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Re: [IRCA] Truthfulness and the seafarer
- Subject: Re: [IRCA] Truthfulness and the seafarer
- From: "W. Curt Deegan" <WWWR@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 17:25:57 -0500
One more checking in. I too was in the US Navy, and in the spirit of
the topic, must admit it was as an officer.
Not a ships officer though, but rather a member of the Navy Civil
Engineer Corps. With my education in electronics and my Navy
assignment in the CEC, a construction oriented organization, I
enjoyed the position of being the guy all that weird electronics
project stuff went to. My peers did construction and had no desire
to be bombarded by the strangeness of NORAD Switchboards,
Motor-Generator Uninterruptible Power Systems, Wollenweber Antennas,
PERT/CPM analysis of construction project schedules, and least of all
building a radio network.
I had modest associations with such projects as: Early planning for a
proposed DOD Office Building (another Pentagon but shaped like three
overlapping bananas, no snickers please) -- which died on the drawing
boards. Refurbishment of the Naval Academy at Annapolis -- which did
proceed. Project Saguine/ELF -- downsized, built and recently
decommissioned. Navy Receiving Station construction at Sugar Grove
W.Virginia -- later to become notorious as an NSA electronic spy
center. Navy Deep Submergence Lab testing of a high pressure
pump -- actually performed at a desert rocket test site in the event
the pump blew (it was a big mother). Several other
computer/radio/technology projects around the world as a Washington
based design and construction administration officer.
My last major assignment was as the on-site design and construction
officer for the Vietnamese Radio Network. A project funded jointly
by the US Army and US Agency for International Development, and
overseen by the USN as were all construction projects in SE
Asia. Comprised of four sites, each with two AM stations, the
network was to cover South Vietnam for both civilian and military
(ARVN) broadcast needs -- underway until US politicians turned tail and ran.
It was a challenging and rewarding time. I've often thought I should
write an article about the Vietnamese Radio Network -- the stations
that were planned, the mixture of electronics and blast proofed
bunker construction, other tidbits of the project -- though the
ultimate outcome of it is unknown to me. Another should'a done.
I also wish I had taken pictures of the existing Saigon transmitter
site. There, in a monsoon prone subtropical climate, in a building
open to the elements on all sides, sat the high power transmitters,
protected from water that ran in covering the floor during heavy
rains, only by a small cement berm that surrounded their base. I
feared of electrocution every time I was in the place. I never
questioned the wisdom of building new facilities.
Curt
-------
W. Curt Deegan
Boca Raton, (southeast) Florida, USA
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