I served four years in the Navy as a Cryptologic Technician (CT) during the years of 1965-1969. I was sent to Da Nang, Vietnam, in February 1967 for a six-month hitch as a crewmember flying in support of Operation Rolling Thunder. The aircraft in which we flew our missions was the EC-121, a converted Super Constellation. We flew in support of bombing missions over North Vietnam. Our aircraft contained a crew of approximately 30 crewmembers with various degrees of specialties. This included Morse Code intercept, and linguists specializing in Vietnamese, Chinese and Russian. My job was the operation of the crypto equipment which was used to transmit and receive encrypted messages. We had the ability to detect the locations of surface to air missiles (SAMS) used by the North Vietnamese as well as pinpointing the positions of our pilots who were shot down in order to attempt a rescue mission. While at Da Nang, we incurred three rocket attacks with the most severe one occurring on July 15, 1967. Our barracks were destroyed and many of my shipmates were injured during this attack. Fortunately, no one was killed. I flew 38 flights with VQ-1 and earned an Air Medal along with the Navy Unit Commendation Ribbon, Vietnamese Service Medal and the Vietnam Campaign Medal. I also served in the Philippines and two years at the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Md.