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(U) Part III of Remembrance of NSA Thanksgivings Past...
FROM: SIGINT Communications
Unknown
Run Date: 11/24/2005
(U) We asked NSA'ers to send us their stories of spending
Thanksgiving in unusual circumstances (see the call for
submissions ). Here's what we learned...
(U) Thanksgiving on the High Seas
(U//FOUO) This is a story of Thanksgiving during the Iran-Iraq war
in 1987, when the Iranian navy was attacking oil tankers in the
Persian Gulf and US warships were escorting the "Ernist Will"
tanker convoys through the Straits of Hormuz into the Arabian
Sea.
(U//FOUO) We were aboard the USS Standley, and had exited the
Straits into the Arabian Sea, which placed us under the jurisdiction
of the Commander of Task Force 800 (CTF800). The Captain of the
Standley wanted us to transfer to another ship so that the
Standley's crew could proceed to their next port call.
(U//FOUO) On the night before Thanksgiving, CTF800 ordered our
helicopter transfer to the USS Whiteplains. So, at 0600,
Thanksgiving morning, we were lifted by wire, and dropped by
wire, onto the Whiteplains. We were invited to join the Whiteplains
crew for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner; wonderful..because,
after all, they were the supply ship for CTF800 and had been
saving the choice cuts for themselves!
(U//FOUO) Watching the sailors on board the Whiteplains work 24
hrs a day, supplying the long line of ships, generated a great deal
of my respect for their ability to coordinate this feat. After our
meal, we transferred to another ship and resumed operations in
the Gulf.
-
(U) Alone in the Albanian Alps
(TS//SI) I believe it was 1996, and I was one of the Agency's
electrical engineers in their facilities department. One of the
programs I typically assisted with was the Agency's Third Party
program. We got a job from G Group to have power run up a
mountain to a remote collection facility currently running on
generators. The schedule had me going to Albania in November. I
traveled to the site with several European Technical Center
members, but their work ended much earlier, so they left to go
back to Wiesbaden before the holiday. I was the sole American on
the mountain top that Thanksgiving. Fortunately, I saved an
appropriate MRE (Meal Ready-to-Eat) to have for dinner.
(U//FOUO) Of intense interest to Government employees at this
time was the fight between Congress and the President. This
SERIES:
(U) Thanksgiving
1. A Remembrance of
NSA Thanksgivings
Past...
2. Part II of
Remembrance of
NSA Thanksgivings
Past...
3. Part III of
Remembrance of
NSA Thanksgivings
Past...
resulted in furloughs of Government employees, including several
people I know. My main contact here at the Agency would call me
about every other day on the ringdown phone and assure me that I
had not been furloughed for that day.
--
(U) Thanks to everyone who shared Thanksgiving stories!
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108