Reflections of an Enlisted Radioman Turned Information Professional Officer: Looking Beyond the Horizon

By retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Henry A. Martinez II

I am deeply honored to participate in the CSWO 25th anniversary “Honoring Our Heritage” campaign. My naval journey began in 1986 as an enlisted radioman and continued through my service as a commissioned information professional officer until my retirement in 2018. Across more than 32 years of service, I witnessed one of the most significant transformations in naval communications history: moving from Morse code, flashing lights, teletypes, high-frequency (HF) voice, plain old telephone service (POTS), Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) stations and formal naval message traffic to superhigh-frequency (SHF) satellite communications, tactical data networks, video teleconferencing, enterprise cybersecurity, cloud architecture, mobility systems and modern command-and-control capabilities.

My career guiding principle has always been simple: Look Beyond the Horizon. To me, that means anticipating the next challenge before it becomes a crisis. It means understanding the commander’s intent, tactically maneuvering alternate communication pathways, preserving operational lines of effort, and ensuring the fleet and joint force remain fully connected in denied, degraded, intermittent and limited (DDIL) communications environments.

The Evolution of the Communications Community

When I reflect on my career, I think first of the watch. I think of radio rooms, technical control facilities, signal bridges, communications centers, combat information centers, flag communications suites, network operations centers and expeditionary command posts where Sailors kept the mission moving. Communications were never simply administrative support. Communications were command and control. Communications were combat power. Communications were logistics, intelligence, morale, family connection and operational trust.

I began my Navy career in 1986 at Naval Training Center San Diego, followed by Radioman “A” School. At that time, the radioman rating carried a storied legacy. We trained in HF, ultrahigh frequency (UHF), very high frequency (VHF), teletype operations, formal message formatting, visual signaling, guarded circuits, call signs, authentication protocols, circuit discipline, communications security and emergency casualty control. The equipment mattered, but the communicator mattered more. A proficient radioman had to listen, evaluate, troubleshoot, anticipate and act.

My first operational assignment aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Leahy (CG 16) placed me in a flag-configured communications environment during a period shaped by Cold War operations and the early planning phases preceding Operation Desert Storm. We relied heavily on HF circuits and MARS stations to keep shipboard Sailors connected to home. A brief HF phone patch could sustain a Sailor through months at sea. In those years, communications were manual, procedural and personal. We did not enjoy the bandwidth or connectivity Sailors rely on today; instead, we relied on rigorous training, teamwork, discipline and redundancy. We learned that when one pathway failed, we had to find another.

That lesson guided my entire career. In 1992, I completed Radioman C-7 School and Communications Systems Technical Control School, earning Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC) 2318 and deepening my expertise in technical control, circuit restoration and fleetwide backbone maintenance. From 1992 to 1993, I served aboard the amphibious cargo ship USS El Paso (LKA 117), homeported in Norfolk, Virginia, supporting Operation Restore Hope. During that deployment, I served as an HF MARS station operator and volunteered to help Sailors contact their families. That experience reinforced my conviction that communications professionals serve both operational tasking and the warfighters executing it.

The 1990s brought rapid technological advancement. Personal computers became ubiquitous, local area networks expanded and satellite communications capabilities matured. While formal record message traffic remained critical, email and digital collaboration began shifting operational expectations. Commanders demanded faster distribution, broader reach and near-real-time situational awareness.

In 1994, while serving aboard the aircraft carrier USS Constellation (CV 64), I participated in an operational milestone: the installation of the first SHF communications terminal in the Pacific Fleet area of responsibility. That capability marked a transformative leap in afloat bandwidth and ship-to-shore integration. It also held personal significance: my wife placed the very first off-ship telephone call from home directly to the carrier. That moment captured the heart of naval modernization—it was not merely about hardware or bandwidth, but about operational reach, command capability and human connection.

By 1997, while assigned to Commander, Naval Air Forces Pacific (COMNAVAIRPAC), our community entered a structural transformation. The merger of the radioman and data processing ratings into the information systems technician (IT) rating reflected the service’s growing reliance on digital networking, systems administration and information technology. During that same period, as the world prepared for the Year 2000 (Y2K) transition, we learned that technical evolutions require more than new hardware. They demand sound doctrine, deliberate planning, leadership, rigorous testing, risk management, and technicians who understand both legacy architectures and emerging technologies.

Defining Moments and Leadership Lessons

From 2000 to 2002, I served aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Tarawa (LHA 1). That tour proved to be one of the defining chapters of my naval service. While standing watch in technical control, our team received the urgent distress message from the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole (DDG 67) following the terrorist attack in Aden, Yemen. USS Tarawa immediately served as the primary afloat response and command platform for USS Cole. That crisis underscored the gravity of the communications watch: a signal is never just data on a screen. It can be a distress call, a threat warning, an operational directive or the opening moments of an international crisis. In August 2002, I earned my commission and was pinned an officer aboard USS Tarawa. Transitioning from enlisted radioman to commissioned officer was an immense privilege. I carried my deckplate experience forward into the wardroom. Having stood the watch, managed logs, resolved system casualties and maintained vital circuits under operational pressure, I understood what our operators faced each day.

As a commissioned officer, my scope expanded from hands-on system troubleshooting to operational planning, resource programming, systems integration and broader leadership. Yet the core priorities remained unchanged: support the watch, safeguard the mission and care for our personnel.

From 2002 to 2005, I served aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu (LHA 5). Large-deck amphibious platforms are among the most communication-intensive assets in the fleet. That tour tested our ability to cross-train cyber specialists into radio frequency (RF) disciplines and RF technicians into IP networking. This integrated training established a versatile, fully cross-functional communications team supporting Navy and Marine Corps strike operations, naval aviation, amphibious command and control, embarked staffs, coalition partners, humanitarian assistance and crisis response.

In 2005, following an assignment at Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station (NCTS) San Diego, I deployed as an individual augmentee to Herat, Afghanistan, serving as the NATO communications officer (S-6/G-6) embedded with the Afghan National Army 207th Corps Advisory Group. Afghanistan presented unique operational constraints: mountainous terrain, extreme operating distances, multinational interoperability barriers, power generation limits and elevated physical and operational security postures. That deployment reaffirmed that a communications officer must translate operational requirements into reliable technical realities that advance, rather than constrain, the commander’s intent.

In 2009, I served as officer in charge of Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) Detachment San Diego, enhancing fleet cybersecurity posture and standardizing vulnerability management, software patching policies and network defenses. By that time, cybersecurity had become completely inseparable from traditional communications. Communications personnel were now charged with securing not only circuits and antennas, but also directories, credentials, system configurations, endpoints and tactical mission data.

In 2013, I reported to Carrier Strike Group One as flag communications officer. The strike group commander, Adm. Phil Grady, sought an experienced communications officer with specialized background in DDIL operational environments. That tour allowed me to implement primary, alternate, contingency and emergency (PACE) communications strategies across the strike group.

Because visual communications had diminished across the fleet following the disestablishment of the signalman rating, our team worked deliberately to rebuild strike group-wide proficiency in flashing light, semaphore and Morse code. We qualified quartermasters across all strike group units and validated visual signaling tactics during degraded-environment tactical exercises. That effort embodied the concept of looking beyond the horizon: when modern high-bandwidth networks are jammed, denied or unavailable, the fleet must still communicate. Visual signaling, HF, line-of-sight voice, concise message discipline and manual routing are not obsolete relics—they are the bedrock of operational resilience.

The Enduring Importance of Communications and Information Warfare

In 2017, I served as officer in charge of Naval Information Dominance Forces (NAVIDFOR) San Diego, supporting the Navy’s comprehensive integration of information warfare across the operational fleet. From 2017 to 2018, I completed my final shipboard assignment aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) as combat systems information officer (CSIO). This assignment brought my sea duty full circle, once again leading communications and network architectures supporting naval aviation, amphibious operations and joint task force requirements.

While communications technology had changed beyond recognition since 1986, the fundamental objective had not: connect the fleet, support the commander, secure the information and sustain the warfighter.

Following my naval retirement in 2018, I continued supporting fleet readiness as an afloat cyber training contractor from 2018 to 2021. Since 2021, I have supported communications modernization at Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR). My uniform has changed, but my dedication to the communications mission remains steadfast.

One of my core convictions is that communications always begins at the transport layer. Before enterprise cloud environments, cyber defenses or digital collaboration tools can function, data must move. Without reliable RF, cyber cannot reach the tactical edge. Without resilient transport, command and control falters. Without trained technical specialists, even the most sophisticated systems fail under pressure.

The radioman legacy was defined by communications discipline, deep RF comprehension, strict transmission security, circuit management and absolute mission reliability. As the Navy embraces advanced cyber, zero-trust architectures and cloud computing, it must preserve the foundational RF and spectrum management knowledge that guarantees connectivity in contested environments.

Future communications and combat systems warfighting officers must bridge both worlds. They must understand cloud architecture, artificial intelligence, data fabric strategies and enterprise networks, while mastering RF propagation, satellite links, electromagnetic spectrum operations, cryptographic key management, line-of-sight systems, visual signaling and communications security.

Surface warfare commanders rely on technical communications officers and senior technicians—including limited duty officers (LDOs) and chief warrant officers (CWOs)—to maintain and optimize complex RF transmitters, receivers, cryptographic devices and C4I architectures. These subject-matter experts mitigate jamming, allocate satellite access, oversee maintenance availabilities, direct casualty restoration and bridge the gap between technical operators and tactical commanders. That capability is vital to combat readiness.

The Legacy and Future of the CSWO Community

The CSWO community stands on the shoulders of generations of radiomen, signalmen, communications technicians, information systems technicians, cryptologists, information professionals, cyber warfare engineers, LDOs, CWOs and dedicated watchstanders who kept the fleet connected.

The future operating environment will demand even greater agility. Communications will face persistent contestation across space, cyberspace, the electromagnetic spectrum, subsea domains, expeditionary nodes and coalition networks. Emerging capabilities—including artificial intelligence, edge computing, resilient low-Earth-orbit satellite constellations and unmanned architectures—will continue to transform naval warfare.

Yet technology alone will not secure victory. People will.

The fleet will always require disciplined watchstanders. Commanders will always depend on verified information. Warfighters will always require survivable communications in austere, contested environments.

Our heritage is not merely that we adopted new technology; it is that we held the watch through every operational era. From flashing light to laser communications, from manual teletypes to distributed cloud networks, and from paper logs to real-time cyber monitoring, our community has consistently adapted to fulfill one enduring purpose: deliver actionable information securely, reliably and decisively.

Looking back across 32 years of service, I see more than a career. I see a bridge between eras. I entered a Navy reliant on HF, UHF, signal lamps, teletypes and manual discipline; I retired from a fleet powered by high-throughput satellite constellations, integrated IP networks, cyber defense platforms and global command-and-control architectures.

To the next generation of CSWOs and communications professionals: master your fundamentals, respect the sanctity of the watch, understand the commander’s operational intent, defend the network, and care for your Sailors. Most importantly, always look beyond the horizon.

25th Anniversary “Honoring Our Heritage” Campaign

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