"[1] Italian inventor and electrical engineer Guglielmo Marconi demonstrated Morse-code radio communication to the U.S. Navy in late 1899; two years later the decision was made to adopt his technology.
At that time, Chief Electricians James H. Bell and William C. Bean were sent to Europe to examine available equipment and its operation and maintenance, thereby becoming the first radio technicians in the U.S. Navy.
[3] Stemming from the time when Navy communications were by flag signals and Ardois night-lights, radio equipment was operated by personnel with a Petty officer rating of Quartermaster.
The Navy had no formal schools in radio communications; personnel attained the necessary knowledge through self-study and on-the-job training (called "striking for rate"[4]).
[5] In 1921, twenty years after the Navy began using radio communications, the Petty-officer ratings of Radioman and Electrician's Mate were finally adopted.
With the entry of the United States into World War I, the student body grew exponentially, necessitating the move to a more suitable location.
Downtime was spent on excursions around the Boston region as well as socializing with local Cambridge residents in organized settings[9] as well as spontaneously,[10][11] and occasionally on a romantic basis.
The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) opened in July 1923, initially with a five-building campus on the east bank of the Potomac River at Bellevue in the District of Columbia.
Lecture topics included advanced algebra, trigonometry, the slide rule, electrical and electronic circuits, communication receivers and transmitters, antennas, and servomechanisms.
Navy students normally held a Petty-officer rating as a Radioman or Electrician's Mate, and the top graduates were often promoted to Chief Petty Officer.
A three-month Primary segment covered mathematics, the slide rule, and introductory electric and electronic circuits; about half the time was spent in laboratories and fabrication shops.
Such volunteers, after Recruit training (Boot Camp), would be entered into the RMS as a 3rd- or 2nd-class Petty Officer Radioman and without having to pass the admission examination.
[26] To provide a major increase in training, BuPers directed that another school be opened on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay.
[27] At the same time that the RMS-Treasure Island was being planned, the Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer) started the development of a totally new training program, the Airborne Radio Materiel School (ARMS).
Sidney R. Stock, who had earlier founded a university radio and aviation program, was recruited as a Lieutenant Commander to organize this school.
[28] With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into World War II, the Navy had a crisis concerning maintenance of electronic equipment.
Huge numbers of new ships, submarines, and aircraft were under production or in planning, all loaded with the latest electronics, but, for their vital maintenance, only a few hundred qualified technicians were available or being trained.
On 8 December 1941, William C. Eddy, a medically retired Navy Lieutenant who had earlier started a submarine electronics school, joined the committee and quickly became its leader.