There’s a scene early in the movie Black Hawk Down where an incoming Ranger is being checked in to the base and at some point in their interaction, this exchange occurs:
Ranger 1: “I have a rare and mysterious skill that precludes me from going on missions.”
Ranger 2 [looks down]: “…Typing.”
R1: “Can you type?”
Was this true? (movie came out 2001, the events portrayed occurred in 1993) Is it still? Is typing such a rare skill in the infantry ranks that merely being able to type proficiently gets you put in the rear with the gear?
I don’t know about the military in particular, but yeah, before everyone had computers in their homes, typing was a much less common skill. My family was unusual in that, at my father’s insistence, we all took typing classes in high school, in the mid-80s. He’d seen how much better it was for him to be able to type his own stuff as opposed to his co-workers who relied on a typing pool.
By the early 90s, this was starting to change, but I could see the military lagging a bit behind. The kind of guys who would have been looking for a military career probably wouldn’t have been on the cutting edge of the computer revolution.
I was in the Navy from the mid through late 80s. Typing was pretty rare, rare enough that my meager skills from being an early computer user was significantly better than average.
I shuffled through all but one Electrician Mate job in E-Div it included being the Education PO and the Supply PO. My computer/typing skills had something to do with this. In general being somewhat of a typist or computer literate was very advantageous in the late 80s and early 90s at least. Not just the Military.
I still remember including that I owned a PC in my cover letter for applying for my second second computer programming job. This was considered a bonus at the time.
Yep. High school class of 1991, and we were required to take typing in school. On huge, ancient IBM Selectric typewriters, no less.
When I got to college that fall, I was one of the very few who could actually type, as opposed to quickly hunting and pecking. It was a little bit weird, in that if I was sitting there with my dorm room door open and typing away at an assignment, people would actually poke their heads in to see - apparently the sound of actual typing was rare enough for that.
And not to toot my own horn, but I was more officer cadet material out of high school than enlisted man. So I imagine among that set, being able to actually type was an extremely unusual skill set.
My brother learned how to type in the Army. This was mid '80s, and his MOS was Signal Corp, so he went to Fort Gordon and learned to type really fast. His keyboarding is still really fast.
A co-worker from many years ago told me this story…
As a young enlisted person in the Navy, he was heavyset and his “name” within the squadron was “Fatboy”. One day the commanding officer needed some office work done and the regular person wasn’t available. So he got the job and turned out to be good at it. He could type and had a knack for the paperwork and the CO was pleased.
After a day or two the CO said he was doing a great job and, as my friend told the story, he took the opportunity to ask if he could change his “name”. The CO agreed.
At the next squadron meeting the CO announced, “From now on Jones here will no longer be called Fatboy.”
I went to HS in the late 70’s and no guys took typing except me and one other guy, and that was only because we’d meet girls in the class. I don’t think that regular guys learned much typing until the 90’s when decent computer games started showing up on PC’s, until then regular Joes had Sega, Nintendo and Atari to satisfy their gaming needs. Even after PC games caught on their wasn’t much typing due to controllers, but the keyboard was there.
When the Vietnam draft was held my brother had a low number so he enlisted in the Air Force. He was in journalism school at the time and was a proficient typist. After basic training they made him a reporter. Before his tour of duty was over he was an editor for the McGuire AFB newsletter.
My grandfather enlisted in December 1941. He did his basic training in South Carolina and was picked to be a tail gunner on a B-29 because he was tall and skinny. Approx 46% of WWII tail gunners lost their lives, as it was one of the most vulnerable spots on the aircraft.
When he arrived in London in mid 1942 his squadron was individually asked if they had any typing or bookkeeping skills. My grandfather had spent a year in “business school” after high school learning bookkeeping, typing, short hand, etc. The brass quickly snatched him from his group and put him in a P-38 maintenance crew, running the office because of his office skills. He spent 4 years in London managing that maintenance shop til the war was over.
I took typing class in high in about 1960. It was of benefit in college, and afterwards I was able to type most of my own materials as a weapons officer. It wasn’t until I moved upwards in rank and was assigned a personal civilian secretary - who had a higher civilian service rating than my military rating!
And she was fantastic, compared to the several enlisted types that acted as office personnel for my first few years. (Thanks Carolyn, wherever you may be!)
I had a boss once back in the early aughts that had spent some time in the military. It drove me nuts when he would have to type up a letter or really anything. I described his typing as less like “hunt and peck” and more like “search and rescue.”
The most infuriating thing was for double letters, he would search the keyboard, find the “t”, press it, and then start all over to find the “t” key again.
In 1993, yes, it was true. Remember, however, that the military was predominately made up of men who rarely if ever took any secretarial types of courses or typing courses. Jobs requiring typing were mostly gender specific at that time.
We had a grade six teacher whose husband owned a computer company, a rare thing back then. A wise woman, she arranged for us to take typing classes at a local school. One can learn in a few hours, it is not hard. I can’t imagine spending a full semester listening to the terribly repetitive “music instructions” they used.
I can’t speak for the military, but presume most people involved lack secretarial experience and they could easily teach typing if they wanted to - much easier now with apps and computers for those purposes, though not the same as a typewriter.
Yeah. Everyone gets a nickname, usually for something noteworthy & mildly negative / teasing about you. Or something noteworthy and generally dumb you did that “deserves” to be memorialized.
Unless you ask for a nickname or a nickname change. Then you get shat upon mightily for your temerity.
The most memorable one of those I ever met was “Bobo the Shithead”, or “Bobo” for short. In fairness he was in irritating little twerp. But most folks thought his christening was a wee bit over the top and discreetly ignored the “shithead” part.
What can I say: it was an all-male highly testosterone- & bravado-fueled environment.
Well teaching typing in high school in the 70’s consisted of a couple of things, not just speed and accuracy test (although those were important). The rest was about practicing using business forms and setting your margins to the accepted norm of the times. Groups were formed around a mock office type environment. And it was only for an hour each day for a semester, not really a long enough time to go typewriter crazy.
But really, kids who stuck with it ended up in large office environments that did have typewriters going all day. To me that would have been hell.