The Functions and Duties of the Cryptology Section, Naval Communications
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Authors
Safford, Laurence F.
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
1925-12-12
Date
Publisher
Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School.
Language
en_US
Abstract
Lt. Laurance Safford, who is often called the “father” of Navy cryptology, became the officer-in-charge of the Office of Naval Intelligence Code and Signal Section in 1924. The following year, in a prescient speech to Naval Postgraduate School students, Safford said: “All nations have learned the lessons of the World War and will probably make even greater efforts to intercept and read enemy messages in the future than were made in the past…In a war between nations of approximately equal strength, Radio Intelligence could easily become the decisive factor.” By the late 1920’s, NPS communications courses included coding and decoding; by the early 1930’s, cryptography and cryptanalysis. Admiral Chester Nimitz expanded NPS student input in radio engineering and communications in 1939 and later added specialized graduate programs for Navy reservists. The first reservists in communications intelligence, shown in a class photobelow, completed their studies in the summer of 1941. These NPS alumni were well prepared for immediate assignment to cryptology units during the rapid, post-Pearl Harbor mobilization. They played an important role in breaking the Japanesecode, JN-25, which led to key victories at the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway in 1942. Captain Earl Stone, a 1924 NPS radio engineering alumnus, also led an important codebreaking group, OP-20-G, during the war before he became the plankowning commanding officer of the USS Wisconsin (BB64). After WWII, Stone was selected as the first director of the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA), predecessor of the National Security Agency. This lecture was delivered at the "Postgraduate School" on December 12, 1925.
Type
Lecture Notes
Description
Note: This document references "plates", not included with this document.
Series/Report No
Department
Organization
Office of Naval Communications