hotei said:
Great post and good luck in the trade.
With 20+ years as a rubberhead (now retired) I can give you the definitive history of the term. Not many people know it, as the cause of the nickname is long gone. Your PPCLI friend is way off... the expression goes back far before computer screens were common in our vehicles and stations. Rubberhead is a reference to the very big earphones (more like headphones) that the guys used to wear on the out-stations. With 10-25 operators all pounding on keyboards and cursing and swearing at ghosts, it was imperative that their headphones could block out some of the noises around them, as they concentrated on the faintest pieces of static - trying to glean something useful. These BIG rubber headphones led to other trades (techs/support) calling the operators 'rubberheads.' Those days are long gone (preceded my entry in the late eighties), but the name has stuck around.
You'll learn to think of it as an affectionate term - unless its from an Int Op, in which case it is probably meant to be sarcastic (I say that with 20 years of respect for Int Ops); and now you know its meaning. Good luck in the Comm Rsch world, you'll have your trials and tribulations, and find that the trade is going through its issues with high turnover of leadership (as per the rest of the CF) - but in the end, it is a great career.
