The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL posthumously to CAPTAIN Joseph J. Rochefort, United States Navy, for services set forth in the following citation: For exceptionally meritorious service…while serving…as Officer in Charge of the Combat Intelligence Unit (Station HYPO) from March 1942 through June 1942.
Continue reading “Honoring and Remembering CAPT Joseph J. Rochefort, USN, Navy Cryptologist”
Communist attacks on the destroyer USS Maddox (DD 731) in the Gulf of Tonkin in August 1964 and the killing of American service personnel in South Vietnam later in the year and in early 1965 convinced American military leaders that the outbreak of war was imminent. It was apparent that rather than buckling under U.S. military pressure, Hanoi had decided to take the offensive. CINCPAC noted in March 1965 a “shift of communist tactics” intended to “bring about the disengagement of the U.S. in South Vietnam.” In a prescient statement, Admiral Sharp concluded that the North Vietnamese felt that “if they can kill Americans, harass U.S. personnel, and destroy U.S. facilities the American people will, in time, become so tired of the war that we will abandon our efforts there.”
Continue reading “Preparations for War in Southeast Asia, 1965”
17 June 1947
From: Vice Admiral C. A. Lockwood, Commander of Submarine Force Pacific Fleet during World War II.
To: Chief of Naval Communications, Rear Admiral Earl E. Stone
Subject: Communication Intelligence against the Japanese in World War II. .
1. I am enclosing herewith a statement as to the value of communication intelligence against the Japanese in World War II.
Continue reading “Significant Contributions COMINT made ISO Submarines Warfare During WWII”
On April 8, 1950, Soviet La-11 fighters shot down a US Navy PB4Y-2 Privateer (BuNo 59645) over the Baltic Sea, off the coast of Liepāja, Latvia. The privateer was a World War II and Korean War era patrol bomber of the United States Navy derived from the Consolidated B-24 Liberator. Named the Turbulent Turtle, the aircraft was assigned to Patrol Squadron 26 (VP-26), Det A. In addition to other types of missions, privateers were used by the US Navy for signals intelligence (SIGINT) flights off of the coast of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China.
Continue reading “First Shootdown of the Cold War”
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.”
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On 1 April 2001, a U.S. Navy EP-3 signals intelligence aircraft flying a steady cruising speed, steady on altitude and on its assigned reconnaissance track was repeatedly buzzed by a Chinese Navy J-8II interceptor fighter jet. On the Fighter Pilot’s last harassing fly-by buzz…..he flew so close to the EP-3 that his fighter canopy flew through the prop-arc of the EP-3 causing the EP-3 to abruptly roll losing altitude. Solely due to the strength the Pilot in Command, he was able to wrestle the EP-3 back into level flight. Fortunately for all, the only life lost was that of the offending Chinese Fighter Pilot.
Continue reading “April Fools – Not! The Hainan Incident”
Station HYPO 