SP4 Daniel Augustine United States Army 1962-1965

When I graduated from high school, I was not ready for college. This was prior to the start of the draft lottery, so one never knew when he would be drafted. This prevented me from getting a job. Going into the service seemed like the best thing to do. By enlisting instead of waiting for the draft, I would get it out of the way now, and the extra year would keep me out of the infantry (sorry all you infantry vets, but it was peace time. Living in a tent and marching around with an empty rifle just didn’t seem like it would be fun.) After taking the required tests, my recruiter told me that basically, I could choose any branch of the Army. The page in his book that described the Army Security Agency had very little information. When I asked about it, his answer was “I don’t know. They won’t tell me.” When I asked about specific jobs in the ASA I got the same response. Curiosity got the better of me. I said “Ill take it!”

Basic training in Fort Dix, then on to Fort Devens, located in not-so-picturesque Ayer, Mass. After spending 7 months living in old left-over WWII wood barracks, I finished the course as a Morse Intercept Operator. That’s when the Army decided that they had too many Morse Intercept Operators, so after all that time in Devens, about a dozen of us were sent to Vint Hill Farm Station, which was up the road from here, a few miles north of Warrenton off Route 29. Two months in a shack in the middle of the antenna field during a Virginia summer resulted in all of us finishing the course. We were now Countermeasures Search Specialists.

Now, with an entire year spent in schools, I was assigned to ASA Europe. Upon arrival in Frankfurt, I was ushered into the office of Major Thorpe. He handed me a piece of paper that listed all of the duty stations in Europe that had openings for my MOS (Military Occupation Specialty.) He said, and I quote, “Pick one.” It didn’t make any difference to him where I went, so it was off to the 78^th United States Army Security Agency Special Operations Unit in Berlin.

What I liked about my military experience was that I was doing a real job. Our mission was the same, whether it was war or peace. The only time I had to carry a weapon was on courier duty to run documents from my work location to our headquarters in Berlin, or courier duty between Berlin and Frankfurt on the Army’s duty train. We worked rotating shifts: six days on, three days off, then change shifts.

What I did not like about my military experience was the Army. The “yes sir” “no sir” routine bothered me to no end, especially when the “Sir” was an ROTC 2^nd LT. whose voice still had not changed.

Three years after enlisting, I was again a civilian, and home. Now I was ready for college. I attended Rutgers University and got a degree in accounting, but hated it. At that time Rutgers did not recognize “minors”, but by the standards of most other schools, I minored in History and Computer Science. Computers became my career, American History became my passion. I am happy to say that I never had to work as an accountant.

I wish I could say more about my service in Berlin, but everything that was done by the members of my unit was classified. I have no way of knowing how much, if any, of our mission is still classified.

I am married to the love of my life, Joan. We have four children and seven grandchildren.