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December 7, 2011, Annual Pearl Harbor Program

The Lecture by Robert J. Hanyok was titled “Catching the Fox Unaware:” Japanese Radio Denial and Deception and the Pearl Harbor Operation.

Bob Hanyok and Gene Becker

Most histories of the attack on Pearl Harbor tend to treat the radio deception and denial aspects of the Japanese plan and conduct of the operation as little more than a series of technical “tricks” or tactics chosen to bemuse American naval radio monitors. The truth is quite the opposite. The Imperial Japanese Navy devised a multi phase, comprehensive plan of radio denial and deception, along with other elements, which combined, effectively covered the training, force generation, and approach to the main target of the Kido Butai, the Pearl Harbor Striking Force. The Japanese, especially Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, the Commander of the Combined Fleet, had understood the requirements for surprise, for only this element would ensure a successful strike at Pearl Harbor. This point was reinforced earlier in the spring of 1941 when Japanese radio monitors discovered that their carriers were being tracked by the British from their site in Hong Kong.

The presentation detailed how the Japanese plan combined many functions and aspects designed to protect the secret of the attack on the US Pacific Fleet. These included: (1) An awareness of standard Japanese naval strategy of awaiting the US Navy to strike across the Pacific; the strategy of defense leading to the “decisive battle”, a la Trafalgar, which would lead to a victory for Tokyo. (2) An increasingly effective communications security structure that enveloped the entire IJN in a radio fog , that, among other items, removed to a large degree the ability to even track the paths of messages. (3) A radio monitoring effort that substantially enhanced the ability of the Kido Butai to stay aware of the status of forces in the Hawaiian Islands. This COMINT also supplemented the often incomplete and sometimes late reports of the Japanese spy in the consulate in Honolulu. (4) A radio silence that denied the American HFDF network the ability to track the actual movement of the Striking Force.

The Japanese plan began with a communications exercise that established a regular routine of contact among some elements of the Kido Butai. Once the Striking Force massed on 17 November, the radio deception and denial parts went into effect. As the force sailed north to its final rendezvous in the Kurile Islands, both parts effectively hid the Japanese ships. Once the ships departed for Pearl Harbor on 27 November, the Americans would be fooled into thinking the carriers were still in the Japanese Home islands. At various points in the voyage east, the Japanese ships received intelligence updates on the ships in Pearl Harbor, as well as the lack of any alert by the US Pacific commands. American naval radio intelligence continued to report the carriers in Japanese Home waters. Even the relative paucity of communications only further convinced the Americans that the carriers were still in their home ports or in adjacent waters.

On the morning of 7 December, in Washington, The Secretaries of War, Navy and State met to review the latest intelligence. One document, an ONI summary of ship locations, placed all Japanese large carriers at home. The truth would only emerge in a few hours in a devastating fashion.

October 5, 2011, General Membership Meeting (posted 11/17/11)

Toni Punzavitz , DN1, graciously provided us with his summary of the 13th annual National Cryptologic Museum Foundations general membership meeting. This version was posted on NSA Daily and received many favorable comments. The title of his article is" National Cryptologic Museum General Membership Meeting Draws Intelligence Community Stars."

  

      General Keith Alexander   Director James Clapper

                                                   NSA/CSS                                        DN1

Lt. Gen. Faurer, USAF (Ret), General Alexander, and Gene Becker

October 5, 2011 - General Membership Meeting Silent Auction and Book Sale Results (posted 11/10/11)


The Foundation hosted a silent auction and book sale at the October General Membership Meeting. Despite a number of unique and interesting items (Russian military hats, spy cameras, WW II military pennants, etc.), the auction only netted just under $600. The book sale netted about $600, and we earned another $124 from the sale of mugs, hats and IC posters. The total of approximately $1300 was about $1200 less than we made at the 2009 GMM. Thanks to Sally Botsai, Bob Hunt, John Garcia and Dave D’Auria for their extra effort in running these sales.

September 7, 2011, NCM Civil War exhibit opening and Wig Wag System demonstration (posted 11/7/11)

The event was open to the general public from 1000-1400 and featured a ribbon cutting by the NSA Directorate of the new Civil War exhibit.  This was followed by a live reenactment of the U.S. Army Signal Corps Wig Wag System. The Electronics Museum in Linthicum also participated by sending an electronic signal to the NCM to simulate the first telegraph message sent during the civil war.
Some highlights:
   - About 300 people attended the demonstration and visited the museum;
   - Re enactors demonstrated aerial telegraphy (flag signaling) and telegraphy. The telegraph machines were connected to lap top computers on which the re enactors had downloaded special freeware. The computers were hidden from view.
   - People, especially the kids, enjoyed watching the signalman demonstrating the flag signals. He even explained how messages were encrypted when sending signals.
   -Kids also enjoyed seeing their messages sent by telegraph and getting answers back from other re enactors at the National Electronics Museum who partnered with the NCM on the event
   -People also got to see the updated Civil War exhibit in the museum that includes a new mural and CW Signal Flags made identical in size, shape, colors, and height to those used during the war.

Eagle Alliance Sponsors 10th Annual Golf Tournament (posted 6/19/2011)


      The 10th Annual Tim Sheahan Memorial Golf Tournament (aka Crypto Cup) was held on Friday June 17, 2011. It is a tribute to Eagle Alliance, its General Manager and Vice President, Tim Slusser, the event coordinator, Sandi Austin, and her team of volunteers, that this tournament went off without a hitch.
      The day couldn't’t have been nicer for a round of golf on The Courses at Ft. Meade – sunny and warm with no humidity. There were 138 players on the course to enjoy the day of fun and competition. Volunteers from Eagle Alliance manned the beverage carts, monitored the hole-in-one hole (nobody won), and worked in various tasks to ensure everyone had a great day.


First place went to: Chris Mills, Andy Powderly, Russell Loock, and Dave D’Angelo of Cybercore. Second place went to: Ron Hurley, Marc Crumpler, Eddie Becker, and Nick Vitale of Superior Communications, Inc. Third place went to: Mike Miller, Bobby Gibbons, Mickey Norfolk and George Miller an Eagle Alliance employee and guest-comprised team.

Once again the event resulted in a significant contribution of $35,000 to the NCMF.

On 9 August a ceremony and luncheon sponsored by the NCMF was held to present the trophy to the winning team (pictured below) and to thank all of those from Eagle Alliance and the NCMF staff that were responsible for another successful fund raiser in support of the NCMF.  The winning team receives a framed photo of the Cryto Cup while the Cup itself is retained at the Museum.


Andy Powderly, Chris Mills, Gene Becker (NCMF), Dave Tetreault (Eagle Alliance), Dave D'Angelo and Russell Loock

The sponsors who made the event a success were:

BAE/Advanced Concepts, Inc.
Brocade
Cisco Systems
Communications Supply Corp.
Corning Cable Systems
Cybercore Technologies
Dell
EMC2
Enterprise Consulting, Inc.
General Dynamics Information Technology
Harris RF Communications
Hewlett Packard
Intelligent Decisions, Inc.
KEYW Corporation
Lexmark International, Inc.
MCO Computer Supplies
NetApp
Sparta, operating as Cobham Analytic Solutions
Superior Communications
Tech USA

April 7, 2011 - Spring NCMF Program, Dave Gaddy speaker (posted 4/8/2011)

Mr. David Gaddy was the guest speaker for our program on April 7, 2011 commemorating the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War.

Program precis:
We are embarking on a four-year period commemorating the greatest threat to the existence of the United States of America, the sesquicentennial of a conflict on which we still can not agree on a name – whether War of the Rebellion, War for Southern Independence, War Between the States, American Civil War, The Late Unpleasantness, or some other name. (The late author James Street once wrote that he preferred the shorter name, Civil War: “Saves type,” he wrote.)

The human loss of that war, given the smaller populations of the contending sides, is still staggering. Extrapolated to modern comparisons, cost estimates run into the billions, with the Southern home front and scene of most of the fighting left devastated.

Out of that experience, barely recognized at the time and for many decades afterward, came a realization of the importance of timely information for decision makers, and the necessity of ensuring protection of secrecy in its communication. The emergency tested national awareness of “the state of the art” in cryptography, as applicable to the electrical telegraph and a recent innovation in point-to-point visual communication. Our speaker sees in that conflict a major step in the evolution of American concepts of communication intelligence and information security, but also a link in the continuum those vital components have played from revolution to the present.
Unfortunately, it was not appreciated at the time, nor has it been well understood since.

Interception of enemy communications, wire-tapping, cryptanalysis, manipulation and deception, strengthening of one’s communication security – these were practiced well before World War II and the age of radio. Destruction of records, lack of oversight and coordination on both sides, failing memory of participants, led to superficial appraisals of what occurred and why during the 1860s. The tools and techniques of the cyber era enable us to re-examine and better appreciate what they wrought.