Anyone military remember CEOI's?

[cd228]

When I was in the 82d, pre gwot, using sincgars, all this info was on a device called ANCD (IIRC) a thick black plastic foldy box thing with a radio pig tail hanging out of it. Had a small lcd screen and a couple buttons. It was primarily used to fill the radios but could be gone through to retrieve all of the info you guys are talking about with SOIs. I don't recall how many there were but they weren't plentiful, maybe one per battery/company. I don't know the lineage of this stuff before or after that.

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The SKL is still in service. There are alot of them in the MTOE, but most don't get filled.

[GTF425]

Rumors was that one was lost by a unit in the 82nd

As is tradition.

Strike Hold.

[chuckman]

As is tradition.

Strike Hold.

Marines losing weps enter the chat. Cross thread points.

[Averageman]

I remember the SOI being a thick little book, bout the size of a Smartbook, that the RTO would wear around his neck on 550 cord. This was PRC-77 days, I think.
Rumors was that one was lost by a unit in the 82nd during GW1, and therefore all had to be replaced. Wouldn't have wanted to be that guy.

As is tradition.

Strike Hold.

That's funny.

[Alpha-17]

When I was in the 82d, pre gwot, using sincgars, all this info was on a device called ANCD (IIRC) a thick black plastic foldy box thing with a radio pig tail hanging out of it. Had a small lcd screen and a couple buttons. It was primarily used to fill the radios but could be gone through to retrieve all of the info you guys are talking about with SOIs. I don't recall how many there were but they weren't plentiful, maybe one per battery/company. I don't know the lineage of this stuff before or after that.

Sent from my SM-A546U using Tapatalk

Still had those suckers on my first deployment in '07. After they taught me how not to be a complete newbie, I had to wake up early once a week, fill my truck's radios, and do a commo check with BN. (which, ironically, was just down the hall). Lord, I hated everything to do with radios.

The ANCD was still used as a backup to the SKL (Simple Key Loader). I was in theater when another unit lost an SKL and we had to do an emergency COMSEC change at like 0130, which sucked being out in the middle of BFE and having to do an over the air rekey.

I do not miss being an RTO.

SKLs were a huge upgrade from the ANCD. Much easier, and far less susceptible to just randomly not working.

I also remember having to do a fill change in the early morning hours in Iraq, but thankfully that was while I was on the COP. Just had to wake up enough to go get the new fill, and put it on the radios.

[ABNAK]

You guys mentioning a "fill". Care to elaborate? Is it like a downloadable CEOI that has to be uploaded to individual radios every so often?

[GTF425]

You guys mentioning a "fill". Care to elaborate? Is it like a downloadable CEOI that has to be uploaded to individual radios every so often?

It's the encryption key that's loaded in the radio at a given time. With the ASIP and MBITR, it was common for guys to lose the fill because of dead batteries or taking too long when swapping them out.

As an RTO, one of my responsibilities was downloading new COMSEC keys from the S-6 and loading them into the SKL so I could fill everyone's radios. I'm not a 25-series, so I'm ignorant to any of the more technical details and terminology.