The steel decks of the battleship USS NEW MEXICO trembled beneath the thunder of war. Across the blood-soaked waters off Okinawa in the spring of 1945, death came screaming from the sky in the form of Japanese kamikaze aircraft—pilots on one-way missions of destruction. Amid the chaos, deep within the nerve center of Admiral Spruance’s flagship, one young American Sailor listened intently to the enemy.
Continue reading “Remembering RM1c Walter L. Rougeux, Katakana Intercept Operator, KIA”
On March 25, 1985, the Naval Security Group Activity Misawa, Japan lost one of its most valuable members, and Misawa Air Base lost a trusted and respected pillar in the base community – Master Chief Petty Officer Robert E. Hall, United States Navy – our Command Master Chief. He died of an apparent heart attack.
Continue reading “Remembering NSGA Misawa’s Command Master Chief (CTTCM) Robert E Hall”
On May 8, 1942, USS Lexington (CV-2) was scuttled after being crippled by Japanese torpedoes and bombs during the Battle of the Coral Sea. After slipping beneath the waves, the carrier would not been seen again until March 2018 when the wreck was located by Paul Allen’s team.
CLASS WIZARD: Letter of congratulations from President Ronald Reagan to the members of the Naval Security Group Command via RADM McFarland, Commander Naval Security Group.
Classic Wizard was a tactical ocean, surveillance information processing and reporting system operated by the Naval Security Group Command (NSG) starting in 1976 and continuing for more than two decades. Elements of the NSG operated five classic wizard regional reporting centers (RRC) including the northern Pacific RRC at the Naval Security Group Activity Adak Alaska; the Atlantic RRC at the Naval Security Group Winter Harbor, Maine; the European RRC at the Naval Security Group Activity Edzell Scotland the Western Pacific RRC at the Naval Communications Area Master Station Pacific located on the island of Guam in the Marina‘s Islands; and the Indian Ocean RRC at the Naval Communications Station (later, Naval Computer and Telecommunication Station) Diego Garcia, located on the island of Diego Garcia Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. Chief of Naval Operations established and promulgated policy concerning direct reporting by RRC‘s to the U.S. Navy commands afloat and assure and authorize direct reporting tasking from Commander U.S. Pacific Fleet (Adak, Guam, Diego); Commander U.S. Atlantic fleet (Winter Harbor); and Commander U. S. Naval Forces Europe ( Edzell).
The signal success of the Oxford [redacted] during the Cuban Missile Crisis resulted in a boom in the Technical Research Ship (TRS) program. NSA’s long-term TRS program included [redacted]. Military Sea Transport Service (MSTS) charters and five of the larger Oxford-class Liberty ships. The Navy had an even more grandiose plan to build a TRS fleet from the keel up, at a cost of $35 million per vessel. They would have a cruising speed of at least twenty knots. But despite the giddy success of the Oxford, the numbers did not add up. For instance, it cost $13.5 million to convert a Liberty ship into an Oxford-class vessel, but only $3.3 million to redo a Valdez class MSTS ship. DoD was strapped for cash for the Vietnam buildup, and this kind of floating SIGINT platform, logical in theory, fell victim to the budget axe.
Continue reading “Naval SIGINT Ships”
Station HYPO 