As some of you know, I supported my bad habits for many years as a Navy
Radioman, and quite frankly considered myself something of a hotshot operator.
To set that stage...... I spent my early Navy years aboard destroyers in the 2nd
and 6th fleets. The amount of traffic you handled was related to the seniority
of your skipper, because senior skippers not only commanded their own ships, but
also often had additional duties as task group commanders, etc. Our skipper at
the time was CDR Grant "Flash" Gordon, and he was one of these 'senior'
skippers. We made a couple of cruises to the Mediterranean and Capt Gordon was
also CTU-60.2.5 which required our ship to guard the Sixth Fleet Task Group
Commanders Net (nicknamed "Sixes Alfa"). Sixes Alfa was a high speed net,
typical traffic speeds were 40WPM, and routine procedural speed in excess of
50WPM. At the time, I was one of only 23 radiomen in the Sixth Fleet who were
fully qualified Net Control operators for that net. I go into all of this not to
brag, but only to give you an idea of how big my 21-year-old ego was. If you
were qualified to NCS "Sixes Alfa" (you got a fancy diploma style wallet
certificate signed by the Fleet Commander) then you were pretty hot stuff.

Unlike today, in those days the Red Sea and Persian Gulf area was a quiet
backwater without much military attention. The US Navy presence was something
called "Middle East Force" and COMMIDEASFOR was a Rear Admiral whose flagship
was a distinctly unwar-like AVP (seaplane tender) anchored at the Brit base on
Bahrain. (K0DQ, Admiral Scott Redd (Retired), now an active contester and a high
honcho in Dept of Homeland Security, once held that post) The rest of his fleet
consisted of a couple of destroyers loaned to him from the Sixth Fleet in the
Mediterranean for tours of a couple months at a time to strut around and show
the flag. Often we used that opportunity to also conduct joint training
exercises with ships from allied navies in the SEATO and CENTO treaty
organizations.

Our ship, USS Henley, DD762 drew that temporary assignment while I was aboard.
To get from the Med over to the Persian Gulf requires transiting the Suez Canal,
which was under Egyptian (they called themselves the UAR in those days) control.
Ships transiting the canal were arranged in convoys, on a given day consisting
perhaps of 10 or 15 ships, one convoy northbound and one southbound. These
convoys met and passed each other about midway in the canal at a 'wide spot in
the road' called "Great Bitter Lake". Each convoy carried an Egyptian civilian
pilot who knew the waters and acted as our 'guide' in navigating the canal. If
there was a warship in the convoy, they would carry the pilot and lead the
group. These pilots were required to provide the canal "Traffic Control" with
periodic position reports so that canal authorities could track our progress and
coordinate the 'passing' of the two convoys at the wide spot. The circuit which
handled this traffic was a CW circuit, and the ashore operator was an Egyptian
civilian. This was not a busy circuit, so typically it was on 'speaker watch'
while you attended to other more busy circuits, and only actually 'manned' the
circuit when you had to send or receive a report.

Now picture me, hotshot NCS from "Sixes Alfa", keeping an ear on this pilots
coordination circuit while handling traffic on another circuit. Across comes the
call:

"NHXW DE SUQ K" ---

I put my regular military circuit on hold with a 'ZUJ' and impatiently called
the 'lowly Egyptian civilian' at about 40WPM with a speed key

"SUQ DE NHXW QRQ K" ....... (QRQ my friends, is the inverse of QRS)

Bad move...... really bad and embarrassing move!

'Lowly civilian' at SUQ came back to me at a blistering speed I'm sure was 60WPM
(or faster) of beautiful musical code (there were no electronic keyers in those
days) of which I could copy no better than 50%.

I humbly sent a break signal, then a crisp and polite "QRS PSE", and the "Kind
Sir" at SUQ slowed down to a stately 30WPM. To this day I have never sent
another QRQ to ANYONE! (That guy may be still out there waiting for the
impertinent sailor to challenge him again!)

73, de Hans, K0HB
--
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