“I have often said that an intelligence officer has one task, one job, one mission. This is to tell his commander, his superior, today, what the [enemies] are going to do tomorrow. This is his job. If he doesn’t do this, then he’s failed.” – Captain Joseph J. Rochefort, USN I was having one of […]

(The former Naval Security Group Campus in Northwest Washington. Mac Showers worked here and lived nearby. Photo Naval Security Group). OK- I am going to beat it to death, but Van Dyke goaded me into it. Sorry in advance. This is about everything that came after the war, and the effort of Chester Nimitz to […]

(On the rim of Makalapa Crater at Pearl Harbor, this semi-permanent wooden structure was built in 1943 to house the Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Ocean Areas (JIC-POA), where intelligence was collected, evaluated, and disseminated throughout World War II.) “The joint intelligence center is responsible for providing and producing the intelligence required to support the joint […]

(Joseph Wenger, shown here as a Rear Admiral, who was one of the conspirators to get rid of Joe Rochefort and centralize control of Radio Intelligence in Washington. He would probably deny it, if he were around). Captain Garth: “Joe! You’re guessing!” Commander Rochefort: “We like to call it ‘analysis.’” – Dialogue from the 1976 […]

(Chart of the organization of the 14th Naval District from Jasper Holmes’ book Double Edged Secrets. Naval Institute Press). OK- this might get a little dry, but I am left with no choice. The Dungeon was where the magic of the cryptologists, linguists and analysts happened. You have seen the diagram that Mac drew on […]

(This is Brian’s Dad Kenneth Kearns, from the only wartime picture he has. Note the one hash stripe, reflecting his pre-wartime USN service (1929-1933) as a radioman (RM, i.e., manual Morse operator) most of it in the USS California (BB-44), later sunk in the Pearl Harbor attack and resurrected. Also note the yeoman rating, as […]

(Joe Rosenthal’s iconic picture of the flag raising on Mount Suribachi. Mac Showers approved it for release stateside. Photo Rosenthal/AP). OK- there is no getting around it. I was sort of stalling for the 70th anniversary of the battle on Iwo Jima, which is this morning. I am not going to attempt to recount the […]

Sorry- I was going to do beach gradients and beach surveys of the Western Pacific today, since there is a cool story about them, and the Counterintelligence Section of the 14th Naval District, since I have the proof in a precious copy of Jasper Holmes marvelous book “Double Edged Secrets,” Naval Institute Press, 1979. I […]

We got snow last night, the most accumulation of this winter, and Washington is Predictably Paralyzed. Willow is closed for an unprecedented second night in a row, and I officially have cabin fever. In the meantime, the memories of the placid waters of Pearl Harbor will not leave me alone. This morning it was the […]

(Mac Shower’s hand-drawn diagram of The Dungeon in the basement of the 14th Naval District HQ in Pearl Harbor. Collected by renewed Naval historian Dr. Dave). “The fate of the nation quite literally depended on about a dozen men who had devoted their lives and their careers, in peace and war, to radio intelligence. Eight […]