Another Blast From the Past
HANK ROTH, LL.B (Bachelor of Laws Degree) - Veteran: served in the White House (WHACA) for the President of the U.S. and in the War Room for the Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon (JCS) and alternate (AJCS) in Md, at alternate White House at Camp Crystal (Mt Weather) and Camp David, COMZREAR in Orleans, France and as a Voice Security Cryptologist - (Vietnam and Yom Kipper) - and DI at Ft. Jackson. Also Past Commander Jewish War Veterans (Post 780) and social justice peace/activist over 40 years - (87) member of Veterans for Peace - American Legion - SE Disarmament Representative of the New Jewish Agenda -- Army MARS (AA4LV-K4EVY) - U.S. Peace Council - Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice - (charter member) Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) - On the interNUT since 1982 - (student member) Association Computing Machinery (ACM) - War Resisters League (WRL) - ACLU - CP - SANE - Hashomer Hatzair - Pax Christi - Pledge of Resistance - Reporter (also typesetter/proof reader) - founder Chavarim Peace Network on ham radio (from late 60s) - founder of pnews-l {now fightback "Progressive News/Views" since 1982} - Writer/Reviewer: National Jewish Spectator - Playwright: Raleigh Ensemble Players - Editor/Publisher of Am Yisrael - Real Estate Dev/Broker (Fl and NC - 70-80s) - Bookseller NC and Fl (80s and 90s) - Real Estate Broker (90s) - Asst. Area Mgr for 1990 Census (Eastern NC) - Delegate to Rainbow Coalition Convention for Jessie Jackson.
Written on the 4th of July (several years ago)
On this 4th of July when most Americans are infused with ideas of patriotism and love for America, I think it is appropriate to tell this story.
My odyssey began in 1956 when I enlisted. It is important to realize that we are all products of our culture and that we do things because we think they are the right things to do at the time without thinking very much about the consequences. I had been embued with feelings of patriotism and glory and like a lot of teenagers at that time looking forward to going to war. Any war would do. I couldn't help but think while waiting for the helicopter to take me to Washington that this was the life. I had it made. Anytime I needed a ride I simply called up a limo or a helicopter and left the driving to them. That particular day I was at Camp Crystal [that's what we called it], but to the local folks it was an old weather station up on top of one of mountains in the Shenendoahs. What they didn't know was we had a secret installation below that weather station and it was the alternate White House. I was at that time assigned to duty at the alternate White house, Camp David and the White house in Washington.
Sitting there in the helicopter during that 30-40 minute ride to the lawn of the White House I would think about my duties for that day. I had to go the president's office and change the cards in his crypto KY-1 machine, and do some work down in the basement. There were the guys from Bell Labs that I was working with also to get a wide-band communications system online. And Rocky Pangallo [who eventually went over to `Sneaky Petes' to work, which is a nick name for the Secret Service] and I were playing around with the television systems. That was Rocky's expertise and he was in charge of the project. Good old Rocky use to say, "Let the good times roll" and though he suffered more adversity than should have been his share, he was always happy go lucky. We stayed friends for over 30 years until he died of a heart attack while doing what he liked best, playing golf. Rock was a devout Catholic but was excommunicated for marrying a non- Catholic, his kids had severe psychological problems, and his wife whom he idolized died slowly of cancer. And there were some other things like when he got shot and never quite recovered from those wounds. I'd been shot at too when I was in at COMZREAR, but never hurt, except for the hurt which comes from losing a son in France, while I was stationed there and also not being able to go forward with a legal action for wrongful death against a French national because of the sensitive nature of our presense in France at the time. NATO was eventually told to get out of France anyway.
I remember first arriving in Washington after several years of military school. When I enlisted in the army I had already been through over three years of R.O.T.C. but joined as a private.
However during my advanced training in cryptology I was tagged for a special assignment. I didn't know what it was but was told it would be an important job in the service of my country. In fact I didn't have the slightest idea what I was being groomed for during the next two years of training at Ft. Monmouth.
After I received my orders for Washington, a limo waiting to take me to the warehouse district downtown which they called the `shop.' Inside they maintained a fleet of limos, communications equipment and had an arsenal the size and diversity I had never seen before in my life. I was met by Chuck, who also became a friend for years after I left the service. He told me to leave my duffel bag there and gave me a purchase order for civilian cloths. Then a limo took me to a men's clothing store in Virgina where I was fitted with civilian cloths which included everything from a trench coat, top hat and black and gray suits and which became my uniform for the next couple of years.
Chuck said from then on I was being assigned in a civilian capacity and to pack my uniform because I wouldn't need it anymore and that is exactly what I did. I only had to take orders from my bosses in the White House and I worked directly for the President of the United States. I even got invited to special parties at the White House and as part of the inner circle had Secret Service (and F.B.I) protection.
Up until that time I was told I didn't have a `need to know' who and what I would be doing. I still wasn't sure what my duties would be at that point. But I got my new "civies" and was taken to Ft. Myers to the officer's quarters for the night. No one there knew I was only a Specialist Fifth Class [E-5].
Next day I was taken by limo to NSA [the Naval Security Agency or Group] where I received additional training for about the next 8 weeks. Then my work assignment began, to provide crypto voice security support and other security for the President of the United States and whatever else they needed me to do, which included a wide range of duties outside my military occupational specialty.
During the Secret Service briefing at the White House, I asked what the requirments were for joining the Secret Service and they said I needed a law degree but unlike Rocky and some of the others at the White House, who eventually did go over to work for them, I had no interest in the Secret Service and I became a real estate broker (to make my fortune, several of which I've given or pissed away) when I left the army.
The irony of that choice didn't strike me until much later how so many who worked for the government when I did, and most of those involved in Nixon's `dirty tricks' at the Watergate also ended up in South Florida working as real estate brokers and agents and selling real estate, just like me. It seemed to be a favorite occupation of ex-spies and operatives in the upper echelons of government. I know, I use to meet many of them and often I was invited to gatherings of that former inner circle.
I was one of the only Jews at the White House except for one guy I know who was with the Secret Service. And, at that time they didn't have any blacks working in my outfit because as it was told to me, it might be an embarrassment on one of the president's many trips to have a black team member refused service somewhere [This was the late 50s and early 60s and Jim Crow was still very much alive and well.]
I still wonder how I was chosen for that job? It might have been partially because an uncle who worked as a physicist at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds was a V.I.P., having his own lab and having invented a photographic process including the fastest camera in the world. He was one of my references. I also had the perfect psychological profile at that time. I had previous military school training and was a patriot, ready to do anything I was ordered to do. Have my views changed? You bet!
which I once did, it is working for peace and justice..Hank Roth
