Lightning...Strike

Jesse took a deep breath after climbing down from the attic in his suburban home. The modest brick house in Davenport, Iowa had been his home since returning from the war and marrying Delores in 1944. They were the proud parents, sometimes, of their two sons who were both now in high school. Good kids but into everything at this age.

The small box that sat on the coffee table had the attention of the whole family as they gathered in the living room. It was one of those cardboard file boxes with a top that closed tightly and kept most of the dust out. Not the same can be said for the outside of the box as Delores started wiping off the filth from the past twenty years.

"There, that's better" she said. "You better have a good reason for hauling that thing down today."

Jesse looked at her and then at Joe and Andy with a slight twist of his mouth. That was his ‘have I got something to show you’ smile. "I have the best reason in the world to get this down today. Andy asked me to, right Andy?"

"Yea, I guess I did if you say so."

Jesse looked up from his couch seat and cocked his head. “Son, you said you have a school project that deals with the history of the war. So, I’m going to tell you a story of my days in the 101st Airborne and our “visit” to Normandy, France. I stowed memorabilia is this box when I got home and haven’t opened it since.”

Delores remembered just enough of his exploits in the Army to know he wasn’t the normal hero or a great soldier by any means so she just settled back into her easy chair for the show. The kids sat on either side of their dad on the big sofa and waited for the treasures to be revealed. Would there be old photos or distinguished service medals? Could he have some of his bullets from an Army issued rifle or even the best surprise of all, a pistol that killed some of our enemies!

The boys thought to themselves, why hadn’t he told us some of these stories in the past. That was a major battle in the war, and everyone knew what happened, didn’t they.

“O.K., before I begin, let’s get something straight. There are a lot of jobs that are assigned to soldiers when you sign up. Not all of them are jumping out of an airplane, driving a tank, being a sniper in a combat zone, or going one on one in hand-to-hand combat. There are also those who are assigned to service duties like vehicle pool staff, record keeping, medical assistance, accounting, uniform cleaners, etc. Each person, man and woman, does their job to make the Army run efficiently. Your dad was a soldier in the U.S. Army 101st Airborne and is proud of that fact.”

“Now it’s June 1st, 1944, and our platoon is preparing for a secret mission that will be announced the next day. I was in my barracks at Fort Dalton when the Master Sargent lumbers in. He tells us he has a special assignment for the first three volunteers. I figured this could be my chance to lead a group of men into battle on foreign soil and serve my country with pride. So, I quickly wave my hand in the air and got his attention.”

“Peterson, front and center,” says Sargent Hardy. “Lawson and Newton! You three come with me.”

We are led outside and across the parade grounds to a small building that had no signs or markers to tell us what was inside. There was a wooden front door and two windows, one on each side but those were blacked out with curtains. Once inside, we were met by a security guard that acknowledged the Sargent and let us pass into an inner office with a desk and one chair. Needless to say, we all stood as the Sargent sat down behind the desk.

“Gentlemen, as you know we are on the cusp of an assignment that is very important to our efforts in this war. We have been led to believe this mission will involve allied forces as well as our own troops somewhere in Europe. The details are still hush hush and I don’t know any more than that.”

“But I do know we have been ordered to provide a full division support so this will be a big battle if I’m not overthinking it. You three will not be part of the travel team this time. But, you have an assignment that will be just as important. This building will be your home for the next few weeks as you will be using the equipment here to communicate with all the airborne troops during their journey to and from Europe and every minute they are there. The latest technology has been commissioned by the Department of Defense and we have received our share.”

“I looked at the other two soldiers with me, Doyle Lawson and Sam Newton, and could tell they were as much in the dark as I was. I thought to myself I wasn’t a technology expert in any way. Why would Hardy think I was a good candidate to man this strategic support base. I could certainly learn how to operate a phone or walkie talkie with the best of them but using radar or sonar or whatever was going on in the back of this station house was way over my head, right? But wait a minute, I had volunteered for this assignment.”

Lawson stepped forward to ask a question, but the Sargent motioned for him to wait until the briefing was over.

“When you enter the next door, you will be given special clearance and sworn to secrecy under federal law. You will never be able to discuss any details or make any remarks about what you are doing, seeing, or hearing to anyone until after this conflict is over and the records have been de-classified. Is that understood?”

Lawson again stepped forward. “Sargent, I am not trained to operate this type of equipment and being from a small town in Texas, I haven’t even seen some of the things that may be considered ancient technology. We barely have phones and a few televisions in that part of the country. Are you sure I should be here?”

The Sargent started to say something when Sam raised his hand. “Go ahead, Newton.”

“Sir, I must agree with Doyle on this. Although I did go to college and learn a few things about communication devices, I doubt my expertise is vast enough for this assignment.”

A smile came to Hardy’s face, and he shook his head back and forth. He then stood up and opened the office door. He moved across to the middle of the room and to another door that was much bigger than any office door I had ever seen. On the right side of the door near the handle was a sliding bolt that entered the side edge of the door and went in about 6 inches. The same hardware was located at the top and bottom of the door. Each bolt had a latch that could accept a combination lock for even more security. As the door open, I could see it was over 6 inches thick and steel plated on the inside. Not only was it entry proof but also soundproof.

As we each entered, the security guard did a thorough search of each of us. “Looking for anything in particular, I asked?”

“Everything", he said, "especially cameras, recorders, or anything you can use to take away images of what you will see.”

We all were cleared and stayed close to the Sargent. The light was dim, but it wasn’t hard to tell we were looking at the latest advancement of inventions in electronics in this man’s army. There was an oversize desk located in the center of the room. Racks of dials and cables attached to a main tower of controls covered the walls. This linked into the desk through an access hole on one end. On the desk was sitting a typewriter type machine. It was much larger than any typewriter I had ever seen, and it had a lot more keys than just numbers and letters. I could just make out a small sign that had been riveted to the outside of the cover. It said, “Franklin/Madison Computers.” Yep, the first computer I ever saw was here in front of me in that small building in New Jersey.

So, let’s get away from the details of this adventure and get to the actual assignment. We were told that as of the next day, we would be reassigned to live, breath, sleep and whatever else here. There actually were sleeping quarters in an underground shelter of this building and full kitchen and bathroom amenities.

We finally got the assignment we had volunteered for, communications and secret coding for our troops. The basic training on this new machine would be done as a crash course so we better get up to speed asap. The army sent a college professor from Harvard to train us on the computer. He apparently had a hand in the latest version of the mainframe and set up the program that we would be using.

Each of us would take an 8-hour shift as operator while one would sleep and the other stand by, if needed. I have to say with all humility that I did catch on to operating the computer quicker than the others, but we were all proficient when it came to the first day we were needed.

Our squad left out of Fort Dalton on June 5th in route to Normandy, France, and the Battle of Normandy. As soon as they were airborne, we went into action sending communicates to the planes from our officers. The alliance forces from the U.S., Canada and Great Britain would take stronghold positions for the ultimate invasion plans. Everyone was at need-to-know locations of each other, plans for attack and how to assure they were secure in communicating these factors. That became our paramount job and our ultimate service to our country.

A secret code was needed to assure all these soldiers would know orders were coming from home or allies and not from the enemy. So, we set up a two word code that was sent out to each commander and they would forward that code to each soldier. If one communication came without that code, the chain would be broken, and another code established.

“We have to make it as simple as possible, I suggested.”

Dawson thought for a moment and said, “how about weather related words like storm, rain, snow, fog, etc.?”

“Sounds good to me,” says Newton. There can’t be too many oddities in the way we say those words compared to the Brits and Canadians.

“I’m good with it too,” I said. So, we used those words as the secret code catalogue. We varied each of the combinations and if we had to change it the message would read as such, “Lightning…Reset Your Password…Strike!”

As you know the Battle of Normandy was very successful to ending the Nazi occupation in Europe and finally ridding the world of Hitler.

Doyle, Sam and I stayed on the assignment for a total of eight weeks. At the end, we were replaced and were sent back to our battalion until each of our tours of duty had expired.

So, your dad did save the world in his own way. That’s why your mother married me, right dear?

The boys looked at each other like Jesse was the biggest fool around but he knew they were really impressed anyway. “How about the box, Dad?”

He opened the lid and started lifting the enclosed items,

 A match box from Lucky Luke’s’ Diner, Hackensack, NJ.

 An Army issued rations booklet

 A metal canteen

 His honorable dismissal certificate

 One bullet shell

 His artillery badge

 and finally a small scrap of ticker tape with the words: Reset Your Password

END