10 May 1986 – 20 September 2008
Continue reading “Remembering CTM3 Matthew J. O’Bryant — KIA in Islamabad, Pakistan, during the terrorist bombing of the Marriott Hotel.”
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”
PIRAZ (Positive Identification Radar Advisory Zone), more commonly known by the callsign “RED CROWN,” was the most important station given to ships of the Cruiser/Destroyer force and was responsible for control of Navy airstrikes against North Vietnam. RED CROWN frequently controlled Air Force strike packages as well, and many USAF pilots preferred working with RED CROWN, a testament to the professionalism of whatever ship was assigned such duties.
Continue reading “PIRAZ “RED CROWN””
Herbert Osborn Yardley was born on April 13, 1889 in Worthington, Indiana. He learned telegraphy from his father, Robert Kirkbride Yardley, a railroad station master and telegrapher. His mother, Mary Emma Osborn Yardley, passed away when he was 13.
Continue reading “Remembering Herbert Osborn Yardley, an American cryptologist”
This is a recorded of an interview with Captain Wilford J. Holmes, USN Retired, otherwise known as Jasper Holmes. The interviewers are Hank Shorik, NSA Historian and Ray Schmidt, NSG Historian. The date is 13 September 1977.
Many Naval Security Group personnel who served during the Vietnam Era are familiar with PIRAZ station – the Primary Identification Radar Advisory Zone established in the Gulf of Tonkin (GOT) in 1966 to track hostile and friendly air traffic over North Vietnam and the GOT. PIRAZ was continuously manned from its inception until after the cessation of hostilities and the return of the POWs from Hanoi in 1973. Since any ship assigned PIRAZ duties (most were cruisers or DLGs) had a NAVSECGRU detachment, quite a few CTs earned membership in the “Gulf of Tonkin Yacht Club.”
Continue reading “Peacetime Aerial Reconnaissance Program Station (PIRAZ)”
Station HYPO 