Dennon West Mills, CWO4 USN Retired, 1961-1986


A month before my older brother was due to get out the Navy I totaled his car.  
I figured it was a good time to get out of Dodge and joined the Navy.  He was an ET 
and I figured to try and follow his lead, maybe appease him a little.  However, when 
I met with the classifier he asked if I had a preference at all, I mumbled ET and he 
thought I said CT.  He asked how I knew about CT's.  I was too embarrassed (scared!) 
to tell him he misunderstood so I said "my brother was one".  Good enough for him but 
I had to pass some tests, one of which tested my ability to copy a "code" of some kind.

In high school I took a vocational course that included learning the American Morse 
Code (used by railroad agent operators).  While this code has 13 different combinations 
than the Morse Code I was tested on during boot camp, the three in the test were the 
same so I did well.
 
In Class A school, one of my instructors said that while I could copy code pretty well, 
I couldn't type worth a hoot and eventually it would catch up on me.  He recommended me 
for "T" branch school at Goodfellow AFB.
 
Twenty-six mostly great years later I retired as a CWO4 and 23 Years after retirement 
I continue to support the Navy from Ft Meade, Md. 
 
Dennon Mills

Sabana Seca
Bremerhaven
Pensacola
Rhode Island
Hanza
FGGM