Always in a State of Readiness

As a naval electronic technician (tactical) it was our responsibility to maintain and correct any problems with equipment such as the radars, the fire control equipment or the command and control equipment. Everybody would understand radars but the fire control equipment would be the computers and radars associated with guiding the missiles that were on board or controlling the gun. And the command and control system was the system where you would have the input from the radars or from the data link from other ships onto a monitor screen and the radar operators would be able to have a picture of the surrounding area, type of thing. So it was our job to maintain that, correct any faults. The ship ran mostly in what was called a one and two watch system so you would be five hours on, five hours off, seven hours on, seven hours off and during your time on watch, your job was to look after the equipment. During time off watch is when you ate, you showered, you slept, you read or did whatever you wanted to do but you were still required to be at a state of readiness to go from the one and two watch system to your higher readiness which was the action stations.