Hello there! I am Meghan Daleiden and I have the privilege of serving as a Lieutenant, O3, in the United States Coast Guard!  When we think about Women’s History Month, one of my favorite stories to share is that of Elizebeth Friedman, the Coast Guard’s first female Cryptanalyst.  In 1924 she was hired by the Federal Prohibition Bureau and assigned duty to the Coast Guard as a codebreaker.  In merely three years of service, she had solved over 12,000 smuggling messages leading to 650 federal prosecutions.  During World War II, as part of Coast Guard Cryptanalytic Unit 378, she continued to break codes created by the German Enigma machine, and her work led to the exposure of a group of German spies in South America (Renfrow, 2021)!  Today, I am incredibly grateful I have the opportunity to see history still being made in the world of codebreaking, working with our Joint Services aboard IWTC CORRY STATION.  We shall keep the decision advantage over our adversaries thanks to Pioneers like Elizebeth Friedman!

References
Renfrow, L. (2021, October 24). Women’s history month: Elizebeth Smith Friedman. Retrieved from Defense Visual Information Distribution Service: https://www.dvidshub.net/news/392226/womens-history-month-elizebeth-smith-friedman