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Eliminating IMC from the 18E course was being discusssed when I was NCOIC of ITD and SF Development Branch at SWC in the early '90s, and all of us fought it the best we could, but then some time after I retired ('95) it happened anyway. Then last weekend Jack Tobin, current SFA Pres, told me that a version of the Cornish system (remember that?) is going to be re-introduced, and IMC will be an additional skill identifier for 18Es, maybe with some extra pay to go with proficiency. I dont know the truth of that (after all, Jack Tobin told me, and he . . . ), but hope it happens.
IMC is one of those skills every radio operator ought to maintain, for those times when all that other fancy shit doesn't work. I can remember times when I heard the DMDG signal loud and clear and not a thing got recorded, but at the time, fortunately, the DMDG burst was followed by IMC, and if I could hear it AT ALL, I could copy it. But then I'm a FOG, and my first radio was an AN/GRC-109, along with the AN/GRC-87. Many times I've had RF burns on my fingers from touching the end of the feed line while tuning the 109 xmtr. I'm sure all you old 05Bs remember that.
Maybe I should try and get retroactive pay for all those years I copied IMC. Could be a maybe?
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