Ask A Spook! Cryptologic Questions

[FlyNavy]

Originally Posted by Joribear

My son is currently at RTC and I just received my first personal letter from him. He has a contract for CTR and asked me to find out what he'd be doing as a CTR.

We both realize, of course, due to the classified nature of the CTR that the only way he'll EVER know what he'll be doing is when he's actually doing it. He's just worried that his job will just be sitting at a desk with a computer and headphones on all day.

He's always been an "active" kid - the saying "grass doesn't grow under his toes" definitely fits for him. He originally started his path to the Navy for the Nuke program, but found out at MEPS that he has a tritan color deficiency, so that knocked Nuke out and with a 94 ASVAB, he wasn't about to just do "anything" in the Navy!

Any CTR advise I can give this active young man?

Hey there! So first off, congrats to your son on joining not only the world's finest Navy, but one of the best communities within it! (I might be a little biased there haha)

So CTR's have a ton of versatility in their jobs. You could find yourself anywhere from a ship, shore duty at NSA, aircrew (although that's going away somewhat soon for the most part), special warfare, and even submarines. If the Navy is involved in it, there's a role for CTRs somewhere in it. Suffice to say that really whatever your son wants to get into, there's an opportunity for that.

**Some duties do require you to have completed your first tour however; special warfare being one of them.**

Job duties wise, CTRs are experts in COMINT (COMmunications INTelligence). Now that can take many different forms, so I won't get into the nitty gritty here. But suffice to say that he'll be doing some extremely important stuff in terms of national security work. He should be pretty excited; our community (CT's) are one of the few where you get to make such an important contribution right off the bat.

Let me know if you have specific questions. Or, if either of you want to ask me something directly or just chat I can get you some contact info.

/r
CTT1