Remembering
The cryptologic community is often referred to as the ‘other’ silent service, because signals intelligence was not considered a hazardous job. However, as we’ve learned over the years, that is simply not true. There are many articles dedicated to the the USS Pueblo, the USS Liberty, The EC-121 aircraft shot down by the North Koreans, and the fire at the Kami Seya tunnel complex in Japan where brave young CT sailors and marines perished. This page is dedicated to their memory.
U.S. Navy Cryptologic Technician (Maintenance) 3rd Class Matthew J. O’Bryant 22, of Duluth, Ga.; assigned to the Navy Information Operations Command Maryland, Fort Meade, Md.; died Sept. 20, 2008 in the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan.CTM3 O’Bryant and an Air Force officer were among the more than 50 people killed in Saturday’s suicide bombing at a luxury hotel popular with foreigners in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Lt. Cmdr. Doug Gabos, spokesman for Navy Network Warfare Command on Little Creek, said O’Bryant had been in Pakistan for two months on temporary assignment to the Office of the Defense Representative, Pakistan, headed by Rear Adm. Michael LeFever. It is not clear if O’Bryant was living at the hotel while on assignment and how long he was to be in Pakistan.
U.S. Navy Cryptologic Technician (Technical) Chief (IDW/SW) Christian Michael Pike 31, of Peoria, Arizona died March 13 in Landstuhl, Germany as a result of combat related injuries sustained on March 10 while conducting stability operations in Maiwand District, Afghanistan.
He was assigned to West Coast-based Naval Special Warfare Support Activity ONE. He attended Peoria high school, graduating in 2000. CTTC Pike joined the Navy in 2001 and following recruit training in Great Lakes, Illinois, he was assigned to the Naval Technical Training Center Corry Station for Cryptologic Technician Technical (CTT) “A” School followed by assignment to USS CLEVELAND.
In 2007, he transferred to Navy Information Operations Command Georgia before reporting to Naval Special Warfare Support Activity ONE on July 25, 2011.
U.S. Navy Cryptologic Technician (Collection)(EXW) First Class Michael Strange, 25, of Philadelphia, Pa. was among 30 United States service members who died in the Aug. 6, 2012 CH-47 Chinook helicopter crash in Wardak province, Afghanistan. CTR1 Strange was assigned to a SEAL team in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He served three tours in Afghanistan and earned a Purple Heart for his service.
U.S. Navy Cryptologic Technician (Collection) Senior Chief David B. McLendon died September 21, 2010 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom. CTRCS McLendon 30, of Thomasville, Georgia was assigned to an East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare unit; died Sept. 21, 2010 in Ayatalah Village, Afghanistan, in a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crash during combat operations.
During his twelve-year Naval career, he served at Norfolk, Virginia and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the Joint Expeditionary Base at Little Creek, Virginia. While deployed to Afghanistan, he was one of nine service members tragically killed when their Army Blackhawk helicopter went down in the southern Afghanistan province of Zabul on Sept. 21, 2010.
U.S. Navy Cryptologic Technician (Communications) First Class John Ball. On December 3, 1979, at 6:40 AM, terrorists attacked unarmed sailors enroute to a day watch at NSGA Sabana Seca. CTO1 John Ball, the Comms Supervisor, had volunteered to drive the Navy bus. RM3 Emil White was seated behind him. The yellow bus wheeled out of the U.S. Navy compound in Toa Baja, a San Juan suburb. Bouncing in their seats, the passengers – 13 men and five women – dozed or talked quietly as they traveled the familiar route from the Sabana Seca Communications Station to a radio transmitter site four miles away.
Nobody paid any attention to a green pickup truck that was following close behind. About a mile from Sabana Seca, the truck suddenly accelerated. It passed the bus, slowed, and forced the bigger vehicle to a halt beside a trash dump. Simultaneously, a white van that had been parked down the road, came roaring toward the scene. The van door flew open to reveal three armed gunmen. One held a Thompson submachine gun, one had an AK-47 and the third had an M16. The latter was responsible for killing CTO1 Ball, which he did in swift fashion. The shooters were told the sailors would hit the deck, and they were instructed to fire along the black stripe on the bus’s side, painted at floor level, to kill as many as possible.
The fusillade from the white van lasted for 30 seconds “a lifetime,” said one survivor.
Of the 17 sailors on the bus, CTO1 John R. Ball, 29, of Madison, WI and RM3 Emil E. White, 20, of Charlotte Amalie, Virgin Islands were both killed by the gunfire. Ten more were wounded, some gravely. Among them was Chief Cryptologic Technician Warren Smith, who ordered the sailors to take cover as he braved the machine-gun fire, jumped into the bloody driver’s seat, and rammed the bus through the obstacles to get back to the base. Chief Smith was later awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for his actions and a Purple Heart for his wounds.
On April 15, 1969, North Korean Mig fighter jets shot down a U.S. EC-121 (Super Constellation) surveillance aircraft about 90 miles off the North Korean coast while in international air space. All 31 crewmembers were killed. We recognize: AT1 Stephen Chartier, AT1 Bernie Colgin, ADR1 Ballard Connors, CT3 Gary DuCharme, Lt John Dzema, Lt Dennis Gleason, ATN3 Gene Graham, AEC LaVerne Greiner, ATR2 Dennis Horrigan, ATN2 Rochard Kincaid, SSGT Hugh Lynch, ADRC Marshall McNamara, ATR2 Timothy NcNeil, CT3 John Miller, LCDR James Overstreet, Lt Peter Perrottet, CT1 John Potts, AMS3 Richard Prindle, CTC Frederick Randall, LTJG Joseph Ribar, AT1 James Roach, LT John Singer, CTC Richard Smith, CT3 Phillip Sundby, AT1 Richard Sweeney, LTJG Robert Sykora, LT Robert Taylor, CT2 Stephen Tesmer, LTJG Norman Wilkerson, and ATN3 David Willis.