Joining The Navy: Interview Excerpt

Greg Arey, United States Navy

The detailers wanted me to be a cryptology tech. They said, “You have to go take this Morse Code test.” So they took me to the basement under the building. And they said, “You go down here, and you take this test.”

Well, they gave me the test, and I started listening to Morse Code—and I hated it so much that I intentionally failed the test. I had never done that in my life. I actually failed it on purpose.
So, a cryptology tech—I found out on my way down to take the test—is a person who listens to secret information all day and tries to decipher information. And they basically put you in a vault and isolate you. And I found out going down there . . . those are the guys on the ship who know all the secrets, and the Marines stand outside the door, and if a ship goes down they shoot you.
And I was like, “I don’t think I want to do this job.” And they were giving me all these horror stories on the way down. And that’s one of the reasons I intentionally failed the test: I didn’t want to be one of the first ones shot on the ship if it was going down.