It was my first day in Voice Operations Branch (VOB) and I was slowly adjusting to the realization that I would be spending this whole year in the company of drunks, whoremongers, and other assorted losers.
My first day was spent proving that I could turn this :
into something machine readable like this:
CTM KDN MEF FEF GE VEM LAE KUF GE VDV FE FHV LSK KH ME KDM GAL KD VA LA ME KHM KDV FD LLUV BBEU LE KUGG BE.
(I assure you that the two lines are basically the same thing...)
While I was engaged in the transcription of several pages of training material like the lines above a man came to sit beside me. It was around 21:00 (9 pm. for the civvies) and he was in jeans, a white t-shirt (stained and torn), with long hair and about 3 days of beard growth. He plopped down in the position next to me, seized a receiver for the Tracechain system and started scrolling through the frequency range (no, I won't be telling you what that range is... my hypocrisy has it limits!)
"Busy night?" he asked...
"No Sir, (I assumed he was a civilian contractor) I have just been transcribing these BOT (Basic Operator Training) paragraphs intyo SKATS (Standard Korean Alphabetic Tranliteraltion System)..."
"Really? Let me see that... hmmmm.. You look like you have this down... go to xx.xx Mhx... (There was a real freq number there)" and tell me what is going on right now..."
(I tune to the frequency and listen for a minute or two...)
"Sounds like Radio Operator Proficiency Training for XXXXX. to me..." - Greywar
"You sure it isn't a live xxxx?" - Unknown
"Naw, it is way too fast and they aren't excited..." - Greywar
"Fuckin A... SSG Henpecked, Grey is done with BOT, put him on rack now!" - The guy....
"Roger that Mr. Junkman! Grey, start with freq xx.xx and roll up to xx.xx! Now!" - SSG Henpecked (My trick chief (a "trick" is something like a squad in units that used to be associated with the ASA (Army Security Agency))
It turns out that that the unkempt man next to me on my fist day was the Warrant Officer in charge of VOB and he was impressed! Sadly, my streak of impressiveness largely stopped there.... VOB was a meritocracy for the most part and while I was pretty good for a 1s year 98G I was among many other talented youths (much like my school career really...) I was not able to really stand out amongst the likes of Scott Sturycz, Jeff Sontag, Robert Pigeon, Geoff Bratton, Alvey Pratt, Kevin Stanley, and Steven Coughlin.
I "grew up" in the SIGINT community thinking that their level of performance was the norm expected of intelligence collectors and analysts and never thought I was was any better than that norm... until I PCS'd (Permanent Change of Station) to Ft. Meade, Maryland to work for the NSA (National Security Agency (or No Such Agency))...
My eyes were opened for the first time and what they saw shocked me to the core...
(To be continued)
"
*Updated to correct a few spelling errors.. thats what I get for typing it into JU's editor instead of Word....