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CHIPS Articles: The Changing Technology of Naval Messages Send to Kindle
The Changing Technology of Naval Messages A look at more than 150 years of naval message history After more than a century, naval messages featuring all capital letters met their demise in a most unassuming way. On May 8, 2013, then Chief of Naval Personnel, Vice Adm. Scott Van Buskirk, distributed a policy directive regarding the use of “all-caps” that unequivocally stated: “Therefore, it is not necessary to limit Navy messages entirely to uppercase.” Oddly enough, the statement actually looked like this: “THEREFORE, IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO LIMIT NAVY MESSAGES ENTIRELY TO UPPER CASE.” (Perhaps one last hurrah for uppercase naval messages was in order.) An essential part of the Navy’s communication suite, naval messages have long been the most popular way to communicate with the fleet and its operatives. The distraction of all capital letters aside, messages are designed to efficiently communicate important directives, policies, and issues in accordance with speed of service objectives. “Speed of service” objectives determine the precedence of the message — flash, immediate, priority or routine. A message designated as flash must go out within 10 minutes, while immediate is 30 minutes, priority is three hours and routine is six hours; depending on the speed of service selected, the format of the message is designated as operational, service or administration. The long-held tradition of all-caps for naval messages came into play when the Navy embraced the use of teletype machines in the 19th century. The Navy would go on to have a long-lasting relationship with teletype, and as a result, uppercase communications would continue to be issued for the next 160 years. Teletype: An Enduring Part of Naval History The history of teletype begins with the teleprinter. Teleprinters evolved through a series of inventions by a number of engineers, including Royal Earl House, David