After we wre assigned our quarters in one of the three or four barracks lined up on the road, we quickly settled into the routine of the base. I was disappointed that our little quartet was separated and sent to different barracks, but we saw each other in training and there were plenty of opportunities to socialize in the theatre, library or recreational hall. We started our training immediately, and I remember developoing a certain fondness for the big IBM machines, each with a placard attached which admonished us to THINK. With the exception of the sorter, the guiding force of each machine was a wiring board. A large, heavy frame with various wires plugged into a grid, the wiring board could be altered to conform to whatever direction the operator wished to follow.
To my vast surprise, i actually learned to wire the board. I had expected to be somewhat retarded since I had done so poorly in the mechanics aptitude test, but I think I only trained for a couple of weeks before i got my own unit and went to work.
It was none too soon. The training was done in the daytime, and I had been assigned to a barracks where everyone worked from midnight to eight in the morning. The "Graveyard" shift. It didn't lend itself to any kind of restful sleep. But as soon as I started to work, I fit right in.
In some convoluted twist of judgment from the powers that be, we worked rotating shifts, one week to a shift. We never got used to any one sleeping pattern, and wandered through the days half asleep and out of sync. The machines were kept going twenty-four hours a day and were only shut down when the punch cards jammed up and the reproducer or collator had to be dismantled and the damaged cards removed. No one needed to worry about any hanky-panky going on. We were so tired we couldn't have hanky-panked if we had wanted to.
From the point of view of the men, this was an ideal assignment. From the vantage point of our guarded and secure position, they could follow the progress of the war, safe from combat on the beaches of Iwo Jima and the hedges of Normandy and Germany. Everything was provided for us, from food, shelter and clothing, to recreation and stimulation. There was a theater, mess hall, recreation room, base exchange - we never felt the need to go off base, which of course we couldn't do, anyway. Periodically, we were called to assembly and told how important we were to the war effort. As I said, this was an ideal assignment.