A Very Special Assignment
While at Ft. Monmouth, I was also interviewed by a national security agency for "special" training and a secret assignment but I was not told what that assignment would be. I remember thinking, "How can I accept an assignment when I don't even know what it is?" But, I did and it was to become one of the most exciting experiences of my life.There were only two of us selected for the interview and the other guy didn't make it. Those doing the interviewing were wearing suits and ties. I remember they didn't smile. Their faces seemed expressionless. I had the feeling they already knew the answers to everything they asked me and had that earie feeling like they could read my mind. In those days I didn't make very many personal judgements when it came to the military. I fit the right profile. I was the perfect obedient, patriotic, gung ho solder, to fight battles for the ruling class, and they knew it.
I can't believe I was so lucky to be there. Of all the people in the world and all the soldiers in the army than I was chosen to do what can only be considered, when I think back about it, the most exciting and privileged job in the military. I wondered, "Why me?" And I can admit to myself now that I know wy they chose me. I was good at radio. Remember, radio was really in it's infancy and ham operators then had an advantage others didn't have. We were on the cusp of all the new developments. And we knew enough then to build our own equipment. I was an expert at various technologies because compared to what they are today, they really were rather simple but not everyone had the some obsession about learning it all as I did and I was good at it; good enough to teach others in the White House how the technology worked and how to use it.
Even computers were so new they were not household names and nobody heard of an Internet. My uncle was a physicist who used one of the early computers at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds and I was fortunate enough to visit him there. I had the bug. It was all coming together and apparently the folks in charge recognized I had a talent for doing what I was told which was imprinted in my personality by my experiences in military school and I had the interest and aptitude to do a job for the president. Working for Eisenhower was easy too because I met him and he was also a nice guy. I had the luck in those days. And it followed me whereever I went. It was a good and interesting life.
In the 40s a small organization came into being in the White House. It was the White House Signal Detachment. I was assigned to the agency in the 50s, but in 1941 when the signal detachment was established by President Franklin Roosevelt, it began with 32 members of the U.S. Army. When I joined there were a few more than that but not much, and we were very low-profile. My neighbors thought I worked at a weather monitoring station.
The first thing upon reporting to Washington - at "the shop" was to be taken by limo to a clothing store where I was issued my first civilian clothing allotment. I never wore a uniform again for as long as I was in the agency.
My job was to provide voice security crypto services to the President of the United States. I received additional training in NSA, another low-profile agency in the DC area. One of my jobs was to change the code cards each morning in the KY1, a not so little gray crypto machine in the Oval Office and I had to keep the very large KY6 crypto system in the communications bunker down in the basement online and working perfectly. I also assisted with the broadband network and microwave communications between agencies and the alternative White House at Camp Crystal in the mountains of Virginia. I also worked at the alternative White House and at Camp David and was transported between them by helicopter and limo.
Since I was there the agency has had several name changes and reorganization. It was called WHACA, the White House Army Communications Agency, but today it is a joint agency staffed by all branches of the military and a few civilians. When I was there, it was only the army. Ike was U.S. Army before he was the President of the United States. And there were no civilians in the agency. We were army assigned in a civilian capacity. We answered to no one but the president and those who outranked us in the White House.
Some of the people I worked with in the agency went on to work in the Secret Service. Some were offered jobs in telecommunications. Some stayed there and did their entire career in the White House. I had that option - of staying there - but I left the military to sell real estate in Florida. After three months I changed my mind and reenlisted and I requested a tour in Japan. I was sent to France. After almost three years there I was ordered back to Washington to work in the War Room for the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon - which included short TDY assignments for JCS.
I also attended helicopter school in Virginia but washed out because of corrected vision which kept me from flying in Vietnam and since the mortality rate for helicopter pilots was the highest of any other job in the army I was probably lucky. I was there for Vietnam and 10 years later was given clearance for Israel during the Yom Kipper War. And, I continue to stay in touch with friends from my former life.