The Secret Is Unveiled

 

            In 1968 Britain declassified many of its World War II documents, including the "Ultra" operation.  In 1978 the United States declassified some of its documents on the "Magic" operation.  Books began to appear on the subject, but little mention was made of the Waves large involvement in the bombe project.

            Sue Eskey was in Washington D.C. on the American Heritage Trail in April 1993 when she received the shock of her life.

            "At the Museum of American History I found this display with this huge big coding machine that we had worked on.  I felt guilty.  I thought 'My God, what's it doing out here?'  Everyone is coming by and looking at it!

            "I'm looking at this (machine) and surrounding it is a floor to ceiling black and white photo mural of this huge big room that we worked in.  There were these banks of machines all the way down and over to the center, with work tables down the center.  And I looked over to the side and there I am sitting at the table, just as big as life.  Well, I almost fainted.  I couldn't believe it.           

            "Ginny Smith lives in Philadelphia, so as soon as I got back to the motel I called her and told her.  I said 'You'll never believe what I saw today.' And she said 'What?'  And I said 'I saw the big monsters that we used to work.'  I never dared to even use the name of the machine yet, you know, because even though it was public I was still a little rattled.  She said 'You're kidding.'  She knew immediately what I was talking about.  So we decided that we'd have to get a reunion up among just a few of us that were friends that we knew.  So four of us got together in September, and went back to see the 'Shrine'.  'The Shrine of Suzie.'  I tell you."

 

 

Reunion

 

             Joseph Desch died in 1987, never having revealed to his daughter his work during the war.  After finding out about the code-breaking project her father was involved in, she wrote an article called “Joseph Desch and Magic”.  This was published in a Montgomery County Historical Society journal in 1993. 

            “Joseph Desch’s contributions did not go unrecognized.” wrote Debbie Anderson  “An indication of these extraordinary events hung on a wall of Dad’s study.  The citation from Harry S. Truman, accompanying the Medal for Merit awarded my father in 1947, was a familiar fixture whose significance I have only recently appreciated.  Once a family friend read the citation aloud until Dad, red faced from embarrassment and concerned about questions he could not answer, stopped him.”

            President Harry S. Truman’s citation praised Desch’s work, without actually mentioning what it was.

             “By his brilliant originality, superb skill and immeasurable perseverance, he contributed essentially to the effectiveness of important technical developments of great significance in the successful conclusion of the war.  Mr. Desch’s technical skill and fine professional judgment reflect the highest credit upon him, and upon the scientific tradition of the United States.”

            By order of President Truman, awards of the Medal of Merit were to be given “to such civilians of nations prosecuting the war...as having distinguished themselves by exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services in the furtherance of the prosecution of the war...”  The Medal of Merit Award was approved for just 367 individuals.

            Debbie Anderson wanted to organize a reunion of the Waves and engineers who had worked with her father on the Bombe project so that Dayton would realize the important part it had played in during World War II.  Unfortunately, the one woman she had known who worked as a Dayton Wave had passed away and she couldn’t locate any others.  But a year later  Dayton Daily News published an article by James Cummings called “Waves of silence” about the Dayton Waves.  Before long the Dayton Waves began contacting Anderson about a reunion.

              With the help of the U. S. Air Force Museum and Carillon Historical Park, who acted as co-sponsors for the reunion, Anderson organized the 50th reunion of the U. S. Naval Computing Machine Laboratory who had been stationed at NCR  during World War II.   AT&T Global Information Solutions and the Dayton Chapter of the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers also participated.  The Dayton Chapter IEEE underwrote the reunion with a generous grant.

            On Thursday, September, 14, 1995 the ladies began to pour into the lobby of the Marriott Hotel.  At 6 p.m. Deborah Anderson and her husband, Darrell, hosted a  welcome reception at the hotel underneath a huge canopy tent.  The ladies caught up on the past fifty years, and marveled at a poster board filled with pictures of their times at Sugar Camp.

            The following day the women headed for Carillon Historical Park where Mary Mathews, the Executive Director, welcomed them.  An exhibit called "Dayton, Ohio: Home of the Waves, 1943-45" had been set up in the Wright Cycle Shop.

            After lunch in the Sugar Camp Dining Room, several group photographs were taken in the old pana-view style of fifty years ago. 

            The evening included a meeting at the Hospitality Room at the Marriott Hotel where old scrapbooks were opened, and the laughter began.

            Saturday the group visited the U. S. Air Force Museum.  A lecture was given in the Carney Auditorium by Dr. Colin Burke, author of Information and Secrecy and by Dr. Jeffrey Greenhut, a Washington D. C. historian.  For many of the ladies, this was the first time they were told of how important their efforts at NCR and Washington DC had been in the war.

            That evening a banquet was held in the Modern Flight Hangar at the U. S. Air Force Museum.  Colonel Richard Uppstrom, Director of the Museum, was the Master of Ceremonies.  After dinner Margaret Fiehtner, Assistant Chief of Staff, U. S. Navy Security Command, spoke of how well the ladies guarded their secret mission.  Robert Rachor gave a tribute to his uncle, Joseph Desch.  Deborah Anderson made the closing remarks.

            Each Wave was awarded an Exceptional Service Award from the National Security Agency by Margaret Fiehtner for "exceptional service on Project Ultra in the breaking of German and Japanese codes during World War II".  This is the highest award given to civilians.  Robert Mumma was given the award as well, as was Debbie Anderson, in her father's name.

            The reunion was quite successful, with eighty-one Waves, eighteen sailors and nine NCR engineers attending.  The reunion committee consisted of Deborah Anderson, Jim Cunningham, of the Dayton Daily News; Teresa Jones, special coordinator of the U. S. Air Force Museum; Cynthia Brubaker, a volunteer at the U. S. Air Force Museum; Jack Kern and Robert Mumma, from NCR; Mary Matthews, from Carillon Park; Diane Funk, from the Dayton\Montgomery County Convention and Visitors Bureau; and ex-Waves Evelyn Einfeldt, Catherine Convery Racz, Millie Weatherly Jones and Margarite Parke Racz.

            The women who could make the reunion were very glad they did.

            "I can't begin to express in words all that the reunion meant to me," wrote Lucy Gouge Record, "to once again to see and talk to old friends of fifty years ago, and learn more of our work and to know that we were not forgotten."

            Beatrice Dunphy almost didn't come to the reunion.  Her forty-eight year old son was born both physically and mentally handicapped.  

            "He is quite a responsibility, but at the same time a blessing."  Her four other children insisted she take a break and go to the reunion.  "Thank God I did.  It took me back to my time in life.  Mothers have a way of losing themselves into the family structure.  I believe my Dayton trip helped to recharge my batteries and renew me enough to go on a little further."

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