A 101 year old retired Navy Captain, World War II veteran, and former World War II prisoner of war (POW), passed peacefully from this life on March 11, 2020.
Continue reading “Remembering CAPT Harold E. Joslin, Last Surviving Member of On-The-Roof Gang Member”
During the tumultuous times of Operation Desert Storm in the 1990s, military strategists found themselves engaged in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse. In this theater of war, intelligence was the currency that could spell the difference between victory and defeat. Among the many innovative tactics employed during this conflict, one stands out as both unconventional and surprisingly effective: Pizza Intelligence, affectionately dubbed PIZINT.
Continue reading “How Pizza Orders Foreshadowed Military Operations”
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”
Note the broom!
The USS Parche (SSN 683), a Sturgeon-class nuclear-powered submarine, stands as one of the most extraordinary vessels in the history of the U.S. Navy. Commissioned on August 17, 1974, at a time when the Cold War was in full swing, Parche’s role evolved from a fast attack submarine into a highly specialized platform for some of the most secretive and daring missions of underwater espionage. Known for its ability to gather critical intelligence deep beneath the ocean, the Parche became the Navy’s most decorated submarine, carrying out covert operations that were instrumental to national security.
Captain Wilfred J. “Jasper” Holmes
April 4, 1900 – January 7, 1986
“Let Us Never Forget” Submariner, Intelligence Officer, (USNA 1922), Captain Wilfred Jay (Jasper) Holmes, USN
Continue reading “Remembering Wilfred J. “Jasper” Holmes, USN, WWII Cryptologist”
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)”
