Posted on 05/11/2015 2:31:29 PM PDT by SandRat
Fort Huachuca, Arizona – It’s the beginning of the end of an era at Fort Huachuca. On April 27, National Morse Code Day, the last Manual Morse Code class begins here. In the future, the course will be taught by the Air Force at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas.
National Morse Code Day is celebrated on what would have been Morse’s 224th birthday. On May 24, 1844, Samuel F. B. Morse dispatched the first telegraph message in Morse code, the message, “What Hath God Wrought?” sent from the U.S. Capitol to Alfred Vail at a railroad station in Baltimore, Maryland.
The military first used Morse code during the Crimean War. Both the Union and Confederate armies heavily relied on Morse code during the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln utilized it to get military intelligence as well as command and control of his generals in the field.
Even in our increasingly high-tech world, there is still a need for this old school mode of communication, explained David Germain, chief of Morse Code Training and sole remaining civilian Morse code instructor at the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion. “We train Morse code because the adversary still uses Morse code,” Germain said. He and the other instructor for the course, Air Force Tech. Sgt. Joshua Henrichs, are training two airmen to serve as Morse code instructors at the new course in Texas.
Air Force Tech Sgt. Ryan Kilcrease agrees there is a continued need for Morse code training. “It remains the cheapest and most reliable means of communication,” added the instructor-in-training.
Senior Airman James Gosnell, also training to become a new instructor, learned Morse code at Fort Huachuca and upon completion of his training was assigned to Osan Air Force Base in South Korea for two years. He said the assignment was challenging.
“It took me nearly two months to get up to speed learning to keep up with some of the fastest transmitters in the world,” he said.
The Army, in a memo signed April 5, 1985, became the executive agency for training the Morse Code Course at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. A few years later, Fort Devens consolidated the Morse code training into a joint learning environment providing training to Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force. In 1993, the Morse code course moved to Fort Huachuca where it continued to be trained in a joint environment. The Army celebrated 30 years of being the Executive Agency to conduct Morse Code Training on April 5.
Over the years, the Navy and Marines reversed the training pipeline and started to send their students to Pensacola then to Fort Huachuca to attend the Morse code training. In 2006, the Air Force followed suit.
In late 2004, early 2005 the Department of Defense sent out a message stating there was no longer a need or requirement for operators trained in only Morse code. Based on that message, the Navy no longer sent their students to Fort Huachuca to be trained, deciding instead to conduct their own training in Pensacola, Florida. By 2007, the Marines also stopped attending Morse code training at Fort Huachuca.
That same year the training consolidated two separate courses, the Basic Morse Training course and the Advanced Morse Training course from 22 weeks of training down to 16 weeks of training. The cut in training time for the Army was due to the course not being considered as a primary Military Occupation Specialty, but as a secondary training for three Army specialties. In 1991, the course trained on average 1600 students annually for all the military services.
The current Morse code course is self-paced and 81 days are allotted to complete it. A student successfully completed it in a record 27 days. Master Sgt. Adella Creque, superintendent, 316th Training Squadron here, says the course is hard to because a student has to master one segment before moving on to the next and may fail several times before advancing.
In 2012 the Army stopped enrolling students in the Morse Code Course since it no longer has a requirement to train Soldiers. A cooperative agreement between the Air Force and Army allowed the training to continue here at Fort Huachuca until now.
“I think [Morse code] will always be out there. It’s cheap, easy, effective and reliable to use. There will always be a need for it,” said Germain about the future need for Morse code.
[“What Hath God Wrought?”]
Could be a bit prophetic if not way early.
So now how are POWs supposed to communicate between cells?
... -— ... -— ... .-
It’s OK. Morse is experiencing somewhat of a revival on the ham radio bands, despite the fact that we have many other digital modes that work better in bad conditions (e.g. PSK31); it’s a nostalgia thing, I guess.
But what about when the Space Aliens attack????...............
Cell phones...DUH!
Way beyond my capability ... I had Morse code type set when I was quite young. Won it off a TV show.
Text message: “We R breakN out @ midnIt”
I like morse. I can't use my voice anymore, but morse lets me get on and people know the 'fist' individually.
/johnny
Return text: NO!!!U be Bad. U PVoke TeH CaptorZ
B .. U .. M .. M. E.. R..
who did dit?
dah dah did dit
My ham club still has monthly QRP outings and several members make a lot of DX contacts with CW on 1-5 watts. I personally got my ticket after the requirement was dropped and I have great admiration for the guys still using it.
Off subject a bit but IMO regarding amateur radio, one license/test should be required for all amateur bands. The tiered system is just outdated and not needed. Restricted frequencies for CW should remain and all bands should be similar to 10 meters with an area only restricted to CW, data etc.
Instead of all the electronic theory subjects and obscure questions in tests many never deal with in amateur radio, they should be replaced by questions on how operators are expected to operate, courtesy on the bands, and how to efficiently use their equipment.
Watching the movie “Independence Day.” It is Morse Code that is the Earth’s only viable means of communication with the aliens jamming all other radio bands.
I copied code for 10 years and it didn’t bother me a bit
DID IT DID IT DID IT DID IT
... .... .. - ON BO
Good riddance. My inability to perform on-stage in a morse code oral test bogged down my boy scout career.
Yeah, they didn’t have the toy motor-boat I won on TV so I settled for another prize - two morse code tappers with copper wire you strung between them.
Of course these days, the copper may be worth a small fortune!
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