A Highly Classified Message

"In the communications center there was a small room for processing and decoding highly classified messages. Joan tells the story that, “One night, while I was on the mid-watch, a highly classified message came in for the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Harry D. Felt who was in flight on his way to Washington, DC. As soon as I got the message, I called Captain Johnson at home. He told me to call the tower at the nearby Alameda Naval Air Station, have them bring down Admiral Felt’s plane, get a driver and car plus an armed Marine, and he’d meet me on the field at the Naval Air Station.

"I packed the message in a briefcase chained to my wrist, put on my 45 caliber pistol and headed to the NAS with the driver and armed marine. We arrived on the field at almost the same time as the plane landed, but Captain Johnson was nowhere around. From the plane came a man who offered to take the message from me. When he reached toward me, the marine pulled his 45. Quickly that man returned to the plane after telling me to follow him. I told the armed marine to follow me. Once in the plane another man appeared and identified himself as the Admiral’s Chief of Staff. Again the same procedure...he reached for me, the marine pulled his 45, and the officer retreated.

"All of a sudden, a loud voice shouting profanities came from behind the curtain which was nothing more than a Navy bedspread. Out from behind that curtain came the shouting man dressed in a bathrobe who identified himself as Admiral Felt. My knees must have been knocking but I had to tell him that I needed to see his identification card since I did not know him. Still shouting, he disappeared behind the curtain, came back out and showed me his ID card. It was Admiral Felt! I gave him the message which he read and started to put it in his bathrobe pocket. I told him I was accountable for that copy of the message and had to have it back. I left the plane and came back to work. Captain Johnson never arrived.

"It took me a long time to log in everything that had happened. I did not get back to my room in the BOQ until almost 0900. I got out of my uniform and fell into bed exhausted. I had hardly hit the mattress when my phone rang – I was ordered to appear immediately in the office of Vice Admiral Norman Kivette who was the Commander, Western Sea Frontier. I jumped back into my uniform and raced across the street wondering what I’d done wrong to be summoned to such heights.

"I had not heard much about VADM Kivette. In particular, I did not know that he was hard of hearing but would not wear a hearing aid. Therefore, everyone who worked closely with him shouted so he could understand them. As I approached the office, I heard all this shouting which made me even more scared. I recognized VADM Kivette because of his uniform, but I only knew two of the other people: the “old salt” chief of staff who had told we two women in the unit that he did not want to see or hear anything about us, and Captain Johnson. VADM Kivette did all the talking. He asked me if I was the officer who delivered a message to Admiral Felt. Then he started to laugh, along with the other officers in the room, and came toward me with his hand extended.

"It finally came to light that VADM Kivette had received a call from Admiral Felt who told him some of the details of my experience during the night. Admiral Felt called him because he wanted him to know that I had performed correctly. I was congratulated by VADM Kivette. After we left the admiral’s office, Captain Johnson apologized for not meeting me at NAS; he had fallen back asleep after he took my call.”