U.S.A. Calling
December 1942 QST

Although the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was a complete surprise and shock to the nation, that fact that the United States would eventually be drawn officially into World War II was well known. The amateur radio community had begun talking about the potential impact on radio communications hobbyists earlier in the year, as evidenced by articles printed in QST and other magazines. Within a couple weeks of Congress declaring war, all unauthorized transmissions from Ham stations were terminated in order to prevent both intentionally and unintentionally conveyance of information that could proves useful by the enemy. Along with being a patriotic bunch that were eager to help defeat Axis powers, they also loved their hobby and willingly (in most instances) made critical components of their equipment available for battlefield use. Items such as meter movements, tuning capacitors, and even energy storage cells (lead-acid batteries) were needed for troops on the ground, at sea, and in the air. The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) devoted a lot of print space to promoting an attitude of service and sacrifice, as with this article. Note that both experienced men and women were solicited, with specific skills required by all branches of the service.

U.S.A. Calling

Voluntary Enlistments

If you possess an amateur radio operator license, you can enlist direct in the following branches of the armed services:

In the Signal Corps for duty as an operator or technician. Age limits, 18 to 50.

In the Marine Corps as a staff sergeant in the Aircraft Warning Service. Age limits, 17 to 35.

In the Army Air Forces (unassigned) as radio operator or technician. Age limits, 18 to 44.

In the Air Transport Command as radio operator, to be sent to the Replacement Center at Las Vegas, N. M., for training. Age limits, 18 to 44. You must get a letter from the Air Transport Command to take to your recruiting office, permitting you to enlist for this branch of the Service. For such a letter write to Air Transport Command of Army Air Forces, Chief of Communications, 8th Wing, Temporary Building 7, Gravelly Point, Washington, D. C., attention Lieut.-Colonel Harrington, Room 1822.

In the Naval Reserve in Class V-6 as radio technician. If your grade on the Eddy test is sufficiently high, you can obtain a rating as Radioman 2nd Class. Age limits, 17 to 50.

If you really want to get into radio work in the war effort, it is advisable that you enlist in the branch of the Service in which you are most interested. If you are physically fit, and within the age limits, present your radio license at the Recruiting Office. You should be allowed to enlist. If you have any trouble in doing so, wire or write George W. Bailey, 2101 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington.

"Advice to Young Men"

You young fellows of the 18-19 group will very possibly wish to volunteer for radio duty in a branch of the service of your own selection - concerning which we have an item elsewhere in this department. If you decide to await your call in the draft, it is very important that you succeed in getting an assignment to radio duties when you are first tested for your capabilities. It used to be generally possible for us to arrange for the transfer to radio work of a good amateur who got a "pile-it" job, but now requests from "outsiders" like us are no longer considered. You have to put everything you've got into your first effort to get radio duty; you can be practically assured of a communications assignment if you do. But it is very important that, when you are called, you take along with you your amateur and commercial licenses and any other documents you have to certify radio ability, such as an ARRL "Proficiency Certificate," AARS certificate, graduation certificates from radio courses, and so on. The reason for this is that early in your military career you will be called before an examining board and tested to determine where you will be most useful. Then is when you will need those documents, particularly that operator license. Whenever you are queried, orally or by questionnaires, we advise you to stick to radio, insist that it has been your main interest in life, describe your operating experience and the num-ber of years you've had a government license, and the number of transmitters that you have built. That'll get you radio duty.

The Y.L. Department

Here is a list of the opportunities available this month to women whose code and theory ability has earned them amateur operator licenses:

The Civil Aeronautics Administration is running a six months' training course for qualifying women in a position called "Trainee Junior Aircraft Communicator." The pay is $1440 per annum during training and, upon completion of the course, a position in the airways at $1620, with good possibility of further advancement. Further details on page 23, October QST. You should apply to Civil Service for admission to the course; details at any first- or second-class post office or Civil Service district office. (Men are still wanted for these jobs, too.)

The Army Air Forces are taking student instructors at $1620, or experienced radio women at $2000, as instructors at four schools: Scott Field, Illinois; Chicago; Sioux City, S. D., and Madison, Wis. Apply to your local Civil Service office. This cancels previous instructions to apply to Knollwood Field.

The Signal Corps General Development Laboratory at Fort Monmouth is in need of many hundreds of women to report about the middle of December to pursue courses in radio, telephone and drafting work. There is a salary of $1440 ($120 a month) during the six months' training period. Thereafter the graduates assume positions as technicians in the Signal Corps laboratories, assisting engineers in design and development work, at higher salaries beginning at $1620. The only requirements for these applicants are that they have high school education, having had math, science and preferably physics and trig while in school. They should also show an aptitude for mechanical training. No previous radio experience is necessary. Living conditions in surrounding towns are very good, with plenty of furnished rooms at approximately $5 a week. Meals available in the school cafeteria. Books and equipment furnished free. School runs eight hours a day, six days a week. Volunteer classes in code instruction are being organized and every graduate of the school can be well qualified to pass the amateur operator examination. Applications are accepted from citizens in any part of the country, provided they pay their own transportation to Monmouth. In addition to trainees, the Laboratory seeks the services of women qualified to teach radio in the classroom and laboratories. Naturally, this requires more education and radio background. Salaries for these positions range from $2000 to $3200, depending upon qualifications. Applications should be addressed to the Personnel Officer, Signal Corps General Development Laboratory, Fort Monmouth, N. J.

Positions are also available for licensed women amateurs in several branches of the United States Navy, doing work of a more technical nature of considerable importance. You may apply direct to anyone of the following offices: (1) Radio Section, Bureau of Ships, Navy Department, Washington, D. C., attention Lt. L. B. Wheeler, Room 2N-21; (2) Naval Ordnance Laboratory, Navy Department, Washington, D. C., attention Mr. Ralph Cautley; (3) Naval Research Laboratory, Anacostia, D. C., attention Mr. Fred A . Pierce, Personnel Procurement Section.

The Radiation Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., also has a few openings for qualified women. Application should be made to the above address, attention Dr. F. W. Loomis.

Radio women may enlist in WAAC and receive the regular basic training. Then if they have high-school education, including physics, and are mechanically inclined, they may be selected from the ranks of WAAC auxiliaries and given the Signal Corps aptitude test. If they pass these requirements they will be given several months of training at the Midland school at Kansas City, under Signal Corps supervision, to prepare them for communications duties. We believe the chief need is for code clerks, telephone switchboard operators, telegraph and radio operators and radio mechanics. Training of the first group starts November 30th and additional groups will be accepted as of December 28th, January 25th and March 1st. Those who pass this course will be assigned positions which release AAF and SC enlisted men for foreign duty. The women in this service will probably be organized into special WAAC Service Command companies. WAAC information from your Army recruiting station.

Instructors Needed

All over this country there is a rising note of urgency in the call for radio instructors, theory and code and shopwork, chiefly theory. Many amateurs are finding this their niche and the larger schools are full of ham instructors. Items on this subject have appeared in the last three issues of QST, to which we refer you for data to supplement the following:

The prodigious schools of the Army Air Forces in Chicago remain in great need of instructors. There are many thousands of students there and many hundreds of teachers are needed. Instructors, depending upon their qualifications, receive $3200, 2600, or $2000. Those who have something on the ball, but aren't quite qualified to instruct, are accepted at $1620 and are themselves given a three months' course in teaching, after which they jump to the $2000 grade of junior instructor. The qualifications for an original appointment as a junior instructor are either a year's experience in technical radio work, six months' schooling in a recognized radio school, a year's engineering study including a course in radio, a defense radio course such as ESMWT, or possession of an amateur operator license. Interested amateurs should write, for further information and application blanks, to Capt. John T. Gilmore, Secretary, AAF Chicago Schools, 720 So. Michigan Blvd., Chicago.

Prefer blue grass? The Lexington Signal Depot also continues to need civilian instructors for its extensive training program, mentioned in our September issue. War Department indefinite appointment; age limits, 20 to 56. Men or women, but male applicants may not be in draft classifications I or II. Again the basic position is known as junior instructor, with a $2000 salary. With successively higher requirements, applicants may qualify as assistant instructor at $2600, associate instructor at $3200, instructor at $3800. Promotion is rapid in this service (whether at Lexington, or at Chicago or any of the other Air Forces' schools).

The commander of the training division at the Kentucky school will be glad to exchange particulars with you. With information on yourself, address Capt. W. Gayle Starnes, Training Division, Lexington Signal Depot, Lexington, Ky.

The high schools of the nation have been asked by the War Department and the U. S. Office of Education to install pre-induction' training courses in several technical fields, including electricity, radio theory, operating and mechanics. Everything that a student can be taught before induction saves that much time later. Some high schools are already at work on this program; others will follow by the thousands commencing February 1st. The need for instructors, in both theory and shop work, is going to be unbelievable.

Meanwhile, at many vocational and technical schools, thousands of Signal Corps civilian employees are receiving instruction in the repair and maintenance of Army communications apparatus. High school or college physics teachers with a minimum of two years' teaching experience are needed to instruct in theory. For instructors in the practical shop program, the basic requirements are for a radio service man with at least five years' experience as such, or a radio amateur with two years' experience under license, and with the ability to teach others. Those knowing the subject, but without teaching experience, can frequently arrange for a free course in that subject itself, through their State Board of Education. These are not Civil Service jobs. The work is done under the ordinary basis of civilian hiring, with quite satisfactory salaries. The instructors generally are employed by local boards of education, and must meet certification requirements which may vary in the several states. But if you are qualified and wish to volunteer your services, and desire further information, you may address the State Director of Vocation Training for War Production Workers, in care of the State Office of Education, at the capital of the state containing the school in which you are interested. You will find both state and local officials much interested in obtaining qualified instructors.

We give below a list of the schools where this Signal Corps training is in process. It will be noted that there are no such courses in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Michigan, Montana or Nevada. If you live in one of these states, you may address yourself to the state director of a neighboring state. In the following listing by states, the name of the city is frequently indicated by the title of the school, and is shown separately only where necessary to establish the location.

Alabama: State Teachers College, Livingston; University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; Florence High School; Alabama School of Trades, Gadsden; Murphy High School, Mobile; State Teachers College, Troy.

Arizona: Some school in Phoenix.

Arkansas: Little Rock Trade School.

California: Schools in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Mateo, San Jose, Santa Rosa, Berkeley, Oakland, Ventura, Kentfield, Palo Alto, Fresno, Modesto, Santa Maria, Pasadena, Alameda and Santa Ana.

Colorado: Vocational School for Defense Workers, Greeley; public schools of Steamboat Springs; State Junior College, Trinidad; something at Boulder.

Delaware: Wilmington Trade School.

District of Columbia: Chamberlain Vocational School, Washington.

Florida: Lively Vocational School, Tallahassee; Florida Normal & Industrial Institute, St. Augustine; some school at Daytona Beach.

Georgia: Technical High School, Atlanta; Junior College, Atlanta; Dalton High School; Griffin High School; Savannah Vocational School.

Idaho: Some school at Boise.

Illinois: Burr Vocational School, Chicago; Spry Vocational School, Chicago; Bancroft Vocational School, Chicago.

Indiana: School 95, Indianapolis; Crispus Attucks, Indianapolis; Gerstmeyer Technical High School, Terre Haute.

Iowa: West High School, Des Moines.

Kansas: National Defense Training School, Kansas City. Kentucky: Schools at Ashland, Covington, Harlan, Lexington, Louisville, Madisonville, Owensboro, Paducah, Pointsville, Shelbyville and Somerset.

Louisiana: Shreveport Vocational School.

Maryland: Baltimore High School and Schools 94, 452 and 453, Baltimore; Fort Hill High School, Cumberland.

Massachusetts: Boston Teachers College, Boston Trade School, Medford Vocational School, Springfield Trade School, New Bedford Vocational School, Newton Vocational School, Westfield State Teachers College.

Minnesota: High School, Mankato; East High School, Minneapolis; Dunwoody Institute, Minneapolis.

Mississippi: A & M College, Starkville; Mississippi State College, Starkville.

Missouri: Hadley Technical High School, St. Louis.

Nebraska: Nebraska State Trade School, Milford; Technical High School, Omaha.

New Mexico: Las Vegas High School.

New York: New York City Signal Corps Training School; Paul Smith School, Paul Smith; Troy Vocational School.

North Carolina: Winston-Salem High School.

North Dakota: High School, Grand Forks; North Dakota State School of Science, Wahpeton.

Ohio: Electrical High School, Cincinnati; West High School and Edison Occupational School, Cleveland; Franklyn University, Columbus; some school at Toledo.

Oklahoma: Oklahoma City Trade School.

Oregon: Some schools in Albany, Astoria, Eugene, Oregon City and Salem.

Pennsylvania: Schools in Altoona, Bethlehem, California, Easton, Harrisburg, Hershey, Lancaster, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Reading, Stevens and Westport.

South Carolina: Some school at Greenville.

South Dakota: Aberdeen Trade School.

Tennessee: Memphis Vocational School; Hume-Fogg Technical High School, Nashville.

Texas: San Antonio Technical High School; Luther Burbank Vocational School, San Antonio.

Utah: Some school at Logan.

Virginia: Danville Trade School.

Washington: Something at Seattle.

West Virginia: Stonewall Jackson Trade School, Charleston; West Virginia State College, Institute; West Virginia Institute of Technology, Montgomery; some school at Wheeling.

Wisconsin: School of Vocational & Adult Education, Ashland; Milwaukee Vocational School; some school at Janesville.

Wyoming: Laramie High School.

At the moment, code is being taught under this program only in New York City. There is a possibility of its expansion, and persons interested in giving code instruction are also requested to register that fact with the appropriate school.

Navy U.D.F.

We renew your attention to the Navy's call for Class A and B amateurs to enlist for radio locator maintenance and operation, as reported on page 41 of November QST. It is possible for an amateur who does well in the qualifying examination to be given an initial rating of RT2c, up four ratings over the ordinary original enlistment. As this is technical work, code knowledge is not required. Age limits, 17 to 50. Excellent technical schooling, including special u.h.f. stuff. Details and forms from your Navy recruiting station.

Radar Work Needs Officers

We again report that the outstanding service opportunity for trained communications engineers and electronic physicists is in radiolocator work. The quest for skilled men continues as the nation's situation becomes more urgent. This service holds the cream of the technical fellows, who are receiving special training and experience with intricate secret microwave devices. Incidentally, these men are pioneering in a new technique which is certain to have a remarkable place in civilian life after the war. Commissions are generally hard to get these days, but they're easily available for the men qualified for radar work. All the arms are looking for candidates.

In the Army, this is the Electronics Training Group of the Signal Corps. Candidates must be graduates of an accredited college, either in science with a major in electronic physics, or in electrical engineering, preferably with emphasis on communications. The age limits are 16 to 46. Second lieutenancy. The equivalent naval officers are ensigns in the branch called Aviation Volunteer (Specialist) and must be EE graduates, or the practical equivalent, between 19 and 50 years of age. This work in the Marine Corps is called the Aircraft Warning Service. While similar technical graduates are desired, in special cases two years of college will do; and in this service there are some appointments for specially-qualified men up to the rank of major. Correcting previous statements in this department, the age limits for commissioned radar service in the Marine Corps are 20 to 45 years.

If you are interested in one of these services, write full particulars of yourself to George W. Bailey, Office of Scientific Research & Development, 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D. C., to obtain fuller information. .

Volunteer Officer Candidates

Nowadays the Army makes most of its officers by selecting enlisted men and sending them to Officer Candidate Schools. An arrangement of particular interest to married men is set forth in Selective Service Memorandum No. I-394, to all state directors. It provides a method whereby "Registrants between the ages of 18 and 45 who have been, or are entitled to be, deferred from military service solely by reason of dependency, and therefore have been, or are entitled to be, classified in Class III-A, may volunteer at the local board for induction through the Selective Service System in order to compete for selection as an officer candidate in the Army of the United States." Correcting a report made on this subject in October QST, note that Class III-B is not included.

A registrant interested in this opportunity must file with his local board a Form 175, "Application to Volunteer and Waiver of Dependency." It must be signed by the registrant and all his dependents over 18 years of age. Next comes a physical examination. If he passes that, he is sent to a reception center or replacement training center for a qualification examination, thereafter returning home. If he is disqualified, the local board will deny his application to volunteer and he will be returned to Class III-A. If he qualifies on this examination, the board will immediately change his classification to I-A and stamp the letters "VOC" on all his documents, the V indicating that he is a volunteer. He is then ordered to report for induction as a volunteer on the next call for men from his local board.

The average period of his basic and officer-candidate training will be from six to nine months, during which time he will receive the same rate of pay as a private inducted into the Army. If he should be disqualified at any time during his training period, or should be found disqualified to receive a commission, he will, at his request, be released from active duty, and returned to his home, and will not again be required to undertake active duty unless and until other men in the same status, with respect to persons dependent upon them for support, are being inducted into military service.

R.O.T.C. Data for College Students

Colleges with compulsory ROTC:

In colleges where the Army basic ROTC course is compulsory for freshmen and sophomores, students who desire to serve in other Services than the Army may so state their choice at the time of their enlistment in the ROTC, and that choice will prevail provided they are not later selected to take the Army ROTC advanced course. When an enlistee who has chosen to serve in a Service other than the Army becomes eligible, at the end of the sophomore year, for enlistment in the Service of his stated choice, he will be discharged from the Army Reserve. His discharge papers will be forwarded by the Army Command authorized to effect discharge, and will be designated to the Navy or Marine Corps officer authorized to effect enlistments.

Noncompulsory Army ROTC only:

Students may enlist in the Naval Reserve or Marine Corps Reserve any time after the ROTC selection has been made from the freshman class.

Noncompulsory Navy ROTC only:

Students may enlist in the Enlisted Reserve of the Army or in the Marine Corps Reserve after selection has been made from the freshman class.

Colleges with no ROTC:

Any student can enlist at any time in any Service, provided the quota is not filled, but he cannot be assigned to a particular branch of the Service he has selected until his junior year. In colleges where there is no ROTC, military training is not compulsory.

General information:

Candidates for enlistment must be 18, but students under 18 may be included in college quotas provided they agree in writing to enlist when they become 18 ... All candidates must pass a physical examination ... Students must be enrolled in an accredited college ... All colleges have quotas of students to be enlisted ... During the second year an examination will be given all enlisted students. Those failing to pass will be called to active duty as enlisted men ... All graduates in the ROTC advanced course will be commissioned upon graduation. All others enlisted in the ROTC will be sent to the nearest Reception Training Center and, upon successful completion of the normal course of training, will be sent to Officer Candidate School ... Enlistments in the various branches of the armed services will be accepted at the time when representatives of the Joint Procurement Board visit the various colleges. Such visits are usually made three times a year ... Enlisted students will be deferred from induction under the Selective Service Act until graduation, but they are subject to call to active duty at any time during their enlistment period.

Posted February 20, 2023
(updated from original post on 1/18/2016)