World War I

The Army Security Agency, as we knew it, in it's various incarnations, goes back to World War I, when the 'Secret War' came about, by 'Reading each other's mail', which was frowned upon by some high ranking allied officers. Even though it was frowned upon, it gave the information on movements and potential attacks to political and social situations within the opponent.

As evidenced from the picture at the top of this page, the intercept and direction finding capabilities were developed and improved upon to provide timely intelligence to the commanders.

Peace Time between Wars

Even in peacetime, one must keep an 'eye' on those that may wish to overthrow various governments and countries. This was evidenced in the time between World War I and World War II. In this time, two governments became quite aggressive and posed a potential danger to the world as well as our homelands.

Between the wars, the Signals Intercept missions were used to keep the United States informed on the activities and intentions of those countries that became aggressive, and especially after they joined in an Axis treaty, each aiding the other.

World War II Pacific Theatre

It is accepted that the Attack on Pearl Harbor is the act that brought the United States our of peacetime into the action known as World War II.

Prior to the attack, the military had intercepted code from the aggressors, deciphered the code and forwarded it through channels to the Commander in Chief. We knew before the Japanese Ambassador provided the information to the President that there was going to be an aggression on the United States.

Other notable incidents were the Midway intercepts where the intelligence branches intercepted the code, broke the code and found that the Japanese were going to attack Midway Island. The American forces reacted appropriately.

World War II European Theatre

In the European Theatre, the intercept, decoding and location via the airwaves dynamically expanded, with new technologies and systems.

The ENIGMA system was compromised and intelligence was provided. The partisan provided information via signals and the units communicated via signals.

It was during this time and post World War II the Army Security Agency came to existence.

It was found that signals could be intercepted in various parts of the United States, including the area around Ayer, Mass. Quite by accident some people were listening to Short Wave radio and picked up signals in German. When reported to the government agencies, it was decided to implement a group of military people to establish an intercept station at the location now known as Fort Devens, the message traffic that was being picked up was mainly from the North Africa areas.

KoreaThe next conflict that impacted the Signals Intelligence was the Korean Conflict. During this period of time, many intercept and location units were deployed to intercept and locate the Korean and Chinese units deployed in the various areas and project movements to the military staff, to enable the movements to check the attacks.

Cold War and Viet Nam Before, after and during the Korean Conflict there was a 'Cold War' in Europe, by Cold War, we mean there were not actual 'battles' between the Allied Nations and the Soviet Bloc Countries, however there was a massive signals intercept program going on between both elements. Many ASA members were involved in this activity, from bases all over Europe and Western Asia, we attempted to follow and intercept the 'other side' while being clandestine ourselves.

There were many sites around the geographic area that accomplished this task.

While in the Southeast Asia Theatre there were many units assigned to asunder military units to search out and locate the North Vietnamese units in South Vietnam. These soldiers were very aggressive and were able to locate and report intelligence to the Headquarters to allow deployment of soldiers to fight against the aggressor forces.