Editor’s Note: Whatever you think of the new and old administrations, one has to observe that the new one doesn’t mind working. The lights are on in the West Wing early, and the meetings are going all day, with periodic breaks to sign Executive Orders. What an interesting next four years this is going to be. Looking back over the last four years, it is time to get this account of Mac’s remarkable life and times into a coherent document that tells the story of the momentous events of the last hundred years. In fact, the working title of the book has evolved to something like that. “Cocktails with Mac: Hot and Cold Wars in the American Century.”
– Vic
Fronts
(JICPOA Building 1943, left. Mac says the Quonsett to the right actually held mostly blank punch cards for the IBM machines and reams of onion skin and teletype paper the command went through. Mac’s car is the four-door 1936 Ford (body) at this end of the row parked along the Quonset Hut. He says “body” because it had a 1932 V-8 engine in it — first year of the V-8s. Official Navy photo.)
The hubbub at the bar had a sort of desperate merriment, like people were trying to forget the economic news, and the new guidance from Secretary Gates to trim Defense contracting. It made it hard to hear above the wine-fueled din.
I was determined to get through the big transition in the intelligence organizations that happened on Hawaii after the victory at Midway in 1942. I was making slow going of it. It is not as exciting as the magic moment at Midway, but that was built on months of mind-numbingly detailed analysis.
Plus, the food at Willow was too good, and there is a lot of other stuff going on to talk about.
“OK, I said. “ It is 1942, the war is being taken- barely- to the enemy, as that stubborn jerk Richmond Kelly Turner landed the Marines on Guadalacanl, and then cut and ran on them.”
Mac nodded, patient with my disorganization.
“Turner had a lot of baggage on the war being the way it was then,” I ventured. “His stubborn determination to do his own analysis was a lot like Secretary Rumsfeld,” I said taking a sip of white wine at the little table, moving the Senate notepad around a stack of books and the plates that went along with the fish-and-chips.
“His control of Radio Intelligence and the decision to withhold information from Admiral Kimmel and his intelligence Officer Eddie Layton at Pearl unquestionably contributed significantly to the disaster,” replied Mac.
“Then, the revelations of the Redman Brothers, who were determined to destroy Joe Rochefort…”
“And Eddie,” Mac reminded me. “Admiral King wanted Nimitz to fire him, too, but he wouldn’t. Another villain in all this was Admiral Russell Willson- two ll’s- who was Chief of Staff to Ernie King back in Washington. He had a real mean streak and listened to the lying Redman brothers.”
(RADM Russel Willson relieves Chester Nimitz as BatDiv 1 on USS Arizona, 1939. Official Navy picture.)
“Could it have something to do with the fact that Admiral Nimitz was advanced ahead of him to command the Pacific theater? I understood Willson relieved Nimitz on Arizona before the war.”
“Could be. But he was a sonofabitch. The Redmans used him to pursue the leak of the code-breaking revealed in the Chicago papers until it was all in the papers again. They had to have a Grand Jury and a publicity circus.”
“The Japanese may have got the hint that way, or it could have been something else. But if the codes were changed because of those bastards, four American cruisers were sunk in The Slot because there was no warning available for them.” Mac furrowed his brow, and his eyes misted at the loss of hundreds of sailors on those proud ships.
“The change in the JN-25 code system meant that Station Hypo had to start over, almost from scratch. The Marines in the jungle, and the fleet at sea, were in the dark except for what they could see themselves.”
I scribbled madly. “OK- now, you got to that point still working in the basement?”
“Yes,” said Mac. “We were growing. We had a space over in the Supply building. That was mostly the Air Intelligence folks coming in, but things were definitely growing. In response to a Marine Corps requirement, Admiral Nimitz directed the establishment of the Intelligence Center Pacific, or ICPOA, about six weeks after the battle.”
(Joe Rochefort. Official Navy Picture)
“Joe Rochefort was the first Officer in Charge, right?”
“Yes. That was before the summons came from Washington for a short Temporary Duty period. We all knew he would not be back. He turned over the keys to his desk before he left. At the time, he was dual-hatted as the OIC of FRUPAC and ICPOA. “
“Jasper Holmes wrote that there really wasn’t any such thing in the early days.”
“He was quite right. In the beginning, Station HYPO took the cover name “Combat Intelligence Unit” (CIU) to deflect speculation about the sensitive work performed there. As more people arrived to augment HYPO, those not engaged in strictly Radio Intelligence functions were assigned all-source analysis duties under Jasper, involving enemy ord. That group assumed the CIU name, while still located in the same place.
“It was a cover, then.”
Mac chuckled. “Yep. That meant there were some other issues. I was a deck officer, remember, and the Bureau tried to send me to sea twice, since the Fleet was growing like Topsy. They wanted me to go on a minesweeper, but it was a case of me knowing too much about something the Bureau didn’t. Jasper managed to get me ordered to the Hawaiian Sea Frontier, but I never changed my desk.”
“That was about the time the official name FRUPAC actually was used, right?”
Mac nodded. “Later on, after Joe left and Captain Goggins showed up to relieve him. He got there before the orders did, and we thought he was supposed to command ICPAO, not replace Joe.”
Mac looked off in the general direction of Peter, who was doing one of those graceful pours from a bottle into a tulip glass for the amusement of two attractive ladies who were seated close together at the bar.
“Goggins was no cryptologist,” He said. “he had some communications background, but he was really a line officer, which made the lies of the Redman brothers that slandered Joe so hard to take. Goggins had been XO on Marblehead at the Battle of Makkassar Strait, and he was badly burned when the Japs hit her. He was still recovering when he reported.”
I looked at my notes. “They added a “J” to ICPOA to reflect Admrial Nimitz’s role as the joint force commander,” I read.
“Correct. Eddie Layton found an Army topographic unit over at Fort Shafter that wasn’t doing anything, and to accommodate the new composition of the unit, they ordered in Colonel Twiddy. He was the outside guy, always with a big cigar. Jasper Holmes would work at the Estimates section in the morning, and then spend the afternoon as the XO at JICPAO. Jasper did all the heavy lifting.”
“And what happened to CIU?”
“It became the Estimates Section, organizationally part of the JIC, but remaining in the same building with Radio Intelligence, using their decrypts and traffic analysis to formulate an all-source intelligence picture for the daily onion-skin overlay for Admiral Nimitz’s flag plot, and the weekly Intelligence Bulletin.”
“Did they report to Eddie as the Fleet Intelligence Officer?” I asked.
“Nope. FRUPAC always reported to the CINCPACFLT communications Officer,” said Mac.
“Isn’t that a bitch!” I exclaimed. That was the result of that asshole John Redman!” How did Eddie put up with him? You must have known him.”
“Nope. I was not on the CICPACFLT staff until we went forward to Guam. John Redman stayed in Hawaii.”
“That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest,” I said, putting down my pen and raising my empty glass to signal Big Jim behind the bar for reinforcements.
“I don’t know what Eddie thought about him,” said Mac. “But he doesn’t appear anywhere in his book about the rest of the war, except to note that he was probably responsible for the change in the codes.
“And the deaths of a bunch of sailors in The Slot,” I said. “No wonder there has been bad blood between the Cryppies and the Intel guys for all these years. What a story.”
“We ignored that, and most of us were not intelligence anyway, at the time. But let me tell you how it worked when Eddie shot his poker and bridge buddy.”
I could see there was more wine on the way. It was a good thing, because this was going to be a hell of a story. And there were a couple people back at the office with whom I would be happy to have the same opportunity.
Copyright 2017 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com