John F Kennedy (CVA 67) - Naval Cruise Book

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CR T wenty-four hours a day, every day, CR Division keeps the ship in constant touch with the world. Our message relay station takes care of business and provides our .working men with rapid personal communication with families and friends in emergencies and on those special occasions. Our fob is not particularly hard, but it is demandin . There are necessary standards to adhere to because that's tlge nature of communication. What good is a messa e when nobody knows what it slaiys? And when you consider that the message has traveled hu reds or thousands of miles through storms and who knows what, the very fact that the system works is remarkable. Our Communications Department dmends on the teamwork on communicators throughout the wor Some of us work wit radio signals, with transmitters and receivers, to keep the lines open. Some are typists, circuit otflerators, and message handlers who operate a system as comp te as a Western Union office. Then there is the communicating that is done right here among our own forces, among the planes and ships which are only as far apart as horizon to horizon. Every plane must be able to. talk to the ship. That's where my iob comes in. I 'm the gluy that sits in one ol those spaces that nobody knows exists. hat do I do? Usua ly nothing. It's an art to do nothing for twelve hours. But I'm ready. What happens when there's a plane buzzing around and all of a sudden he's not talking to anybody but his rabbit's foot? He needs a little help 'cause somet ing fust happened to something somewhere. If he needs a new radio, I'm here to help him. Our operators are constantly feeling like the who's about to see a great pass into the end zone when his V set. starts to smoke: the equipment we work with can be frustrating. First you think you ot it, then you don't. Belive it or not, somehow, in the end the ioi gets done. T hat's what tt's all about. Richard Zeug IM3 CR Division g Ft. Lauderdale. Florida

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CS CS is a small difvisionof 23 men, including our petty officers and chiefs. Our main fob is to send and receifue 'visual traffic. But we also report to the Officer of the Deck all surface contacts. When not on an .actual deployment we do not have a really large amount of traffic, but once a cruise begins our work increases greatly. My iob, and really thejob of each man in the di-vision, is to be able to send and recewe messa es by any of three methods: flashing light, semaphore, or gag hoist. We stand 24 hour watches in port and at sea. Our work area is up about as high as you normally go on the ship. From our perch on the island we are able to see in ang direction. Now, a lot of peoiple think it would be nice to wor where there is plenty of fres air and sunshine. And it is. Except when it's raining or snowing or real cold. I think most of us like our iob, though. Qur chiefs, difvision officer and petty officers all help us quite a bit. In a way, the Signalman rate is hard to learn and unless you really want to learn it, you'll nefver be able to tell a dit from a dah . . . much less be able to make a word out of them. Then there are 62 different flags to learn, plus learning the letters of the alphabet in semaphore. I would say that most of us want to learn the rate though, because the guys that were learning last year, are doing it t is year. Lonnie Ray Miner SM SN CS Difvision Ozark, Arkansas