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American Cryptology during the Cold War - The Black Vault

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<strong>The</strong> message went via HF single sideband, passing through up to six relay centers<br />

before finally arriving at ei<strong>the</strong>r Arlington Hall or Naval Security Station. It might have to<br />

be reencrypted up to five times, and <strong>the</strong> process required from twenty-four to forty-eight<br />

hours to send a routine message to <strong>the</strong> capital. Because of <strong>the</strong> many relays and inherent<br />

degradation of HF channels, up to 30 percent arrived undecipherable and had to be<br />

retransmitted. Messages required several hours for decryption, and <strong>the</strong> handling time for<br />

each message, including marking and routing to <strong>the</strong> intended recipient, took several more<br />

hours. <strong>The</strong> ASA communications center at Arlington Hall, for instance, was taking<br />

approximately fOUf days (on top of <strong>the</strong> one to two days of transmission time) to deliver a<br />

routine message. <strong>The</strong> fastest possible handling time on <strong>the</strong> most critical information was<br />

not less than five to six hours from time ofintercept, according to information furnished to<br />

<strong>the</strong> Robertson Committee in 1953. 29<br />

Arthur Enderlin<br />

One ofNSA's communications pioneers, he helped<br />

When AFSA came into existence,<br />

<strong>the</strong> communications system on which it<br />

relied was reported to be "in a<br />

deplorable and deteriorating state."<br />

Arthur Enderlin, one of AFSA's top<br />

communications people, conducted a<br />

study detailing <strong>the</strong> decrepit conditions<br />

and sent it to Admiral Stone. A<br />

disbelieving Stone decreed a full-blown<br />

study, which just confirmed Enderlin's<br />

contentions. 30<br />

Nothing was done under Stone. But<br />

when Canine arrived, plans were<br />

immediately laid by Enderlin's<br />

successor, Lieutenant Colonel William<br />

B. Campbell, for a separate AFSA<br />

communications center to process traffic<br />

destined for AFSA organizations. In<br />

July 1952, <strong>the</strong> new communications<br />

handling facility opened in B Building<br />

at Arlington Hall, using Teletype Corporation<br />

Model-19s. This was a good first<br />

step, and it reduced <strong>the</strong> message<br />

handling time for routine messages to<br />

three hours, while cutting <strong>the</strong> message<br />

develop <strong>the</strong> system throughout <strong>the</strong> 19508 and 1960s. backlog to almost nothing. 31<br />

IIIdof5LI!J • fA 'fALl!Jlof'f f~1!J i II6LI!J e6MI!of'f e6!of'fft6L S-YS'fI!JMS d'6Hof'fJ:S<br />

NOT REJ.EASABJ E TO i'QRiJIElN ?iA't'16Iof*L~<br />

206<br />

-- -_. -_._------------- - _ .. ---------

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