- . f:.,. i.... ' ;··#{' '-~\ ~- REF ID:A66161 A fJREET/NfJ FROM The Chief The resumption of publication of the Army Security Agency Review affords a most welcome opportunity for me to extend greetings to each individual member of the Agency and to share with you the benefits gained by closer association in our common interests. When the review first appeared three years ago, the initial response through the Agency was most enthusiastic, and it was with regret that circumstances beyond our control forced us to discontinue its publication. The purpose of the ASA Review remains the same as before: to provide the Army Security Agency with a semi-technical bi­ monthly publication for articles on the sub­ ject matter of the work and activities of the Agency insofar as the classification CON­ FIDENTIAL wlll permit. As Chief, Army Security Agency, I am interested primarily in two obj e ct iv e s: maintaining excellent morale and improving the high technical standards which the Agency has achieved. Morale is a most important factor in all military and techni­ cal services, and only through improving our technical skills can we enhance the quality and value of our work. General Bradley once said, "Good ideas must not be kept secret; let's share them." By putting our ideas together through the medium of the ASA Review, by learning something of the way and manner in which we live, work, and play in the various installations, a further contri­ bution can be made toward the future success of the Agency by the publication of the ASA Review -- our own service journal. I REF ID:A66161 c "".. ~' Bti" "i'IAL Cover A fair breeze blows in Washington - scene across the treetops of the Capitol grounds from the portico of the Supreme Court Building. Vol. I No.3 May-June 1950 -- Photo by A.H. Feeney, Photographer, ASA ASA Review, the successor to the monthly publication R-5, is the official Contents: technical and operational bulletin of the Army Security Agency and is issued every two months at ASA headquarters, Washington 25, D.C. The publication of ASA Review is in accordance with Army regulations governing military period­ icals. ARTICLES .. .. .. Signalman' s Odyssey . • . • . Michael Maslak • • • • • • • • . 4 . William F. Friedman . • • • • . 12 Contributions from readers are welcomed. Unclassified contributions from Edgar Allan Poe, Cryptographer individuals may be sent either as personal mail or through Agency mail chan­ Radio Position Finding Authentication Systems . • • • • • • Vernon E. Cooley • • • ••• 18 nels to the Editor, ASA Review, CSGAS-27, Army Security Agency, The Pentagon, Radio Position Finding • • • • • . •• 23 Washington 25, D.C. Personal contributions of a classified nature, and the Diurnal and Seasonal Changes. • . ••• 4~ contributions of ASA units, should be forwarded only as official Agency mail. Military Intelligence Before G-2 . • Adapted by John D. Frost. • •• 42 Oi DEPARTMENTS The War in the Ether ••••••• • Dr. Evert Conder and Dr. R. W. Pettengill •••••••••• 21 ASA Hams ••••.••••••. W4LOI . • . 25 NOTICE. This document contains information affecting The Cryptanalyst' s Easy Chair • • • • • • • • • Lambros D. Callimahos • • • • • • • • 26 the national defense of the United States within the Around the Globe in ASA • • meaning of the Espionage Laws, Title 18 U.S.C., sec­ The ASA School • • • . • • . 28 tions 793 and 794. The transmission or the revelation Two Rock station • • • • • . 31 of its contents in any manner to an unauthorized per- 7th Detachment • • • • • . 33 son is prohibited by law. (See AR 380-5.) Caribbean Detachment • • • • • . • •• 34 HQ - ASA Europe • • . • • . • 35 HQ - ASA Hawaii • ••• 36 HQ - ASA Pacific . ..... 37 126th Detachment . ...... 38 HQ ASA . • • . • . • . • • • • . • . 39 Puzzle Corner • • • • • • • • . • 44 Books in Review • An Historical and Analytical Bibliography of the Literature of Cryptography • • • • Albert Howard Carter . 46 Scientists Against Time ••.•••• John D. Frost . • 48 Scanning the Shelves •••••..•. John D. Frost •.•••• . 49 f38NFIBENTIAt; I REF ID:A66161 could swing as if on parallel bars, prob­ The coconuts and bananas we had squeezed Signalman's Odyssey ably four or five feet wide. Having no in with the firewood. Tea, salt and a few keel, then Buckwheat" was kept upright by limes co5pleted our larder. A small bot­ ( Suufld@iitihl J two heavy balance-poles suspended from the tle of gin, which we radiomen had quietly outriggers. A bd!:lboo catwalk three feet taken charge of, for medicinal purposes, we were saving for chilly occasions. The Story Thus Far: wirie stretched to the fore-tips of each pole. Fresh rattan rigging served as guy­ At the outbreak of the War, Michael Maslak, then a PFC of the 2d Sig­ lines for the wooden mast, which was about On the night of June 9 we had been visi­ nal Service Company, was stationed at Baguio in north-central Luzon. fifteen feet high. We braided our own ted by three young Filipinos who had heard When Baguio was evacuated, Maslak and the rest managed to make their way lines from newly harvested hemp. The jib of our trir and wanted to accompany us. south to Corregidor. Late in March, eleven of the original seventeen men was a triangular section made of cotton Max, Sperry, and Trench were their nick­ were selected to go to .Australia as a cadre for the RI organization which material, while the mainsail was quadri­ names. They explained their reasons as a was to serve General MacArthur 1 s GHQ. lateral in shape, also made from cotton, desire for revenge for suffering at Davao; but a little heavier. Two small pulleys for the death of a brother in the Fhilip­ Flown to Mindanao, the 2d Sig men found only five were to be flown to worked the lines for raisine and lowering pine Army, and a wish to carry on the war Australia. The remaining six men were buffeted from one point to another the bamboo boom and the mainsail. A guide with the American forces. Our knowledge in their fight for a plane out of Mindanao. When the last American plane line for playing the sail was attached to of handling a banca was nil, and since had come and gone, they were left behind on Delmonte airfield, which even one end of the lower boom and freely held they claimed to know how, we took them <Jn. then was preparing to surrender to the Japanese. Rather than be taken on a peg at the stern. The rudder, four The second night out, however, they nearly prisoner, the remaining members of the group, with the exception of Brad­ feet long and two feet wide~ had a tiller caused a catastrophe, when we almost cap­ bury, took to the hills, Rhen and Gill leaving first, Maslak, Kapp, and handle operated by the helmsman. sized. From then on we relegated them to Stein following the next day. tasks calling for less judgment. Late on the afternoon of the tenth of JW1e, 1942, Maslak and his group made their way on foot through the jungle, anned we aecided to weigh anchor. With our Fil­ only with pistols, and supplied with meager rations of sardines and rice. ipino friends watching, we gave a prayer, In their weeks of travel they met other groups and were joined by a Field raised sail, weighed the ten-pound anchor, Artillery Captain and an Air Corps Sergeant. The five men found Rhen at and embarked on our journey. God alone a jungle village and arranged to rejoin forces at the coastal town of knew where we would end--or when. Bislig. Aided by friendly natives, who taught them to supplement their diet The First Night with jungle fare, they pressed on to the coast. Weeks after their de­ parture from Valencia, they arrived at Bislig. There they pooled their resources and bought a banca--a sailing canoe with outriggers. Here That first night out, with a favorable they waited for seven days for Rhen and Gill, realizing that with each running tide, and excellent sailing weath­ day their chance for escape grew slilmner. Finally, on 10 June, a month er, we made good headway under an offshore after the surrender of Mindanao, they set sail for Australia. breeze. During the first four days, every­ thing was in our favor, even to the com­ (Chapters 1 & 2 first appeared in the May-June and July­ plete absence of Japanese vessels plying August issues of the ASA Review in 1947. ED.) the waters between Surigao and Davao. That was what we feared most. Before we were aware of it we were sail­ By Mlchael Maslak ing through the Nenoesa Islands, a Dutch group southeast of Mindanao. We didn't SAILING stop - just ::mrmised the identity of these SOUTHWARD Flight from Mindanao specks of land from the National Geograph­ Our boat was a sailing banca of the type termined to ship out on the high seas in a ic Magazine of the Far East which we were used to transport a load of about 60 bags thing like that. The hull was open except for the loose using as one of the navigational aids: the of rice between neighboring coastal towns. board "deck" forward uf the mast, and a other two being the celestial bodies and a The ''Buckwheat 11 , which got its name from The HBuckwheat" small planked area abuut seven feet to the twentyfive cent compass which gave a read­ the efforts of the Filipinos to pronounce stern. The unly raised part of the boat ing if shaken hard enough. Heading a bit the word "evacuate", now seems too ridicu­ The hull waR a dug-out canoe some thirty was an eight-foot section with a "benig" east of south we figured that in four days lous to describe. At the end of its voy­ or thirty-five feet long, and planked on mat over bamboo strips for flooring and that port stern breeze had favored us with age, the boat drew a lot of smiles from the sides to give it depth.