When I joined the Navy in 59 I was already well beyond 30 wpm between the ears but only pertinent items made it to paper. Only girls knew how to type

After 7 months of ET School I got sea duty on an old WW2 Fleet Oiler, AO-109; tanker to you land lubbers. The ET shack was in Emergency Radio which had a full set of LF and HF gear but no Radiomen assigned in normal times.
I was also a regular in Radio Central doing Service and PM's so got to know that crew. One day Im listening to some CW traffic that gave us a change of our next port of call and I said WOW rather loud. Heads turned and the Chief RM glared at me with a "you can copy that" comment. All RM's had at least a Secret Clearance which I soon got and later a TS Crypto when the all new digital gear arrived that was a service nightmare requiring several reliability improvements. PLUS the ancient Model 15 and 19 RTTY's fell apart at the now required 100 wpm and it took weeks to get 28KSR/ASR's delivered which never failed. Special frequencies were set aside for the 15/19's that were restored to 60 wpm.
Bottom line was I volunteered to sit radio watches to relieve at sea boredom between refueling and sporadic service/PM work. First I had to learn how to use the "mill" and then demonstrate CW with a USN straight key which I wasnt that good at for 15 wpm. I told the RM Chief I only used a bug, aka Speed Key, and demonstrated with the Chiefs own. We soon had a contest going which was called a tie at 30 wpm; the Chief knew I had him at anything faster
I also tuned the RM's to the ARRL code practice times and frequencies.
Soon I had my own Vibroplex Presentation delivered from home (a 16th birthday gift) which the Chief fell in love with all the chrome and gold plate. I still have it but unused for about 25 years since my KC Keyer crapped out and had to order parts. That was not pretty CW for a few days!
The big bonus was that I didnt have to stand any more fueling station duties or later Shore Patrol when I made ETR3. The R stood for Radar which was only a fraction of the electronics on that ship while N stood for Communications.
The next step was high speed nets, any approved speed key only, and 5 character crypto groups. And I also helped train lower rated RM's during daytime watches to get up to speed and do some of the PM's they were required to do.
On the 7th day God rested.. Carl took over.
Carl has a mug of nails instead of coffee in the morning.
Carl once shot an enemy plane down with his finger by sending BANG at 30 WPM on a bug.