Station HYPO

Although the first class of On the Roof Gang (OTRG) convened on 1 October 1928, the story actually started in 1921, when the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) covertly acquired a photographic copy of the “Imperial Japanese Navy Secret Operating Code-1918.”  The code was in essence a dictionary containing a hundred thousand entries, and it took five years to translate.  There were only two Japanese linguists available, and there was no urgency or incentive to complete the project.  After all, having a code book is of no great advantage if one does not have access to messages being encoded in that code.

U.S. Naval Security Group Activity (NSGA) Northwest was commissioned on October 1, 1975 and closed on September 30, 2001.

Thanks to the work of Matt Zullo, CTICM (Ret.), Chief Kidder was inducted into the Cryptologic Hall of Honor! The induction ceremony took place on November 4, 2019 at the National Security Agency.

“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”
~ Joseph Campbell

For the men and women stationed at the U.S. Naval Security Group’s Kamiseya, Japan, listening post, September 23, 1965, had been an all too typical day. The weather had been a comfortable 75 degrees with bright sunshine. Back in the United States, President Lyndon Baines Johnson occupied the Oval Office and the number one song, typical of the times, was Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction.” In Vietnam, U.S. forces were ramping up for operations in the Ia Drang Valley and the onset of “Operation Rolling Thunder.” Sunset that day occurred at 1743. At the time, portions of the base personnel were coming off duty and heading for the dining hall, others were gearing up to report for duty. There was no hint or suspicion that the night and following day would be anything but routine.

The statement is not intended to diminish the significant contributions of the many locations and individuals who laid the foundation for Naval Cryptology long before Corry Station opened its doors.