"No civilian equivalent"

The journey to become a Command and Control Marine is long and filled with crazy detours and expressways.

For me the journey started as a young guy out of Utah that had no idea that radars even existed, let alone data links, surface to air missiles, airborne early warning, and the other myriad of systems used to provide integrated air defense. I came into the Marine Corps open contract, fully expecting to be Infantry. But when they pulled out the sorting hat at the end of Marine Combat Training (MCT) in December 1992, I was ordered to head to Basic Electronics Course for the 2800 MOS. With that I got on a bus to head to 29 Palms CA.

Marine Corps Communications & Electronics School (MCCES) at the time was made up of A Company, B Company, and a very little known C Company. A Company was responsible for training the 28XX / 59xx MOSs, B Co was the 06xx, and C Co was the 72xx and to some extent 59xx.

Math has never been a strong suit and within the first week I realized that I should have spent more time in Algebra class than in the coffee shop. After quickly failing the first three tests which were mostly math based, I was reclassified to C co to be a "scope dope". This ended up being the greatest blessing in my life to that point. It was very hands on and we learned all sorts of stuff about the new AN/TYQ-23 Tactical Air Operations Module (TAOM) as Air Control Electronics Operators (ACEO) for the 7234 MOS.

During my time as a 7234 I was exposed to numerous analog based systems that used 2 wires as well as HF/VHF/UHF to transmit the common tactical picture amongst command and control and associated air defense systems. This set the foundation for putting the puzzles together and solving issues of getting data from point A to point B.

I guess the takeaway for me at this point - is bloom where you are planted. God knows what he is doing with us, he knows our strengths, he knows our weaknesses, he wants us to be successful and happy - even if its in places we never knew existed.

Sometimes life's detours lead to an open expressway for our lives.

Psquared