"Jon Anderson" wrote in message
. ..
Ed Huntress wrote:

So he (a Marine) wound up instead directing fire from naval guns into the
Japanese lines on Guadalcanal, from 100 yards in front of them.

This likely taught him the value of giving clear and precise
information....

Oh, yeah. It also improved his sprinting skills. Along that line, he would
not use numerals when transmitting coordinates in Morse code, for that very
reason. He spelled them out.

That was not a fun job. He came up out of a trench in Guadalcanal one time,
after working the radios for communications between the ships and the
Marines on the ground, only to learn that during the time he was in the hole
the Japanese had advanced well past him. He spent the night in the reeds of
the Tenaru River, up to his nose, wondering if the crocodiles or the
Japanese would get him first.

--
Ed Huntress