“What nicer bit of information”: Kullback, oral history, 80.
Buoyed and elated, Arlington Hall became: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 831, “Japanese Army Codes Solution Section.”
They attacked a major administrative code: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1016, “Signals Communications Systems,” 244–246.
“There wasn’t a damn thing that the Japanese”: Kullback, oral history, 87–89.
In January 1944, Australian soldiers: Donovan, “Indicators of Japanese Ciphers”; Kullback discusses Japanese code security in his NSA oral history, 40.
Chapter Nine: “It Was Only Human to Complain”
That’s when Arlington Hall decided to lure: For a history of recruiting in 1943 and 1944, see RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1115, “Signal Security Agency Annual Report Fiscal Year 1944.”
The void of information led recruiting officers: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 95, “History of the Signal Security Agency,” vol. 1, “Organization,” part 2, “1942–1945” (also online at NSA Cryptologic Histories site).
“Young Army boys we used”: Solomon Kullback, oral history interview on August 26, 1982, NSA-OH-17-82, 72. Elsewhere in the same interview, Kullback admitted that they lied: “I think unfortunately, some of the recruiting officers may have lied a little bit in order to get those girls to come to work in Washington by maybe implying that there would be more younger officers available,” 112.
“I think the northern members of our community”: Ann Caracristi, interview with the author.
By 1944, recruiters were allowed to expand: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 96, “History of the Signal Security Agency,” vol. 1, “Organization,” part 2, “1942–1945.”
An article in a Minnesota newspaper: Jennifer Wilcox archives.
The instructor, Ruth W. Stokes: Letter provided to the author by Winthrop University archivist Susanna O. Lee. Information about the Winthrop program can be found in the Winthrop University Louise Pettus Archives, http://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/winthroptowashington/.
Titled Private Smith Goes to Washington: Recruiting pamphlet provided to the author by Josephine Palumbo Fannon.
The “stinkinest jobs that there were to have”: Davis, oral history, 41.
“I don’t care if you’re a colonel; you can’t go in there!”: Ibid.
Norma Martell, one of the WACs assigned to Vint Hill: Norma Martell, oral history interview, WV0072 Norma Martell Papers.
In May 1945, two WACs working at the Vint Hill: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 95, “History of the Signal Security Agency, vol. 1, “Organization,” part 1, “1939–1945.”
A report conducted in 1943 concluded that: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 991, “Report on Progress and Improvements in Section BII, 1943.”
In the early fall of 1943, a “morale survey”: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1027, “Survey of Morale, Signal Security Agency, 1943.”
In April 1944, two code breakers identified only as M. Miller: Document ID A69346, “A Poem for a Birthday Celebration on April 6th,” William F. Friedman Collection of Official Papers, National Security Agency, https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/friedman-documents/assets/files/reports-research/FOLDER_060/41709519074880.pdf. The identity of the authors was suggested by NSA historian Elizabeth Smoot.
Chapter Ten: Pencil-Pushing Mamas Sink the Shipping of Japan
Ambon. Canton. Davao. Haiphong: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 844, “Japanese Army Transport Codes.”
“This material is extremely secret and must be treated with the utmost care”: Ibid.
A few dealt with transportation of the wounded: Ibid.
For example, one station transmitting from Singapore: These and the subsequent examples of stereotypes are found in RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 877, “Stereotypes in Japanese Army Cryptographic Systems (Vol III).”
Dot’s workday consisted of messages: This example is given in RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 844, “Japanese Army Transport Codes.”
The administrators at Arlington Hall concluded: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1115, “Signal Security Agency Annual Report Fiscal Year 1944.”
“The history of the department during the past year”: Ibid.
“This is a business organization,” said one memo: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1016, “Signals Communications Systems.”
A pneumatic tube: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1380, “History of the Distribution of Intercept Traffic in SSA.”
The women in Department K—Dot’s unit—were a “very fine group”: Ibid.
“The great value of the intelligence derived”: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 1115, “Signal Security Agency Annual Report Fiscal Year 1944.”
Another memo pointed out that the New York Times: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 92, SRH 349, “The Achievements of the Signal Security Agency in World War II.”
November 1943, one month after Dot’s arrival: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 82, SRH 284, “Radio Intelligence in WWII Submarine Operations in the Pacific Ocean Areas November 1943.”
“The success of undersea warfare is to a certain extent”: Ibid.
After the war, a census would be taken: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 36, SRH 156, “Weekly Listing of Merchant Vessels Sunk in Far East Waters 14 Dec–March 1945.”
At the end of the war, a U.S. naval report found: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 84, SRH 306, “OP-20-G Exploits and Communications World War II.”
Citing a few of the biggest achievements: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 878, “Capt. Fuld’s Reports, ‘Intelligence Derived from Ultra.’”
“When they were planning some major moves against”: Solomon Kullback, oral history, interview on August 26, 1982, NSH-OH-17-82, 89.
“By resorting to chewing it raw”: RG 0457, 9002 (A1), Box 18, SRH-66, “Examples of Intelligence Obtained from Cryptanalysis 1 August 1946.”
“If the latter,” the document noted: RG 0457, 9032 (A1), Box 876, “Stereotypes in Japanese Army Cryptographic Systems.”
Chapter Eleven: Sugar Camp
They boarded the train at midnight: The memory of arriving at Sugar Camp is from Iris Bryant Castle, “Our White Gloves,” letter of reminiscence, Deborah Anderson private archives. Throughout this chapter, I have also drawn from detailed letters of reminiscence written by Jimmie Lee Hutchison Powers Long, Dot Firor, and Esther Hottenstein, in the Deborah Anderson private archives, which Debbie Anderson shared. I have also drawn from Curt Dalton, Keeping the Secret: The Waves & NCR Dayton, Ohio 1943–1946 (Dayton, OH: Curt Dalton, 1997), and from transcripts of the underlying interviews, which Dalton kindly provided. And I have drawn from interviews I conducted with Millie Weatherly Jones, Veronica Mackey Hulick, and Betty Bemis Robarts.
“The WAVES will take courses in the operation”: “Waves to be Occupants of Sugar Camp This Summer,” NCR News, May 5, 1943.