Born: 1 February 1921, United States
Died: 10 January 2016
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is republished from the National Security Agency. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Ann Caracristi began her career with the Army’s cryptologic organization during World War II. After a brief civilian career immediately following the war, she joined one of NSA’s predecessor organizations as a cryptanalyst.
She served as Chief of Research and Operations organizations, primarily with A Group (Soviet issues) where she was chief from 1975 to 1980.
In addition to her management duties, Ms. Caracristi served in various capacities on committees and panels established to provide technical and career support to cryptanalysts. She mentored many of NSA’s cryptanalysts. She also chaired a special panel convened by NSA Director Admiral Bobby Ray Inman to identify the next generation of likely NSA senior executives. Many of those identified by the panel went on to become Deputy Director or high-level seniors.
In April 1980, she was named NSA’s sixth Deputy Director (D/DIR) and served in that position until August 1982. As D/DIR, she had special responsibilities for recruitment, training, and personnel.
Ms. Caracristi retired from NSA in 1982, but remained active on several panels convened by components of the Intelligence Community. President Clinton named her to the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in 1993, and she has served as consultant to the NSA Scientific Advisory Board (NSASAB). In addition to her service on government panels, she was president of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) from 1989 to 1991.
The following is republished from the National Park Service. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
The Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) was first founded in 1930. For most of WWII it was a part of the US Army Signal Corps. SIS grew rapidly, but men were needed for fighting overseas. To meet operational demands, recruitment shifted toward young women. By the end of the war, approximately 7,000 of the 10,500 SIS staff were female. These women on the home front contributed to the Allied victory by successfully breaking codes and deciphering enemy messages. The women cryptologists were held to strict secrecy and would become one of the best-kept secrets of WWII.
Ann Caracristi was born in 1921. She graduated from Russell Sage college in New York, was recruited by the Army SIS, and was sent D.C. to work in Arlington Hall. During the War, Ann’s work helped to reconstruct enemy code books, and she and her colleagues were some of the first to discover Japan’s planned surrender. Caracristi would later become the first woman to reach the highest supergrade in the National Security Agency (NSA) as Chief of Research and Operations in 1975 and would become the first woman to serve as NSA Deputy Director in 1980. After her years of dedication to cryptography and security services to the nation and received the highest civilian honor of Dept. of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award. She served on the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board for President Clinton, post-retirement. She passed in January 2016.
Interview of Ann Z. Caracristi, Veterans History Project
Leslie Sewell, Interviewer: . . . Security clearances…what kinds of clearances did you all need?
Ann Caracristi, Interviewee: Oh, well that was sort of hilarious because they did–you know, you had to give references, and then they actually sent out investigators. And you would discover that all your parents’ friends were being questioned about your reliability, etcetera, and this gave an aura of mystery to the whole endeavor. But they indeed did do on-site investigations, and we had to fill out a great deal of forms and things of that nature. And in fact, part of the reason I’m sure that we were held in our training school for the first several weeks that we were signed up was to be sure that that paperwork had been completed.
LS: If you had to say what the high point was of your work during the war, what would it be?
AC: Well, I guess it would be VJ Day [Victory over Japan Day, August 14, 1945]. [I] Went in at about two o’clock in the afternoon. We knew that the messages had been read, that the war was going to be over. And this was–the Japanese linguists who were in a wing of this large building, way down there [gestures], couldn’t contain themselves. And the word went–swept like a fire through there. And we were told that we were not to tell any of our friends and relatives until, you know, four o’clock or something [laughs]. And then at four o’clock we all just left the building and congregated in Washington to celebrate the great day.
LS: And, before VJ Day, were there other accomplishments of the–of where you were working that really grabbed you? Anything–you mentioned something about the finding out about the code for the merchant marine ships, but were there any other things like that that struck you as really important?
AC: Well, you know, our efforts were divided, and there was a lot of “need to know” approach to the way we did business. And so those of us who were doing little portions of the effort were not usually aware of the full impact of the product that we were producing, at least in the part we were wor–I was working in. This was a big assembly line effort, truly. You know, several wings full of people, wings being large, long rooms, which you’ve seen pictures of, with tables. I mean, there were very little desks, there were very little front office, private offices. There were a few, but most of the work was being done in an almost assembly line sort of way. And the feedback was minimal in terms of specific accomplishments. Now there were times, you know, when something was–when a totally new system was broken into the–that information would be shared and there’d be great pleasure…
LS: Anything that I haven’t asked you that you’d like to talk about?
AC: That you should’ve? [laughs]
LS: That’s right, that I should’ve or that I didn’t or that, you know, you think is important…
AC: No, I think the important thing was that the women who gathered together in our world worked very hard. And all of them had–none of us had an attitude of having to succeed or outdo one another, except in trivial ways; I mean, you wanted to be the first to solve a particular problem, or you wanted to be the first to get this recovery. But there was very little competition for, you know, for money, or anything of that nature, because everybody really assumed that when the war was over we would be leaving. I shouldn’t say everybody; there were some people who had been there before and had careers, but the majority of the people considered it a temporary way of life.
LS: A temporary way of life…With a purpose, though?
AC: [laughs] Well yes, with a purpose, of course.