The PRC-77 radio system weighed 13.5 lbs without batteries. The first and most obvious tally in the вЂњyouвЂ™re screwedвЂќ column was the overall weight of the gear radio operators were expected to carry into battle. If you look at all of the things the radio operators were tasked with, it becomes abundantly clear why commo guys werenвЂ™t expected to last long. The life expectancy of a radio operator in the Vietnam War ranged between five to six seconds all the way up to a slightly-more-optimistic thirty seconds, depending on your source. In all fairness, that number was on the more extreme side of estimates. Radio chatter could give your position away, too. To make matters worse, you canвЂ™t really control the volume on those radios since the dial was on the wearerвЂ™s back. During the Vietnam War, the odds were tremendously stacked against radio operations - and that 5-second life expectancy was, for some, a grim reality. That number wasnвЂ™t some outrageous scare tactic.

So, listen up and you might learn something thatвЂ™ll keep you alive.вЂќ The instructor would then calmly tell them, вЂњThatвЂ™s your life expectancy, in seconds, in a firefight. Inevitably, someoneвЂ™s curiosity would win out and theyвЂ™d ask what the big number meant. At the height of the Vietnam War, up-and-coming commo guys who wanted to learn the art of radio operation would walk into a classroom and see a huge number five written on the chalkboard.

Radio sound board operator