After about a week of training I was interviewed privately and they asked me a whole lot of questions. I hadn’t a clue why they were asking me and I can’t remember now, what any of the questions were. Afterwards, they sent me back to basic, just like everyone else. When I finished basic, I joined a convoy, about 5-6 miles long, heading off to Camp Pickett in Virginia. We would stop and sleep along the side of the road at night. It was cold and snowy and not a lot of fun.

One night they called out my name, and I thought I was being called for guard duty. I was taken, along with two other guys, to the company commander who congratulated us, and sent us back to Aberdeen in a car. He didn’t tell us why he was congratulating us, just that we’d find out sooner or later. Once back in Aberdeen, we got put on a bus, then taken to the train station where we were given tickets to Washington, D.C. We got to Washington, then took a bus to a former racetrack. It was a huge place, wired and guarded. Our camp was at one end. We met up with another 15 new guys and we all were assigned routine army tasks…cleaning the latrine, KP duty, etc. No one would talk to us. They’d actually leave the room when we entered. I didn’t have a clue what was going on.

After a few days the 1^st Sergeant came along and said, "there is nothing you can do to get into this outfit, and now that you’re in it, there’s nothing you can do to get out of it." Thus began my training for the Signal Intelligence Service as a cryptologist. In hindsight, I guess I was chosen for this because I had a college education, a rarity in those days. I had also studied foreign languages and they must have like my answers when they interviewed me in Aberdeen. We were required to sign secrecy papers. We could go to jail or prison if we talked about what we did, and that was true for several years after the war as well.

My job was to help rebuild the Japanese codebooks that were used during the war. The codes changed monthly and so this was a continuous task. It was a boring, tedious job, but it was essential to the Navy. It was kind of like working on a crossword puzzle all day long, every day, day after day. We didn’t try to decipher individual messages, only about 5% were of any military value anyway. What was important was to rebuild the codebooks every time they changed. Learning and knowing the frequency of occurrence of letters in the English language was critical to breaking code from enemy messages. I used to know the frequency of every letter in the alphabet; today I only remember that "e" is used the most.

We all worked together breaking code; rank meant nothing in this company. We worked side by side, privates, commanders...no difference. Encoded messages would get intercepted in various ways throughout the South Pacific and then get sent to us. We’d get strips of numbers in groups of four digits. For example, the number 1227 would mean, go to page 12 of the code book, then go 2 lines down and 7 spaces over. That would get you the corresponding numbers to add or subtract, depending on the type of codebook you had. One of the most important codes I worked on was the Japanese shipping code, identified by the header of "6666." The shipping code was an important code to break; because when we did we could locate troops, cut off supplies, and cause their surrender.

These enemy codebooks were the first thing our Marines looked for when taking a position. The Japanese were supposed to destroy them if capture was imminent by first burning, then stirring the char into ashes. One of my first jobs was with the partial remains of one of these books. It had been burned, but not properly stirred. We took alcohol and using an eyedropper, squeezed drops onto the ashes. Just for a second, the numbers would show up and we got them.

Another way we could break a new code was to cutoff an island so that one location had the old codebook and another location would have the new codebook. Then intercepted messages, one with the old code and one with the new, sent to the islands at the same time could be used to break the new code. The Japanese also had a typewriter which actually wrote in code, each of these had a bomb attached so if enemy got his hands on it, it could be blown up. It was similar to the famous German Enigma machine, but not as sophisticated.

Breaking the code was important work. For example, the Japanese would send a message with position and time that a ship would be in a certain area. One of our subs would be sent there, and it would wait on the bottom until the right time, come up and torpedo the ship, and be on its way. Another time in New Guinea, the Japanese decided to fake a maneuver down one side, when they were really intending to go another way. We had broken the code, so we knew not to take the bait. We were ready for them.

I have a memory book about the Signal Intelligence Service. This book is dedicated to a Japanese man, Clarence Yamagata, who left his family in the Philippines to help us during the war and was invaluable with his knowledge of the Japanese and their codes.

When we broke the Japanese shipping code, somehow the word got out in Hawaii. Within eight days, the Japanese discovered we’d broken it. The news got to the High Command via the informant in Hawaii who got it to the Japanese Ambassador in Switzerland, who then sent the word via diplomatic code to the Japanese High Command.

One night in camp in the jungles of the Philippines, I went out for a walk about 1 A.M. It was pitch dark and darned if I didn’t get lost! It was so dark I couldn’t find my way back. I felt so foolish. I just finally decided I better just sit down and wait until somebody came along. Finally I saw the tiny little lights on some supply trucks on their way to camp. I hitched a ride. When I got back, my tent mate, a huge muscular man, built like a bull, was still asleep. I climbed out of my coveralls and hung them up outside our mosquito netting on his side of the tent.

Next morning I got a tongue-lashing! My buddy had awakened in the early dawn, and through the mosquito netting he saw someone coming toward him! He jumped out of his bunk and ran out of the tent. Ha! It was my coveralls, flapping in the breeze. I’m still laughing about that.

It was great to go home. I was so happy the war was over. I’m very grateful that I never got shot at and I appreciate the Presidential citations and medals our company received for our service during the war.