When was ASMA actually introduced?
I don't know for sure, but probably 1980ish. Corporate did cause the roll-out to be accelerated and amended, units directly involved moved up the list very quickly. The link to ASI was invaluable. I cannot recall seeing any ASMA afloat until around 1984. The first attempts were none too reliable, but it improved rapidly after that.
By secret squirrel I was really 'abusing' station ops as a whole as the operational units had no direct access.
There really wasn't a need for squadron level access to ASMA and to provide it would have brought in a whole host of problems that it would not have been cost effective to address. Anyway, thrusting young flight commanders could cause enough mayhem with a direct dial telephone, giving them unsupervised access to a secure rapid comms system would have been a recipe for disaster!
YS