Stories From Under A Bootheel (Rants, Laughs, and Tears)

Bonus Chapter Part 2 The AN/4Q2

The civilian work force tolerated the military contingent who were there to give a semblance of being in charge and monitoring operations. Junior military engineers such as myself were given the less critical jobs that none of the civilians wanted or needed to advance their careers.

They tried to assign me the responsibility of turning on the coffee pot in the morning which no doubt many of them did consider a highly critical task. I let them know I would not be doing that as I didn't drink coffee and I was there to do engineering and not to fix their morning coffee.

The first assignment I was brought was a procurement package for the AN/4Q2. It was to be reviewed for its suitability from an engineering perspective to be released for a competitive procurement. This meant going over all the specifications and attached engineering drawings to make sure the item was completely and correctly specified sufficiently for procurement purposes.

If you are wondering what an AN/4Q2 is, well, so was I. The "AN" meant this was a joint Army and Navy designator in the Joint Army-Navy Nomenclature System.

This nomenclature system was developed by the U.S. War Department during World War II for assigning an unclassified designator to electronic equipment. The "AN" was always followed by three letters followed by a number. The first letter would identify the type of installation e.g. "A" for piloted aircraft, "B" for underwater mobile, "G" for ground general. There were fifteen possible letter designations for various installation types but no number designations. So, the "4" made no sense.

The second letter should identify the type of equipment. For example, a "B" in the second position would designate a carrier pigeon. There was a letter for everything. The "Q" in "4Q2" should designate sonar equipment. We were not responsible for any sonar equipment. So that was also a problem.

The third letter should designate the system's purpose. Again, only letters and no numbers were used in this position. A "B" in this position would designate bombing as the purpose. The "2" could not designate a purpose. It could possibly indicate the specific system as that was the purpose of any number following the three letter specifiers. So, you could have something like an "AN/BBB2" which would be a mobile underwater bombing pigeon which although ridiculous would at least conform to the nomenclature rules, but "AN/4Q2" did not conform and made absolutely no sense.  

I was stumped. I began reviewing the specs and drawings for any clue as to what this system was about and they were even more baffling as if some one was deliberately trying to confuse the issue. I leaned back in my chair closed my eyes and kept repeating, "four Q two, four Q two, four Q two." It finally dawned on me. I took the package back to the engineer who had given it to me, threw it on his desk and yelled, "Fork you too, you SOB!" At that point every engineer in the section was laughing. I did get praised for figuring it out faster than most had. Apparently, this particular assignment was a rite of passage for new engineers.