Prepared by Op-20G Committee for Board of Awards and
forwarded as Enclosure to CNC TOP SECRET Serial 0005P20.
Captain Joseph N. Wenger was assigned to the Communications Intelligence Organization February 15, 1942 as technical director of OP-20-G. In this capacity he was responsible for the technical organization and direction of all the productive work of the Organization; which at that time included several units (intercept and cryptanalytic) dispersed well over the world and a cooperative arrangement with the British government who were also operating in dispersed units.

Captain Wenger proceeded to weld these units into an efficient whole by (1) coordinating the tasks of each (2) establishing rapid communication facilities for the exclusive use of the C.I. organization (3) negotiating working agreements with the Army and cooperating Allies (4) obtaining the necessary high command support to achieve adequate personnel and facilities to accomplish the mission of the organization and (5) assigning definite responsibilities to each unit in a manner which produced optimum use of available skills and facilities.
On November 2, 1944 Captain Wenger became Assistant Chief of Naval Communications for Communication Intelligence (Op-20-G), and as such was in responsible charge of all U.S. Naval C.I. activities. Further reorganization of the Communication Intelligence Organization followed which divorced the Washington productive activities from the staff activities. In this newly created position Captain Wenger was able to bring his overall plan to complete maturity.
But his total accomplishment was not limited to organizational and administrative responsibilities. He originated and developed basic techniques and principles which proved to be the foundation for the success of the mission. Illustrations in this connection are:
- Conception, preparation and implementation of the world wide coordinated war organization of C.I. activities.
- Conception, preparation and implementation of war operating plan for C.I. organization.
- Basic techniques for mechanical decode of intercepted messages.
- Basic techniques used in traffic analysis.
- Creation, implementation and maintenance of the C.I. research group.
- Initiation of the project for the development and application of electronic analytic equipment for cryptanalytic purposes.
- Initiation of project for the development of Bombes.
- Service as head of a committee of three responsible for planning, organizing and directing the Bombe project.
- Conception and general features of the C.I. rapid communications system.
- Application of ionosphere and wave propagation principles to intercept operation.
- Conception of, and initiations of action to create, Army-Navy combined Communication Intelligence Committee and Army-Navy combined Communication Intelligence Board for Army-Navy coordination in this field.
- Establishment and maintenance of central collateral file for C.I. purposes.
- Reorganization of Atlantic D/F Communication system which resulted in greatly increasing the speed of efficiency of strategic D/F nets so they could be operated on a tactical basis.
- Initiation and maintenance of performance studies which resulted in improving efficiency of C.I. operations.
- Establishment of central intelligence file and development of general features of C.I. collation system.
- Initiation and drafting of U.S. Navy C.I. security regulations.
It is the considered opinion of the senior officers in Communications Intelligence that the achievements of the C.I. Organization are directly attributable to the technical ability, judgement and leadership of Captain Wenger and that no other officer in the Navy could have filled this complex billet so ably.
Source: COMINT in WWII & Information Technology
13 January 2022 at 03:55
I truly hope that awarding the Distinguished Service Medal to Captain, later Rear Admiral Joseph Wenger was not intended to imply his predecessor, Captain L.F. Safford, was any less efficient and dedicated to the work OP-20-G did in the period leading up to Safford’s requested relief. Quite frankly, I believe Safford was one of the Navy’s all-time greats. I read this blog entry earlier today and decided to think about it prior to replying to it. I have and almost certainly always will have tremendous respect for ALL of the U.S. Navy’s communications intelligence personnel going into and all throughout World War II.
It is probably best if I leave my comments on the DSM information listed here about Rear Admiral Wenger at what I’ve written above. I’ve no doubt Wenger did a fabulous job. I’ve no doubt the two “Redman brothers” also did a fabulous job. And, above all, I’ve no doubt Captain L.F. Safford did a superb job and provided a great example to all of the men and women who served under him.
You’re doing a fabulous job, Mario, with the Station HYPO blog! Please don’t let my suspicious nature (based on a long study of various elements in the Pearl Harbor story) imply any lack of trust in you and your counterparts. I guess it’s foolish of me to think the larger intelligence community would ever provide a public admission to what our leaders knew prior to 7 December 1941 as we’ve all seen happen in every Perry Mason TV episode ever recorded!
No Nathan Jessup’s exist except in the mind of Rob Reiner (who, I suspect, probably hates the U.S. military and most if not all who serve and have served in it).
Obviously, I should have taken my own advice and not said anything else, but, I need to let off a little steam!
Andy McKane, Maunaloa, Hawaii (1754, local time), Wednesday, 12 January 2022.
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