The final course on the Morse code at Fort Huacuhca got underway this month.
Staff at the southern Arizona Army base have been teaching the code, which transmits messages through a series of short and long signals, since 1993. Staff there are calling it the end of an era.
The United States military has been using Morse code as a method of communication for more than 150 years. But as communication technology improves, officials say there’s less of a need for wide-range instruction.
"The Army has decided to go to different ways to collect the same type of information," said Joshua Henrichs, a technical sergeant with the U.S. Air Force. "The Air Force has maintained a strategic mission to generally copy it just in case something happens."
But while the need for instruction is shrinking, Henrichs said Morse code will always have a place in the U.S. military.
"It's always going to be out there simply because it’s so cheap and easy and effective and reliable under all sorts of conditions," said David Germain, the chief of Morse code training at Fort Huachuca.
The training is self paced and should wrap up in the next few months. In the future the course will be taught at Goodfellow Air Force Base near San Angelo, Texas.
