Chapter III: Contemporary Naval Cryptologic Records
Historical Naval Security Group (NAVSECGRU)
Operational studies comprise the foundation of knowledge about our past. So do early station files and technical documents and the venerable RPS Library. Protecting and preserving them became my first priority when I assumed responsibility for the history of Naval Cryptology in 1968. Nevertheless, custodians at our records facility outside Washington noted significant gaps in their chronological coverage; additionally, we realized that existing records did not tell a complete story - they left a number of important questions unanswered. As related in earlier articles, valuable missing information surfaced many decades later from unexpected Presidential, Congressional, Navy, and personal family sources (e.g., President Woodrow Wilson, VADM Russell Willson and his World War I NCB device).
As we pieced together the functional origins of OP-20-G, it became clear that the Division of Operations, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and the Director of Naval Communications had a part in supporting Naval codes and ciphers when the U.S. entered the war in 1917. Soon after, as scarce office space became available during the war, those functions were consolidated and remained under the jurisdiction of Naval Communications for half a century. Regardless of the originator of our surviving records, however, we knew that, at some future date, current custodians would be held accountable within and outside the Navy for their physical condition and for ensuring their security — and eventually opening them to public use.
Upcoming Challenge: Recent and Future Command Records
Meanwhile, we could not overlook dealing with our contemporary and future records. The Naval Cryptologic organizations had continued to create files during the late 1940s through the 1960s—to include the Cold War, Korean Police Action, Cuban Missile Crisis, and Vietnam. We needed not only to capture the recent past, but also to look ahead to future records requirements. Cryptologic operations expanded along with the new Command structure once it activated in June 1968. In many ways, our situation presented challenges that paralleled those confronting the United States Federal government from the late 18th to the mid-20th century.
Technological developments brought the first U.S. patent for a typewriter in 1867. Then the standard QWERTY keyboard of the 1880s fostered its growing use for official documents into and throughout most of the 20th century. Electric typewriters, the IBM Selectric, self-carbon copies, and other innovations kept typewriters in use for over 100 years. The introduction of word processors and software for personal computers in the 1970s forced records managers and archivists to re-think record storage and readability requirements. For our Command, new documents would soon outnumber our earliest cryptologic records. More importantly, microform and automated records could overwhelm the volume of paper records and comprise a major percent of the total volume in storage. We knew that even this situation would not remain static; in fact, it changed dynamically over the next several decades.
Command Responsibilities for Records and Archives
In the early decades of our government, heads of Federal agencies would petition Congress to sell or destroy specified unneeded files. Over the first century of the Republic, guidelines were developed for some agencies that authorized disposal of its records without further approval.
World War I added impetus for standing rules and more efficient procedures for U.S. government records management, especially disposal. The growth of government during the 1930s and the World War II accelerated this effort. Following World War II, Congress passed the 1950 Federal Records Act (FRA) and has amended it as needed. The Act assigns overall responsibility, duties, and oversight to the Archivist of the United States. The FRA also charges agency heads, specifically including the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV), to:
“…make and preserve records containing adequate and proper documentation of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, and essential transactions of the agency and designed to furnish the information necessary to protect the legal and financial rights of the Government and of persons directly affected by the agency's activities.”
Naval Security Group records management implemented Secretary of the Navy regulations. If guidance already existed for disposing of our highly classified operational and technical records, however, it, too, was a well-kept secret. Therefore, serving a new second-echelon command as of 1 July 1968, we needed to craft our own implementing instructions to carry out Congressional statutory authority pursuant to SECNAV and Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV) regulations and directives governing records and archives.
Learning How to Manage U.S. Federal Records and Archives
Within months after reporting on board the Command, I enrolled in an after-hours course at The American University in records and archives management. Instruction ranged from the fundamental to the paramount. For example, we started with basic definitions: Federal archives consist of files of records “…routinely created during the normal course of conduction public business…” that are preserved permanently. We ended with two principles at the heart of modern archival philosophy that have been fixed since the French Revolution and Napoleon:
Records should be kept together as created to retain their provenance (place of origin) and respect des fonds (initial file relationships) – in short, their archival identity and integrity.
These principles protect their potential evidentiary value for future reference.
Archival principles and techniques outlined in the course were discussed with the Officer in Charge of the NAVSECGRU Central Depository for appropriate application. We made fairly easy progress meeting our new records challenge, but applied NA guidelines for archives very deliberately to avoid taking irreversible actions with our historical NAVSECGRU records.
My Department Head referred my term paper proposing automation of archival functions to the new Headquarters department for Management of Information Systems. An appendix to the paper addressed the challenge of coding future NAVSECGRU records in full compliance with the Department of the Navy Standard Subject Identification Code (SSIC) Manual. This became a major undertaking to align our files with similar Department of the Navy subjects prescribed by law and regulation, and to assign numbers to unique cryptologic subjects. It was a daunting task.
Creating New Number Codes for Subjects of Future Naval Cryptologic Records
Secretary of the Navy regulations and Chief of Naval Operations instructions effective in 1970 applied statutory authority from Congress for managing and disposing of current records and applying Presidential executive orders governing the classification and declassification of national security information. Navy guidance thus stated in general terms how to handle records, both classified and unclassified. The task for the Command was to develop specific rules implementing those regulations for Naval cryptologic records.
Several challenges immediately faced us as we added to the Navy SSIC Manual:
- First, the basic concern was that Navy filing and disposal regulations themselves did not appear to have remained current with Federal laws and regulations.
- Second, our fundamental records management reality was that special security markings on NAVSECGRU records prevented their transfer to Federal Records Centers and, over time, to Regional Archives or the National Archives.
- Third, we had a late start in establishing new number codes for Naval cryptologic subjects for use throughout our new Command, and by other Navy and Marine Corps elements that created, used, and disposed of those files.
Additionally, Navy guidance for handling records lagged behind new and developing technology, and suffered from inadequate oversight and compliance. Navy regulations also did not connect directly with U.S. laws and policies for subject coding and records disposal.
On this point, SECNAV authorization to dispose of official files legally depended on the codes assigned to them. Historical records retained their original codes, of course. But SECNAV records-filing instructions first appeared in 1923 and had changed four times through 1941, when they included Marine Corps subjects for the first time. Codes were modified and updated again several times after World War II. Not only did this complicate tracking subjects over the five decades up to 1970, but it introduced some confusion as to when similar records were authorized for disposal. More recent subject records likely carried different codes.
For the NAVSECGRU, possibly as a result of our need for secrecy during World War II, all subjects had been authorized to be coded entirely within the block of 2500-2599 numbers in the SECNAV SSIC manual. The reason may have been that their security markings requiring special handling and storage. The practical result was that, potentially, this block duplicated many of the Navy-wide subject codes that were organized into 13 major categories, ranging from 1000 through 13999 (e.g., 1000 – 1999 = Military Personnel; 2000 – 2999 = Communications; 3000 – 3999 = Operations and Readiness; 4000 – 4999 = Logistics; and so on through 13000 – 13999 = Aeronautical and Astronautical Material).
SECNAV records-management officials agreed to correct this anomaly by re-assigning numbers in the 2500-2599 block to communications systems that handled Special Intelligence (SI) or other compartmented classified information. (Remember, numbers from 2000 – 2999 were assigned to Communications subjects.) Security classification markings would then determine access, handling, storage, and transfer of such information.
Any Navy or Marine Corps organization with SI communications records could use the 2500 – 2599 block of SSIC numbers; conversely, NAVSECGRU activities, departments, divisions, detachments, and other units henceforth would use the same codes as other Navy and Marine Corps organizations for all other subjects. Classified records would be filed using the same codes as unclassified documents, but their markings distinguished them for separate secure handling.
The Records Management Office of the Secretary of the Navy appreciated this change because it recognized the obvious different purposes of SSICs and security classification markings. It also facilitated making future changes to records disposition schedules and opened up flexibility in managing future electronic records with less human intervention.
Crucial Connection: SSICs Determine the Life Cycle of Files
Our next step required more time to accomplish. During the first SECNAV Inspector General inspection of the new NAVSECGRU command in the early 1970s, we recommended that SSICs be integrated into the records management manual to clarify file life spans; thus, records filed by each SSIC number would have an approved disposition schedule. Federal laws and regulations authorize disposal of official records either by retirement (to Federal Records Centers or to Regional or the National Archives) or by destruction. About 98% of Federal records are scheduled for destruction, while applying specific criteria correctly selects between 2% and 3% of all records that are considered to have permanent value and perhaps ultimate accessioning into the National Archives.
The statutory basis for disposal is based on textual descriptions of subject files, which thus must tie in to Navy subject codes. Connecting SSICs directly to disposal decisions potentially simplified annual file cleanouts. Also, future electronic records coded by SSICs could be automatically programmed for disposal with fewer hours of tedious paper shuffling. Eventually, the Navy made these coding and records disposal changes, which also paid off later in more efficient systematic review of records for declassification and public release under Presidential executive orders.
Summing Up
The Command took actions to preserve our Naval cryptologic memory: First we stabilized historic document holdings; then we initiated steps to integrate our management of current and future records with SECNAV regulations as required by U.S. law and the Federal Code. Obviously, our procedures would change along with those for the rest of the Navy. Before the 1970s decade ended, public pressure to declassify historic files throughout the Federal Government made it necessary for the Command to hire a small team of retired specialists with appropriate security clearances to review all our historical records for possible public release. Agencies again came under similar political pressure during the 1990s, resulting in a Presidential executive order that directed declassification of more recent records; that and subsequent orders established a permanent program overseen by the NA to declassify and release records to the public. This joint agency effort continues to the present.
Records and Archives of the U.S.
When the US government opened for business in 1789, acts of Congress that created the Executive Departments provided for appointing clerks who maintained records of their agency functions. Some 100 years and the Civil War passed before Congress enacted the first general statute that addressed the problems caused by fire, disintegration, and lost files that came with the accumulation of Federal records. In 1889, “An act to authorize and provide for the disposition of useless papers in the Executive Departments” directed the head of each Department to identify for sale as waste paper “…files not needed for current use and having no permanent value or historical interest.”
Laws and regulations thereafter addressed the problem piecemeal until midpoint of the 20th century. The next update came in the 1934 National Archives Act. Official documents and papers that had accumulated during the Civil War, World War I, and the 1930s had created a growing problem. Each agency was asked to comply with the law as best it could.
In 1947, President Harry S. Truman appointed the Commission on the Organization of the Executive Branch of Government, chaired by former President Herbert Hoover. Hoover’s Task Force on Records Management made three vital recommendations:
- First, enact legislation that would bring about “…the more effective creation, preservation, management, and disposal…” of records; the Federal Records Act (FRA) of 1950 satisfied this urgent recommendation.
- Second, the Act charged the Archivist of the United States with overall records management and archives administration responsibilities.
- Third, implementing Federal regulations authorized agency heads to carry out provisions of the FRA.
NARA
The National Archives operates Archives I in Washington, D.C. and Archives II in College Park, Maryland. They comprise a major component of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), an independent Federal agency since 1984. The heavily used census and related genealogy records are located in Archives I in Washington, D.C.
NARA also operates a federal government-wide records management program that determines the life cycle of official records. There are 16 Federal Records Centers around the country and regional archives in some 17 states. Non-federal institutions receive guidance and grant assistance for preserving their records through the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
Additionally, NARA manages 14 Presidential Libraries from Herbert Hoover to the most recent retired incumbent. Of particular interest to former civil service and military personnel, it also manages the National Personnel Records Center in St Louis. Its Office of Government Information Services oversees implementation of the Freedom of Information Act; its Information Security Oversight Office implements Presidential executive orders for protecting classified and controlled unclassified information; and it operates the National Declassification Center.
Last but not least, NARA publishes the Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Statutes at Large, and the Federal Register (a daily journal of recent Federal Government regulations, proclamations, and orders), as well as Presidential and other public documents. The Office of the Federal Register plays a vital role in transmitting official Electoral College votes to Congress.
Navy Subject Codes
An SSIC is a four or five digit number that identifies the subject of a document as part of the coding system required under 36 Code of Federal Regulations 1222.50. SSICs are required on all Navy and Marine Corps letters, messages, directives, forms, and reports regardless of the medium. The Navy code and cipher function originated in and had been part of the Naval Communications organization since World War I. Early filing identifiers were established by each major component of the Navy; as the SSIC structure became uniform throughout the Department of the Navy, however, those components were no longer the exclusive or main user of “their” number codes. A vital companion is SECNAV Manual M-5210.1, the Records Management Manual issued in November 2017. It lists records disposition schedules by SSIC and incorporates NARA records disposal policy and guidelines; the Archivist of the United States has approved the schedules as required by law.
Archives I
In the foreground is the 1965 Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial at 9th and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, located next to the Research Center entrance to Archives I. This so-identified "first FDR memorial" originated in a 1941 conversation between the President and Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. FDR asked that any memorial to him be on the green plot next to the Archives building, and be “plain without any ornamentation”, about the size of his desk, and with the simple carving “In Memory of .” Many archivists honor President Roosevelt as the founder of the National Archives (NA); his New Deal programs in the 1930s created enormous volumes of Federal records.
This original NA building is located near the east tail of the Federal Triangle between 7th and 9th Streets, with entrances via both Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues. Congress provided initial funding in 1926, construction began in 1931, President Herbert Hoover laid the cornerstone in 1933 — and was completed, dedicated by President Roosevelt, and occupied in 1935. Symbolically, it lies halfway between the Capitol and the White House.
Archives I hosts the Office of the Archivist of the United States. The first Archivist, historian Robert D. W. Connor, accepted the position in October 1934 as the head of an independent Federal agency. The 1950 Federal Records Act subordinated NA to the General Services Administration from 1950 to 1984, when the National Archives and Records Administration again emerged as an independent agency.
Archives II
The National Archives at College Park, MD (“Archives II”) was occupied in 1994. it holds many historical Navy and Marine Corps cryptologic records in Record Group (RG) 38. Unfortunately, starting in the late 20th century, some individual historical Naval cryptologic documents were placed in another agency’s RG, causing them to lose their provenance and respect des fonds. Their contents and words generally remained unchanged, of course, but they are now individual documents and thus isolated from their files; their full informational value is distorted at best, and likely not recoverable.
As noted, an archives is significantly different from a library. Unlike books, the meaning and value of archival records derives in part from their relationships with other records and the people and organizations that created them. Once separated from the agency of origin, it may be difficult to reconstruct those relationships and assess the historical value of any given item. Government agencies have a legal obligation to ensure their records reflect organizational, administrative, and operational activities in fulfilling assigned missions and functions.
A Personal Note
The Navy advertised my Civil Service position as an Historian. When I entered on duty in 1968, I had earned a Bachelors and a Master’s degree in History, and all but a thesis for a second Master’s degree, in International Relations. These involved extensive research in university and public libraries and the Library of Congress (LC), as well as in the Presidential Papers of Woodrow Wilson held by the LC Manuscript (MS) Division. Subsequent research for a PhD in Law and Policy Studies in the School of Government and Politics at The American University involved working in all these venues, plus agency data bases and law libraries.
Nevertheless, research in libraries using the Dewey Decimal or LC Classification Systems and using finding aids for the Wilson Papers in the LC MS Division did not provide any experience in managing an archives. Federal archival records are arranged, indexed, and retrieved substantially differently than books, MSs, or personal and Presidential Papers.
My year-long course in records management and archives administration at American University (AU) was taught by a deputy assistant archivist at the National Archives (NA), who was an adjunct professor in the AU History Department. Most of the students were NA employees acquiring formal academic qualifications for their professional positions. The first semester class met after working hours in a NA room with windows overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue. Because I was the only enrollee for the second semester, the course became a weekly tutorial held in his impressive NA administrative office with high ceilings.
It was fortuitous that he served in the Navy during World War II, and that several Navy archivists helped develop traditions of the NA in its early years. Later, the NA head of declassification also became a good friend, and in 1999 the Archivist introduced himself to me at a meeting of the Nazi war crimes records declassification Interagency Working Group because of his positive relations with Navy personnel in various previous positions.