Serving in Silence: NSA's Fallen Comrades

[William Knowles <wk () c4i org>]

http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A85758-2001May27.html

By Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 28, 2001; Page A21 

Sixteen days before the Korean War ended in July 1953, Army Pvt. Jay
Stoner died from a shrapnel wound after crawling onto a battlefield
amid heavy shelling to fix a communications line.

For Stoner, a cryptologic technician with the 304th Communications
Group, fixing the line meant saving lives. It connected front-line
intercept stations near Chinese positions at Kumsong to American field
commanders who needed tactical intelligence on when and where the
enemy was advancing.

Stoner's act of heroism made him the first employee of the National
Security Agency to die in the line of duty. His name comes first on a
polished granite memorial wall at NSA headquarters inscribed with the
words, "They Served In Silence."

Until now, the secretive agency has remained silent about how they
died. But that changed at a Memorial Day service last week, when
Stoner became the first NSA casualty whose story was told publicly by
the agency.

"Memorial Day holds a special meaning for the cryptologic community,"
said Maj. Gen. Tiiu Kera, head of NSA's uniformed component, who
presented plaques and keepsakes to Stoner's family in a ceremony at
Fort Meade.

The CIA's Wall of Honor remains the best known memorial to fallen
intelligence personnel, containing 77 stars -- one for each agency
employee killed in the line of duty. The NSA's memorial wall, by
contrast, contains 152 names, a testament to the dangers of gathering
electronic intelligence from reconnaissance aircraft, spy ships and
battlefield listening posts.

The biggest single tragedy reflected on the wall was Israel's 1967
attack on the USS Liberty, a naval intelligence ship gathering
intercepts on the Arab-Israeli war: Thirty-four American sailors died.

Although Israel has said that its attacking planes and ships did not
know the Liberty was American, James Bamford writes in a new book on
the NSA, "Body of Secrets," that a Navy spy plane flying overhead at
the time of the attack intercepted Israeli pilots talking about how
the ship was flying an American flag.

All but one of the NSA's fallen are named on the wall -- and all but
two are military personnel. One of the civilians, Allen M. Blue, died
aboard the Liberty. The other is the wall's only anonymous hero,
"identity withheld" chiseled in the granite.

Fifteen names down from Stoner is the name of Spec. 4 James T. Davis,
a cryptologic technician from Livingston, Tenn. He was the first
American killed in Vietnam when a truck in which he was riding was
ambushed Dec. 21, 1961.

Almost a decade earlier, Stoner went off to Korea with a "passion" for
communications, according to the NSA's official narrative. He had, by
then, showed an aptitude for NSA work -- "tapping into the family
phone line and running a block-long telephone line to a neighbor's
house down the street."

He later used his skills on the battlefield, served in silence and
died for his country.


 
*==============================================================*
"Communications without intelligence is noise;  Intelligence
without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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C4I.org - Computer Security, & Intelligence - http://www.c4i.org
*==============================================================*


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