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About Regimental mirror. (Fort Benning, Ga.) 1943-194? | View Entire Issue (March 30, 1944)
PAGE TWO Academics Teach Code With Tape Machines, Records Operating from the “ca; Room of the Communications S from A Company work in tw< deeds of soldiers every day. f employ “mass production” ma tention to each student's prog ress. The Infantry School’s sys tem of instruction, based on the use of phonograph records, has been so successful that it is now standard for the entire Army. Even the Signal Corps, the branch specializing in commu nications, has adopted the code teaching methods developed by the Section. t INTRODUCE STATIC When the students enter the Code Room they take their as signed seats at one of the 34 long tables, which are divided into individual booths by means of partitions. Each booth is equipped with a key and a set of ear-phones, through which the soldier receives code sent from the “cage” by means of phono graph records or code tape ma chines, or in the earlier stages, by an instructor tapping ala key Frequently code copy sent by other stations is picked up off the air and rerouted to the tables, to give the students prac tice* in hearing messages punc tuated with static and outside interference. In the cage the Academics in charge use a control panel con taining 2,448 electric switches, to send as many as 36 different types of code messages at differ ent speeds to the outgoing lines hooked up to the students' ta bles Thus a fast student, sit ting in a booth next to a slow student, is getting a different message, and is not held up by his slower class-mate, who in turn is not shoved ahead until he has mastered the lesson he is working on. Tests are given at TEAM B OF THE FIELD NETS COMMITTEE, COMMUNICATIONS Section, The Infantry Schoo!, checking on the main points to he stressed in the day’s instructions before taking their students out to man four “regimental stations” scattered about the post. (Left to right) Cpl. James Kafalas, Cpl. Bernard Langella, Sgt./McKinley Cook, Cpl. William Bobo, ige” in the center of the Code section, 23 Academic non-coms o shifts to teach code to hun- Strange as it may seem, they ichinery to give individual at- the end of every hour, and those who pass move on at once to the next lesson. Many of the enlisted commu nications students—who spend about 200 hours altogether in the Code Room—attain a speed of 18 or 20 words per minute by the end of their twelve-week course. Although 13 words is the minimum requirement for graduation, "the long-time aver age for enlisted students is slight ly better than 16 words p^r min ute. (Since the Section’s basic word is almost twice as long as the basic word used at most schools, 16 words per minute handled by a student here is equal to 29 words at other schools of communication.) The enlisted “rostrum instruc tor" for radio procedure is T Sgt Stephen A. Sawyer, who is assisted in the radio proced ure classes by most of the other Academics who work the Code Room. T Sgt. Hans Ledermann, who has charge of all enlisted personne., coordinates the work of the A and B shifts, and super vises the keeping of all the rec ords of tile students Group A is headed by T. Sgt Joe McNeil, while S Sgt. Guy Foltz is the ranking npn-com in Group B. The two crews shift their hours every two weeks. In each group there is a/ corresponding man with a corresponding job — in outlining the work of each pair we shall name the A crew man first:— AUTOMATIC MACHINERY S. Sgts. Steve Gabuzda and (Continued on Page 3) REGIMENTAL MIRROR THREE COMPANY A COMMUNICATIONS INSTRUCTORS AT WORK IN THE “cage” of the Code Room, Communications Section, The Infantry School. (Left to right) S. Sgt. Guy Foltz is checking the speed of clear text copy on a Boehme teletype ma chine tape. Sgts. Louis Peltier is sending a 16 word-per-minute test, also on a Boehme. T. Sgt. Hanns Ledermann is getting set to send intentional interference on a phonograph rec ord to jam what Foltz is sending, thus giving the students (receiving code outside the “cage”) a chance to hear code under field-receiving conditions. (Official U. S. Army Pho to—TSe Infdntry School.) Field Nets Academics Teach Operators To “Keep In Net" At the conclusion of eight weeks of instruction in the Com munications Section the enlisted students are taken over for a solid month by the Academic non-coms who staff the Field Nets Committee. They teach, in the field, the practical applica tion of all that the students have learnt in the classroom and coderoom, and except for work under fire, these final weeks of training (cover every problem that the Infantry radio man will encounter in the field. On a typical day the class will be broken up into four groups manning the four stations of a combat Infantry requirement— the Net Control Station at regi mental headquarters, and one station with each of the three battalions. About 40 students comprise each group, working under the supervision of two non-coms. As soon as their re spective stations are set up, each student must get into the net (contact other stations) as soon as possible The instructors in charge see to it that the keys are “kept hot.” Sgt. Julius Farkas, Cpl. Anthony Pirrello, T. Sgt. Garrett Fyffe (enlisted chief of Team B), Cpl. Manuel Urrutia, and Sgt. Joseph Galla. All are members of A Company. (Official U. S. Army Photo—The Infantry School.) Thursday, March 30, 1944 Enciphered messages are sent in CW (international code) The students begin by sending and receiving at fixed stations, and then go on mobile problems, keeping in the net while travel ing in jeeps over a 60 mile course. Later problems include movement by night of the com mand posts, setting up in one lo cation. getting in the net. and then moving out on orders and setting up all over again. Some students go up in an airplane and contact the rest of the net. (Continued on Page 3)
