t know if that was true or just a way to encourage us to do our best. He said that if anyone got a perfect score he would buy them a steak. Well is missed one question, so no steak, but it did make me think that perhaps I wasn’t all that dumb. While I was in boot camp at Great Lakes I took all of the tests that everyone took for placement. I scored high on the math and electronics. I was offered to go to ET school for a year at Great Lakes. Silly me I said no I want to be a Radioman like my uncle. They gave me the code test consisting of the three letters I, N & T. I couldn’t tell them apart, they said I had a “Tin Ear”. Flunked the test really bad. The interviewer then suggested I might want to go for the CT rate. When I asked what that was, his comment was “ I don’t know but it is good”. I agreed to the school and was sent to San Diego to Teleman School. I did well with the book learning but had a difficult time in learning how to type. This caused me great embarrassment as I was set back two weeks for more training. This turned out to be a blessing as the class I had been in went to Adak and the class I graduated all went to Bremerhaven. The interviewer was right in that it was a good rate to be in because was able to get my First Class strips three years after joining the service, while my friend who went to the fleet came out a seaman after four years. After getting out in the fall of 1958 I got married. I still have 4 more years to serve in the reserve as when I joined it was for 4 and 4 USN-U1. I served another 4 years in the reserve, but they didn’t have a CT group in St, Louis so after that 4 years I got out. I thought about going back on active duty but my wife didn’t want me to go and she didn’t feel she could adjust to the life. And you know the old saying “If mommy ain’t happy ain’t nobody going to be happy” Fred Orion F. Green CT1 Bremerhaven ’55 – ‘57 Karamusel ’57 – ‘58 Istanbul ’56 – ‘58