Before the man, there was a woman

Agnes Meyer Driscoll (the First Lady of Naval Cryptology): The Teacher Who Made It All Possible

Before Joseph John Rochefort, there was a woman (seems a common occurrence, doesn’t it), Agnes Meyer Driscoll. I have written about her many times because she deserves far more recognition than she has received, and because her story illuminates something essential about the cryptologic tradition.

Agnes Meyer Driscoll was a civilian cryptanalyst who joined the Navy's cryptologic organization after World War I and spent the rest of her career there, through the Office of Naval Communications, through the Armed Forces Security Agency, into the early years of the National Security Agency. She broke most of the Japanese naval codes that the Navy's OP-20-G unit worked on during the interwar period. She trained Joseph Rochefort. She trained Laurence Stafford. She was, in the assessment of every uniformed colleague who worked alongside her, without peer as a cryptanalyst in the Navy during her career. I think Rear Admiral Grace Brewster Murray Hopper’s legacy comes closest to paralleling Ms. Driscoll’s, though Admiral Hopper is better known.

Agnes Driscoll was also almost completely unknown outside the small community of people who worked with her, and even within that community, her contributions were not always fully acknowledged during her lifetime. This is a pattern I have seen repeatedly in the cryptologic community: the people who do the most important work are often the people who receive the least recognition, because the work is secret, because they are civilians, because they are women, or simply because the institutional machinery of recognition has not been designed to see them.

One of the reasons I write is to correct this. Agnes Meyer Driscoll's story deserves to be told. Rochefort's story deserves to be told. The stories of the NSG Sailors who died on the LIBERTY and the PUEBLO deserve to be told. If those of us who know these stories don't tell them, who will?  

Who will help tell the stories of Cryptologic Technician Interpretive (Russian) Second Class Nancy Johnson-Emanuel, Cryptologic Technician Technical Second Class (Surface Warfare/Air Warfare) Dawn Makowski, Lieutenant Commander Victoria Kaye Reeve, Cryptologic Technician Collection Chief Robin Strayer, Captain Kathryn Helms, Vice Admiral Jan E. Tighe, Captain Sandy Brooks, Captain Miriam Perlberg, Cryptologic Technician Interpretive (Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu) First Class Kuljinder “Jeena” K. (ਕੁਲਜਿੰਦਰ) Cheema, Commander Christine Weston-Lyons, Captain Sharon Peyronnel, Commander Vicky Orem, Cryptologic Technician Interpretive (Russian) Second Class Elaine Gridley-Makela, Captain Connie Frizzel, Cryptologic Technician Interpretive (Russian) First Class Iitaniya Page, Vice Admiral Heidi Berg, Master Chief Christin Rees, Lieutenant Angela Anderson, Cryptologic Technician Collection First Class (Surface Warfare/Air Warfare) April Lewis, Captain Cynthia Widick, Commander Kimberly Cobb, Cryptologic Technician Interpretive (Russian) Second Class Charene Magers, Master Chief Penny Tardona, Captain Melanie Winters, Master Chief (Air Warfare) Patricia N. Riley, Cryptologic Technician Administrative Chief Linda Shirley, Cryptologic Technician Administrative Master Chief Kimberly Harmon, and so many other women who contributed so much to the fabric of the cryptologic community?  I only know the smallest pieces of their immense and significant contributions.

Thank you, Master Chief Matt Zullo, for your phenomenal work in telling the cryptologic story through your series “The U.S. Navy's ON-THE-ROOF GANG The UNTOLD and REAL-LIFE STORY of the U.S. Navy's ON-THE-ROOF GANG”.

⚓  LEADERSHIP NUGGET

The people who do the most important work are often the least recognized. Make it your personal practice to see them, name what they have done, and ensure the record reflects the reality. If you don't tell their story, who will?