Clifford A. Harlow, CTM1 USN, 1968-1976 Mine starts in 1968 when the local draft board in NW St Louis County divided into 2 boards but kept the quotas the same. Many of the young men were notified, including some with student deferments. I got my draft notice and schedule for a physical. It came back that I was eligible for the draft. On my way home I went by the Air Force and Navy recruiting offices. The Navy seemed to have the best offer for schooling so I signed up on the delayed enlistment program to leave for San Diego in August. I went in for my battery of tests. The recruiter said I aced all three of the tests and started talking about the Nuclear and Advanced Electronics programs. I thought 4 years in the Navy then 4 years of college versus 6 years in the Navy and a marketable skill, and decided to go with the AEF program. A few weeks later he called and said they were forming the St. Louis Cardinal Company which left in June and for Great Lakes. What the Heck - I said yes. At boot camp there was a Chicago Cubs Company there at the same time. This caused a little bit of rivalry. One problem was that boot camp was 9 weeks in those days but was being reduced to 7 as we were going through it. Since Stan Musial (greatest baseball player ever) was scheduled to be at our graduation we had to adhere to the 9 week program while everyone else left at that time left after 7. As a side note we one every flag but the Drill Flag. Because of the situation in the St Louis draft boards just about everyone in our company had some college. 3 with college degrees and only one with not college at all. The scoring system was revamped and we were under the old points which put us in last place with the other companies under new scoring system way ahead of us. So here we are at the graduation with the Color Company having a handfull of flags and the company in the rear with all sorts of flags, banners, ribbons, and etc. An Admiral was there with Stan Musial who spent more time reviewing our company and shaking hands than with the Color Company. But, I digress. As we navigated the selection of what we wanted to be, it was clear that we could ask but the selection was purely up to the Navy. I put down for DS first, ET second and I don't remember what was third. As this was being processed I (and a couple of others) got a call to talk to a counselor who took us to a closed room and talked, or rather didn't talk, about the CT rating in the AEF program. He showed me a paper that had one year of electronics training, 1 year of CT 'C; schools and a 95% shore duty placement. I liked the schooling and especially the shore duty so I said put that down first. Later, when the LTJG came in to tell everyone what they would be striking for and where they were to go next, he came to me and said, 'Hell, I don't have any idea what you are going to do but you will be going across the street to ET 'A' and ETN 'A' schools with further schooling at Lackland AFB then Fort Monmouth NJ for something called BISTEP and AUTOSEVOCOM'. (or something like that). There was a sad moment when one of the guys was selected as a Boatsman Mate striker and going straight to a Swiftboat on the Mekong Delta area. The LTJG was noticeably moved. Ended up with my first tour in Edzell, Scotland for 4 years and then NIPSSA for 2 years. Married out of ET school, took her to Scotland, had my first born there. Second one came along in Washington, DC. Were it up to me we would have stayed in but she wanted to get back home so I left after 8 years as a CTM1. I have never had a job I loved more than the one I did in the Navy. Cliff Harlow - CTM1 NSGA Edzell, 1970-1974 NIPSSA, Wash DC 1974-1976