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(U) THEN vs NOW: How Being an IA Has Changed In the Past
(Almost) Half Century
FROM:
Senior Intel Analyst & Reporter, Weapons Systems (S2J33)
Run Date: 07/07/2006
(U//FOUO) Upon hearing that
had been a SIGINT analyst for 48 years,
SIDtoday asked him to pen some words describing how the business has changed over that time
span...
(U//FOUO) BACK THEN . . . in the late 1950s, an Air Force (AF) analyst emerged from the fog at
the RAF Chicksands Air Base in Bedfordshire, England. Today, this analyst looks a little different
(balding, spare middle-ground, rider of three-wheeled cart).
(U) In USAF, 1957 (U) As civilian in 2005.
(U//FOUO) I was a young AF COMINT analyst of the Soviet World who worked to gain stripes (on
the sleeve) and recognition as a hard-charging collector, analyst and reporter. (We did the
whole cycle - from collecting the signal to sending out the reports.) On occasion, I got to brief
visiting AF generals and NSA civilians on the latest Russian Air Defense systems and on our
collection successes against them. It was truly an exciting world for me.
(U//FOUO) How was it back then, and what tools were available? My work was done in potbellied, oil heated, small prefabricated buildings. We had a few collection positions in the
radioprinter section of the site operations area. We started out with weather and air-defense
targets assigned by the great, all-knowing (?) NSA taskers. At first we had known and fairly
static callsigns and schedules to follow, so the job of collection was rather simple. You tuned up
the receiver and adjusted the demodulators on the target. Reporting was just filling out a
proforma report with up and down times on the appropriate frequency. It was a bit boring. The
shift to newer missions and signals was soon welcomed. By now I was a three-striper and soon
made four of them.
(U//FOUO) Now the tasks were getting more interesting. I was working with Morse, printer,
facsimile and "data" transmission. We had to wear our headsets continuously to be sure we
searched out and found our targets. Now we had new challenges from NSA. The hardest was a
series of data transmissions used by the Soviet air defense targets. As analysts, we had to first
"find" the signal, run all the bits on paper tape, resolve what the traffic was, try to equate the
traffic to a specific ground station/airfield area involved, and report this to NSA.
(U//FOUO) The challenge of doing all this was exciting and made one proud of successes. The
NSA "scientists and engineers" tried to spoil our fun by bringing in a prototype analysis system
with a plotting board. All this work was intense and burned a lot of intelligence grey matter and
late hours. We had to know our target locations down to the airfield runways and how they fit
into the then-Soviet Air Defense System.
(U//FOUO) The tools were mostly whatever you had stored in the brain and a few
working aids, after applying receivers and demodulators to the signals. We had to keep copious
notes on 3X5 cards for daily application to work the mission. I am sure I worked with more than
I remember . . . but it was a lot of FUN.
(S//SI) NOW VERSUS THEN . . . It is a very different job nowadays, with many computer
tools of the trade rather than 3X5 cards. I go fishing in the great pond called "Pinwale."
Obviously, the fishing is limited by imagination (and USSID rules), but the chances of finding
your target are quite good. My reporting is via Product Reports, and although I am still an
analyst and reporter, I no longer do collection. (I do not miss having to start with a receiver and
find the signals. Those who do this have my sympathy and thanks.)
(S//SI) The main stress for me nowadays is using my eyes to look at hundreds of search results
each day. The world got a lot larger while I look for relevant South Asia, Middle-East, and some
European targets that send traffic relevant to my platforms and weapons mission. After some 48
years in this intelligence business, it still motivates me to get out of bed and drive to the
campus. I do miss the front-end fog of England and the desert heat of the Middle East. If you
want some war stories, look me up and let's chat; I will try to motivate you in whatever work
you do. I have been here and there and done lots of that.
"(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