In 1943 I was working for the War Manpower Commission teaching electronics having just graduated from the Massachusetts Radio School in Boston which was the teaching school for Pan American Airways. Deferred from the draft, I saw all my friends going into service and volunteered for induction at Ft Devens on May 6, 1943 and was assigned to the Signal Corps School at Ft Monmouth, NJ, for a 12-week course and then sent to Camp Edison, Sea Girt, NJ, for basic training.

Following basic training, I was transferred to the 3104th Signal Service Battalion and assigned to a Submarine Cable Team. There followed a period of special training in New York done in the utmost secrecy because of the sensitivity of the transatlantic cable. There were two teams with 12 enlisted men and 1 officer on each team. Eight of the men were operators and four were technicians. Since the work was highly secret, the teams were required to stay together as much as possible with minimal contact with other members of the battalion.

The Operators sent and received a special type of Morse Code that could be transmitted over the long underwater cable. The signal had to overcome large resistance and capacity and so it was designed to appear as an ink line on a moving roll of paper on a special device called a "Direct Writer". These lines were translated by the operators and transferred to typewritten copy.

The Technicians maintained and repaired the Direct Writer. The tubes had to be hand made and custom installed. Part of the training included an inspection of the land terminus of the cable coming in from England.

Upon arrival in Normandy with the battalion, we found that the undersea cable had been cut and couldn’t be recovered, so all our training went down the drain and the team was assigned to other duties. Eventually the operators were assigned as teletype operators at the Le Mans Message Center and the technicians became telephone/teletype carrier maintenance personnel.

When the war ended, the Sub Cable Team from Le Mans was shipped to Reims and attached to SHAEF. The operators were assigned to the message center in downtown Reims near the Cathedral. The technicians were assigned various duties, and I was put in charge of a radio transmitter located in a blockhouse on the grounds opposite the Pomery champagne plant. I also assisted in the installation of an Armed Forces Network radio station, installing control rooms, studios, and a powerful Broadcast Band Transmitter.

After VE Day all our personnel rejoined the 3104th battalion for travel to the Arles Staging Area and shipped out of Marsailles for Japan, landing instead in Boston. To my great surprise I saw my cousin in the crowd on the dock as we landed. After a brief leave at home I rejoined the 3104th at Camp Crowder, MO, and was separated from the service on December 8, 1945.