Maxwell S. Harris, CTR2 USN, 1955-1959 In 1954 during my senior year at Venice High School in Venice, California my dad took me to L.A. City College where they were giving an exam for entrance into The Maritime Academy in Vallejo, California. I passed the exam and was accepted by the Academy for their class starting in February 1955. To make a long story short, we did not have the funds for me to enroll much less continue for a four year academic requirement. So, after working at menial jobs through the summer, I decided in January 1955 to enlist in the U.S. Navy as I could still get the G.I. Bill and re-enroll at the Academy after my enlistment. Boot camp in San Diego was a real challenge. I was in a real screw up company and we spent most of our nights on the grinder doing push-ups and drills with our rifle. We had two (not just one!) boot camp drill "specialists" assigned to our company. One would yell from one side while the other took position on the other. It became a standard policy that all goof offs who could not graduate from boot camp wound up re-assigned in good old company 18. God! What had I gotten my self into! Boot Camp was nine weeks of hell. Every barrack's inspection was a disaster, every formation inspection was even worse. In those days the first five were considered as basic and then we were moved over to Camp Nimitz for the last four weeks where we attended classes and took exams, etc. The Company Commander, G.F. Palmer, 1st Class Boatswain’s Mate, would remind us, as he would sadistically call out the rifle drill positions to us on the grinder at midnight, that we could of joined the Marines which were just on the other side of the barbwire fence crawling in the mud on their belly’s. If you are familiar with exercising with your M-1 rifle, position three is where you are holding your rifle straight out in front of you. That's when BM1 Palmer would stop and light a cigarette... No more need be said.... I think BM1 Palmer always wished the NCO Club would stay open later than 2 A.M. It was always obvious that he drank his dinner there. During our last four weeks we took our battery of I.Q. tests. By now my idea of Navy life was not too keen. However, it was still my plan to get through the Navy and re-enroll at the Maritime Academy. When I was called in for my placement interview and the PN looked over my tests and also my records and asked me what I wanted to do. I said Quartermaster would be my first selection then Boatswain’s Mate and Signal Man figuring these would be helpful to me when I re-applied at the Academy. The PN looked at with a very strange look and said “Hell man, your qualified for O.C.S. or any school you want. Are you messing with me?" "Besides" he said, "I see you have a Ham Radio License. If you don't want to try for O.C.S, I can get you into a radio operator school. It’s highly technical rate called Communications Technician and it requires you pass a very high security clearance. And, it says here they teach you Morse Code and you know that already, so you got it made.” So, I wound up in RM school in San Diego for the first four weeks of my training. When the instructor found out I knew code he called me up to the desk and I literally taught the class while he went on smoke and coffee breaks. We were then transferred to I.B. and I remember Chief R. W. Jones, CTC, sitting us down and inviting an officer in who gave us our “first talk” telling us that he was about to tell us what we would be doing, etc. and if anyone did not feel comfortable about working in intelligence and handling Top Secret information they could leave now… Of course, nobody left. The suspense was too much for anyone to give up now. I completed CT school, Class 27-B in July 1955 and since I was in the top three, I was given an opportunity for further schooling at March A.F.B. in Riverside, California. Being from the L.A. area I jumped at the chance to take the school and spend additional time close to home. Besides, the entire rest of my class was assigned to Adak, Alaska so March A.F.B. didn't sound so bad. I don’t know what the ratings are now and I’m not sure what I was classified as then except I had graduated from R school at I.B. and then went to what would be considered an R&D type of O school at March. The Navy had a school in Northern Virginia which people had to ship over for which I understand trained for what I did. A couple of my friends went there and also taught there after they shipped over. Including Jerry Holt who made 1st Class before getting married and shipping over to attend the school. (I have just made contact with Jerry again after 54 years. Wow! He retired after 22 years as a Master Chief.) When duty assignments came through, the three of us Navy guys in our class at March, A.F.B. were sent to Bremerhaven, Germany for two years. Jerry Holt, Bob Allen and I arrived there as a SN’s and Jerry and I left as CT2’s. Bob Allen fell in love, married a German girl and became part of the ship service company. My work station was off to the side in the O branch area in Bremerhaven, next to the M branch shop. I was assigned to Charlie Section and Chief Ord Jones was in charge. I could not of asked for a better Chief and we all were sorry to see him leave for duty with the fleet in the Med. One day I reported for shift duty and all hell had broken loose at my station. There was MAG tape, Paper tape and sig. analysis equip. running wild! The date was October 4, 1957 and the Soviet's had just launched Sputnik.... I spent most of the day trying to determine just how beep, beep beep... could be carrying data. After all, we Americans would certainly have arranged for a method of transmitting and collecting important scientific data from space! Shurly, the Soviets would do so also. By about 3 P.M. I was told to shut down my station as there was nothing there. They had pulled off the biggest PR ploy ever... During my tour of duty in Bremerhaven I progressed to the rank of CT2 which I kept by the skin of my teeth and have only to thank the Watch Officer, a Ltjg who stood up for me at a mini Capt.'s Mast when I shuda, coulda been more responsible that I was. The dressing down with a "suspended" bust to 3rd class if I kept my nose clean for three monts was a lesson well learned. I ran into that officer later when I was working out of Nicosia, Cyprus. He was then a Lt. but I have since learned from other's that he retired from the Navy as an Admiral. He remembered who I was and tried to give me a "shipping over" talk to come back into the Navy! Great guy and very dedicated to NavSec. Having taken the 1st Class test just before leaving Bremerhaven, I found out when I arrived at Cheltenham, Md. (the old NSS Station) that I had flunked the exam. Of course, I really hadn’t studied for the exam, too excited about going home on leave after two years over seas, but I had another try at it before my four year tour was up, so I really studied then and passed the exam but not high enough score to offset all the 2nd Class shipover's who also were taking the test. Cheltenham was an interesting place. Mainly a DF station but with an O section and a R&D location. There was not a Chief or 1st Class knoweledgeable of the section work to place in controll. So, they assigned an R brancher Chief to look after things. He had 18-20 years in service and was not interested in learning what we were doing, so he left me in charge and took long coffe and cigarette breaks or walked over to the DF side of the house to talk with those guys.... Since I was close to WashD.C., I decided to check out possible government positions which would give me overseas capability and wound up at the C.I.A. where I “traveled” with them for a while until I decided to go home and “settle down” to a normal life. I did run into a few CT friends along the way in Cyprus, Nicosia where besides the Lt., I ran into Joe Shumaker who had shipped over and I'm sure there were others. I know that several of my CT friends did stay in the service and had exemplary career's. I have had the opportunity of meeting with and e-mailing to several of my friends I served with in Bremerhaven and Cheltenham and would invite any and all if they are coming west to California to contact me. We were all a part of an honorable and exciting profession, one that I will always have fond memories of and stories that I wish I could tell my children and grand children. But, we all remember the drill.... And, Oh yes, the Maritime Academy in Vallejo, California? I don't think they missed me... Max Harris CTR2 Imperial Beach – CTR School March AFB, Riverside,Ca. – Radio Teletype & R&D Advanced Training Bremerhaven, Germany Cheltenham, Md. Jan. 9 1955 to Jan. 10, 1959 + Four Years Inactive Reserve