Did you know Captain Jack S. Holtwick, Jr., USN is credited with establishing the Communication Technician (CT) rating for the U.S. Navy in 1948?
Because the work was accomplished by both yeoman and radioman specialties, he took the spark of the radioman rating badge and the quill from the yeoman rating badge and combined them to create the CT rating badge. On March 25, 1976, the Communication Technicians changed to Cryptologic Technicians.
Of note, the Electronic Warfare (EW) and Information System Technology (IT) ratings can be traced back to the Radioman rating.
Station HYPO 
13 January 2021 at 16:31
Wondering if there is any sense of regret or embarrassment on the part of those in this community (and others like it) who have spent the past decade collecting medals for pushing PowerPoint deep defensive cyber solutions that allowed the Russians to exist on our networks undetected for 7 months.
LikeLike
14 January 2021 at 00:17
Anonymous – Please own your comment and state your name.
Sincerely,
Mario
LikeLike
14 January 2021 at 06:59
When I got to boot camp at GLakes, we were asked what field we wanted. I said ‘RM’ so they gave me a code test
and as long as it was about one word per minute I did fine but when the speed was increased I did very poorly. So,
they asked me if there was anything I was interested in and I said ‘communications’. The interviewer asked if I
wanted to be a ‘CT’ and I said ‘what is it?’. His response was ‘I don’t know but the book says ”performs communications duties as directed by the Chief of Navy Operations” and that’s all it says’. So I said ‘okay, I’ll give
it a try’ and I actually am credited for 30 years, 7 months and 2 days (not counting the 89 days I was out) so I
reckon my ‘try’ was worth it!! Have a great day Mario and Thank You very much for the fine histories/stories/articles
you pass along to us. I truly enjoy them and they bring back a lot of memories.
Jim King
CTOC Ret.
LikeLike
14 January 2021 at 11:39
My story is similar.
I joined the Navy as a ET Nuke. Got dropped in BE&E in Orlando in 82.
At my Admin Board, I was given a choice of five ratings (SK, SM, RM, HM, or CT)
I was told later by FCCS Fox that I was the only one to get a choice (20-30 others went straight to the fleet).
With no clue and throwing caution to the wind – I chose CT. No one could answer my question on what a CT was.
So what the heck – my choosing was not doing so well (ie. ET Nuke).
Screening at Corry Station (not doing well on the code or language test) I selected CTO over CTA.
I did not convert to CTN, so I was force converted to IT and retired as a ITCS(SW) in 2007.
LikeLike
26 January 2021 at 14:52
EW, which became CTT, may have some roots in the RM community but also has roots in ET and RD (OS)
LikeLike
7 May 2023 at 18:11
Towards the end of boot camp in Great Lakes in spring of 1964 I was asked what I wanted to do. I shrugged and said I don’t know. I was asked How about CT? What is it? The PO said he didn’t know but that it was available. Ok by me. Off to Pensacola for CTO training. Oct 1964 saw me in Morocco for a year. Then Panama for 2 years. Made E-5 Feb 1967 then early out Dec 1967. Great duty. The Lord was watching over me even though I didn’t know Him until 1974.
LikeLike