Collection of US Navy Training Courses Developed | Hacker News Reader

Collection of US Navy Training Courses Developed

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113 pointsstmw24 comments

I don't see any Inside Machinist books. Also there was a heat treating book from C school.

I still have my Machinery Repairman 3&2 book and have used it to train new people. It is very practical. Just like the "A" School was,

OK more missing. Locksmithing and Engraving as well as Instrumentman(IM).

Nothing on optical stuff (R-Division periscopes) and no Torpedo Man 3&2 (TM)

Very surprised to see the Hydraulic stuff... That reminds me. Engineman books???

All the boatswain books from coxswain to engineman.

Nice to see this old stuff preserved. It is learned knowledge.

Not surprised that Damage Controlman books are missing.

Are the Damage Controlman books sensitive or something?

Damn, that would have been so interesting. I've had a few Wikipedia binges about naval battles, so I remember stories about damage control and how incredibly good the US Navy became at doing it. Seems like an interesting mix of engineering and action film type excitement.

I think they all got water damaged.

Please, defer from adding noise to the discussion by making random jokes

No, they are available and damage control is widely taught to mariners worldwide. Many of the schools (academy) in the US rely on the old materials and Navy training clips from the archives

I could see some sensitivity there. How to save a sinking ship is learned knowledge. We are pretty good at it.

The US Navy had this great video on principles of mechanical computers. Using cams and gears to compute functions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwf5mAlI7Ug

Yeah you might think because they're a government organization they could never produce a good motion picture.

I have a very high opinion of the Navy. Well I doubt that I do compared to reality, but I know that I do compared to the media. According to Daniel Cussen, the Navy stays above the waterline at all times. Maybe sometimes it's close to the waterline but never does it drown. Other organizations go farther above that line, but they sink below it other times.

Now, perhaps if you see it as average distance above the waterline you can construct an argument that it's therefore better than the Navy.

No, because the Navy doesn't drown.

I don't care how high you float, the only real question is if you never drown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OERZBoUfHY8

"MODERN PAVING TECHNIQUES W/ ASBESTOS FIBER " 1960s JOHNS-MANVILLE HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION FILM 99054

yumm

As a former Navy Electronics Technician, I think some of these books are exceedingly well written and a wonderful resource.

Easiest way to trigger an ET? Tell them it’s pronounced “mil-tim-it-er”

I was an OS in the Navy and The American Practical Navigator: Bowditch is a fantastic reference.

I love Navy, and Army, training courses. They even have one on Watchmaking, or Watch Repair. They use a pocket watch, and a Elgin wrist watch, and completely Service both of them.

I wish more textbooks were written like this.

If I was a publisher, I would demand my technical writers lay out what they are trying to convey in a simple straight forward manner.

Hell--I see nothing wrong with using comic book format in order to convey knowledge.

My biggest gripe in college was being given a overly verbose "phone book" from the 80's for a course.

Where are the new texts though?

The arm forces must still have texts they write, but I don't see them on the internet?

I'm assuming there's no copyrights because we pay for the teaching material through taxes?

I'm specifically looking for new texts of Electronics, HVAC, Auto mechanics, Watch Repair, but that one might not be needed anymore, Machining, Programming, Computer repairing, Radio Repair, etc.

(I haven't looked that hard.)

The breadth of topics of WW2 field manuals and technical manuals is staggering. One of the manuals is essentially a list of other manuals, and there are a lot of them.

At least one manual has a reading level similar to "See Jane run", because of course they'd have had some soldiers being drafted who read at that level.

Books designed to actually impart knowledge are rare. Modern publishing is about spine size so a ton of filler.

So on the one hand I agree but equally these style of books can be extremely long winded and imprecise. It's the difference between training radio operators and training RF engineers.

I actually am building a little website for finding a balance between the two styles of writing, but it's really hard to get right.

Can you already share a link to your work in progress? Could be interesting to have a look at it.

Currently I haven't pushed literally anything but it will likely be hosted at lrsc.io.

I assume training follows with field repairs necessary to keep equipment running. With the miniaturization of tech, no one is going to be replacing chips or wires on boards, just swap the whole board with a spare.

Depends, because if you got the single components you can use them to repair multiple boards, while if you go the spare way you need to keep some spares for each specific board. So I think it's debatable whether the spare way is actually a better way or not. Maybe the best way would be a mix of the two: use a spare to be able to quickly repair the equipment but then later take the time to find out the single component that broke and replace it so the old board becomes a spare one. This way you can avoid having stacks of spares and you still have quick repairs.

As of 12 years ago, the CG was still using what looks to be the exact same basic electricity book (with the purple cover). I absolutely love that book and it really helped me understand electrical fundamentals.

navy ET was not worth the work...electronics tech changes too fast...MM & EM knowledge is worth more because it stays more or less the same

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