Army Security Agency

[Jinx & Wayne]

Are there any ASA vets out there?

Wayne Foote

98J/98G

[Chalkie]

What language were you?

[agesilaus]

My father was in the ASA up until around 1960. Ft Huachuacha, Ft Mammoth, taught at Great Lakes. Spent WWII at running a station at St Lucia as an E7, listening to German U-Boote.

Korea over there in Korea.

Retired came back the next week at the same job as a civvie. I assume he spoke German.

Cell signal minimal here tho.

[sandsys]

I remember my father working at The Signal Depot in Decatur, Illinois. Would that have been part of the ASA? Except he was a sailor not a soldier so probably not.

Linda

[agesilaus]

I don't know if that was a separate rate back then but today the Navy calls them Communications Techs: CT. Now, unless that has changed.

Just a guess but your father was probably a Radioman or Signalman.

I see WT Griffin often refers to "Gray Foxes" in the Army back in WWII in his books, I suspect those were ASA.

[Chalkie]

I recognized the MOSs as I went to school and was stationed with some Army folk. I was in the Navy, specifically the Naval Security Group, which as the Navy equivalent to the ASA. Sadly, neither of those organizations exist any longer. CTs still exist in the Navy but the jobs they do have morphed into something far different than when I served.

[Jinx & Wayne]

On 10/14/2022 at 11:35 AM, Chalkie said:

What language were you?

Russian. I went to school with a lot of CT's at DLI in Monterey.

 

On 10/14/2022 at 3:39 PM, agesilaus said:

My father was in the ASA up until around 1960. Ft Huachuacha, Ft Mammoth, taught at Great Lakes. Spent WWII at running a station at St Lucia as an E7, listening to German U-Boote.

Korea over there in Korea.

There were just a few WWII guys left when I enlisted in 1969. St. Lucia must have been interesting. He was likely providing intel for Ernest Hemingway, among others. "Islands in the Stream" was semi-autobigraphical. Hemingway did hunt U-boats in his yacht, "Pilar."

[Jinx & Wayne]

On 10/14/2022 at 4:15 PM, agesilaus said:

I see WT Griffin often refers to "Gray Foxes" in the Army back in WWII in his books, I suspect those were ASA.

ASA was formed in 1945. Up until then the mission was under the command of Army Signal Corps. ASA was disbanded in 1976 and our units shifted to INSCOM (Intelligence and Security Command). Up until them our chain-of-command ran through NSA.

[Chalkie]

4 hours ago, Jinx & Wayne said:

Russian. I went to school with a lot of CT's at DLI in Monterey.

Me, too, although it was my second trip through DLI. First time was for Vietnamese. I actually went through twice for Russian. After an overseas tour and then a stint in recruiting duty, the Navy, in its sometimes not so infinite wisdom, sent me back for basic again. It was basically a year long vacation. I was senior enlisted in a class that was about 50% Army. Learning Army uniform regs was interesting and some of the ladies were very creative in their attempts to slip by them.

[Jinx & Wayne]

10 hours ago, Chalkie said:

It was basically a year long vacation.

I agree. My Russian instructor was Gospodin Starov. He was a Ukrainian, and a former Soviet tank company commander who fought at Kursk. There was another instructor who was a Prussian and a former Wermacht light colonel who also was at Kursk. The two refused to have anything to do with each other. They would not even look at each other.

Gospodin Starov was of the opinion that we spoke better Russian if we were a little less self conscious. Every Friday at 1300 we would go the the Club for drinks and conversation solely in Russian. His daughter got married while we were there. He had a shortage of young men for the wedding so several of us were invited. A Ukrainian wedding is a thing to behold!

[Chalkie]

11 hours ago, Jinx & Wayne said:

A Ukrainian wedding is a thing to behold!

I can imagine!

One of our instructors invited the some of the class to her home to celebrate a traditional Russian Orthodox Easter dinner. So much food, several items very unfamiliar to us, and drink! It was the first time I experienced vodka that had lemon peel and whole peppercorns in it that was frozen so that it was almost like syrup. Toasts with that hit you hard and fast.

[Jinx & Wayne]

9 hours ago, Chalkie said:

vodka that had lemon peel and whole peppercorns in it that was frozen so that it was almost like syrup.

I think drinking was the national pastime. The Ukrainians drank it warm, in water glasses.