Radio Operator-Maintainer (31C): Learn and connect on RallyPoint

Supervise, install, operate, and perform preventive maintenance checks and services (PMCS) and unit level maintenance on assigned amplitude modulation (AM) radios, Enhanced Position Locating and Reporting System (EPLRS) net control stations, radio teletypewriter assemblages, and Army Special Operations communications systems, to include COMSEC devices and associated equipment. Operates manual or automated communications systems. Operates and performs PMCS on assigned vehicles and power generators.

Radio communication played a vital role for all combatants during World War I, although, in the era before mechanization, Army transportation still largely depended on mules and horses. In the 1906 Manual of Wireless Telegraphy by A. Frederick Collins, the Clark Portable Army Set sections reviewed "apparatus as compact and portable as possible so that it may be transported on the backs of mules", and in the 1911 edition of Drill Regulations for Field Companies of the Signal Corps (Provisional), the two main radio field units were the Pack Set, carried by a "section normally composed of 10 mounted men and 4 pack mules", and the Wagon Set, whose "section is normally composed of 18 mounted men, the wagoner and engineer, who ride on the wagon, and one wagon wireless set, drawn by 4 mules". In the November, 1911 Sunset Magazine, Louis J. Stellmann's War as a Modern Science reviewed the use of an early radiotelephone system by the Coast Artillery Corps of the California National Guard, operating at the Presidio in San Francisco. The October, 1916 edition of the United States Signal Corps' Radiotelegraphy manual reviewed advances in Pack and Wagon Set designs, including the adoption of quenched spark transmitters, and the reduction, by one, of the number of mules needed to carry a Field Pack set. Also included was a short section on the beginnings of mechanization, with development of transmitters carried by automobiles, plus information on an early form of spread spectrum transmission. After the entrance of the United States into the war, U.S. Signal Corps Radio Outfit in France, from the September, 1918 Electrical Experimenter, reported on field units deployed on the battlefield.

Qualifications and Prerequisites

ASVAB Minimum Score:  100 total in VE+AR+AS+MC and 100 total in GS+AR+MK+EI

Other Qualifications: 

- A security clearance of SECRET.

- Ability to clearly enunciate English.

- A U.S. citizen.

- The ability to type 25 WPM.

Learn a lot about Communications and Electronics (C&E), which are very valuable skills when transferring to civilian life.

This is definitely a field MOS. Be prepared to spend time on the go.

As long as you meet the qualifications, cited above in the "Qualifications for this career field" section, transferring into this MOS is not too difficult. However, cutoff scores for this MOS are higher than most field positions.