"too damn smart..."

Story and Photos by MSgt Wes Ward

Copyright Marine Corps Association Sep 1966

You're here because you're too damn smart." said Col Sanford B. Hunt to a group of 50 assembled Marines just out of boot camp. Each of you has the potential to be assigned to Officer Candidate School, to the MARCAD or NESEP programs. We just don't have enough brilliant young men to permit you all to grab a rifle and run off to fight in Vietnam."

Col Hunt, Commanding Officer of the Communications-Electronics School at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, Calif., was giving an indoctrination lecture to a class of young Marines reporting for school. Each week a new group comes aboard and Col Hunt tells them the same thing.

The groups are similar. The men are just out of boot camp, above average in intelligence, with a GCT of 110 or above, and most of them would rather go to Vietnam as Marine riflemen.

"This is our biggest problem," Col Hunt said. "They've just finished boot camp, where for eight weeks they have been highly motivated toward fighting with a bayonet and rifle and taught the only reason they are in the Corps is to fight. The prospect of spending many hours each day in a classroom and more time on homework doesn't appeal to them. They're a smart bunch though, and they soon realize the advantage and opportunity the school gives them."

A poll of 50 men, reporting for duty, reflected the educational level of the C&E students. Two were college graduates, one had completed three years of college, eight had two years, seven had one year and three had completed a civilian electronics school. All were high school graduates.

Col Hunt welcomed the students to the school and gave them a brief rundown on what he expected of them. He didn't tell them they might be there for as long as a year, nor did he tell them that they might spend 12 hours a day in the classroom and studying.

C&E Battalion Sergeant Major R. J. Bockelman followed the colonel on the rostrum and told the new arrivals there would be little liberty during the school week and that taps would go early. Two classes of basic electronics are currently in session, one beginning at 0630 and the other at 1430. Taps for the day students goes at 2030 and lights out for the night students at 2300, which gives them one hour from classroom to sack.

After the indoctrination lecture, the students reported to the basic electronics school for 15 weeks of electronics fundamentals. Principles of electronics, electrical theory, schematics, and a refresher course in mathematics and physics are on the curriculum.

Upon completion of the basic course, students are assigned for six weeks to either the radio or radar fundamentals course before beginning specialized training in a particular field. The student's aptitude, interests and the needs of the Marine Corps dictate whether he will be assigned to radio or radar specialist training.

The fundamentals school is followed by a specialist course, lasting 11 to 14 weeks, in either radio or radar repair courses.

The student specializing in radar may be assigned to either the ground or aviation repair course or to the aviation fire control course. Later, he may return to C&E to attend the advanced aviation radar courses for which there are three advanced levels, each lasting in excess of 12 weeks.

The radio fundamentalist may attend the aviation radio repair, the ground radio repair or radio relay course, each lasting at least 12 weeks.

Upon completion of these courses in basic electronics, fundamentals and the repair course, the student has spent about 40 weeks in school. He is then assigned to a Fleet Marine Force unit for practical application, under supervision, of what he has learned in the school.

Frequently, upon completion of his first tour with an FMF unit, he is reassigned to C&E Battalion for one of the advanced or related courses in his field.

"Home" study complements the classroom work, and for students with below-average grades, two hours of study are mandatory. Since all records at the school are computerized, a close check is kept on averages. At the touch of a button, the machines provide accurate grades on examinations and tell the instructors which students are failing.

There are several other courses in communications not directly related to radio or radar to which students may be assigned. Some attend the radio telegraph operators course, teletypewriter operators course, and teletype repair courses.

The advanced schools, normally limited to NCOs and senior Staff NCOs, are the radio and communications chiefs courses, ground radar technicians and radio technicians course, cryptographers, fundamentals of digital logic, and Marine tactical data systems course. Some of these advanced courses are highly technical and deal with theory and logic.

Many Marines attend several courses at C&E during their career in the Corps and spend as much as 18 months in the school. GySgt James T. Cesena completed his fourth course recently and was enrolled almost two years as a student.

Each Friday, the students ask, "What's the word from Big Max?"

"Big Max" is their name for the IBM, 1401 computer, and Friday is the day students are tested. In these tests, the students indicate their answers to questions by punching holes in IBM cards. Within a few minutes after the end of the test, "Big Max" devours the cards, winks, blinks, whirrs, and prints a statistical verdict on each student.

Some students think their fate is entirely in the hands of "Big Max," but grading is just one part of the function of the machine in the automated system known as the ATAC (automated testing and attrition control).

"Big Max" selects the questions for the examinations from information fed into it by the school staff. It provides an almost instant readout and analysis of the tests administered with a comparison of actual performances on each test item and the expected performance. From this information and the student's answers, the supervisory personnel are able to determine the effectiveness of the student, the instructor and the test.

Although he does make the decision on the questions and right answers. "Big Max" doesn't have the final say on whether the student moves on to the next week of instruction or repeats the previous week. This decision is made by the supervisors of the school.

Students are not graded by a percentage or percentile, but are ranked in accordance with their class standing.

Needless to say, "Big Max" has few friends among the students.

The automated systems not only assess the individual's performances, but also control attrition rates and the flow of trained men to jobs and keep close tabs on the quality of instruction. It's a simple matter of feeding information into the machine, pushing the right buttons and getting a test question, the answer, the class average and what the average should be.

It would tax the mind of even an instructor to come up with some of the test questions the machine asks, such as: "The effect of the negative temperature coefficient of the emitter-base junction resistance in a union transistor may be minimized by ________" The choice of four answers is equally as hard to read and understand.

The communications electronics school can trace its history back to the old Signal Company established at San Diego in 1932. Today the school has more than 2,000 students and will pass the 3,000 mark by November.

The school has some of the most sophisticated equipment in existence. To a visitor, the gear looks and sounds like something from a science fiction movie. There are enclosed radar antennas in pressurized units resembling huge bubbles. Students write backwards on glass so the GCA operator in front can read the notations. There are whirring and screeching noises, and the tap-tap-tap of teletype. The huge masses of wire, resistors, and transistors in the equipment would baffle even an experienced electrician.

Every piece of equipment has a name, but is usually referred to by its number. For example, ANTSC-15 is a communications center for high level commands. It's a multi-channel unit mounted on a ¾ ton truck. The ANTRC-75 is described by Sgt R. D. Thompson as a single sideband on wheels which will net with something the communicators call the PRC-47. Sgt Thompson, completing his third course, says the "75" has an unlimited range.

The school's teaching methods involve lectures, demonstration, application, review, critique, film and the weekly tests.

There are 477 instructors assigned to the staff, including seven civilians. Field representatives from the manufacturers are on hand to assist the instructors and staff with new equipment installation and operation. Many of the instructors are Vietnam veterans. A few are selected from school graduates. Occasionally, a lance corporal or corporal will be found teaching one of the highly technical subjects.

Most of the officers assigned to the school are former enlisted men. "Where else would we get officers with the experience and background needed for this school?" Col Hunt asks. The colonel also fits this category, having been commissioned in 1942 while serving as an enlisted radio operator on Guadalcanal. He's been in communications ever since.

The need for highly trained communications men in Vietnam has stepped up the number of students assigned to the school. Today's elaborate communications systems are a far cry from the old days of "wire stringing," but even back then, the operators and repairmen had a reputation for being "too damn smart."

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