Joseph Rochefort

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the Canadian politician, see Joseph Irenée Rochefort.

Joseph Rochefort
USS ABSD-2
Battles/warsWorld War II
Korean War
AwardsNavy Distinguished Service Medal
Legion of Merit
Presidential Medal of Freedom

Joseph John Rochefort (May 12, 1900

cryptanalyst. He was a major figure in the United States Navy's cryptographic and intelligence operations from 1925 to 1946, particularly in the Battle of Midway. His contributions and those of his team were pivotal to victory in the Pacific War
.

Early career

Rochefort was born in

USS Cuyama.[6]

A fellow officer observed that Rochefort had a penchant for solving crossword puzzles and adept skills at playing the advanced card game auction bridge and recommended him for a Navy cryptanalysis class in Washington, D.C.[6]

Rochefort's tours ashore included cryptanalytic training as an assistant to Captain Laurance Safford,[6] and work with the master codebreaker Agnes Meyer Driscoll in 1924.[7]

He then served a stint as second chief of the Division of Naval Communications' newly created cryptanalytic organization,

Eleventh Naval District, San Diego
, from 1936 to 1938. Until 1941, Rochefort spent nine years in cryptologic or intelligence-related assignments and fourteen years at sea with the U.S. Fleet in positions of increasing responsibility.

World War II

Pearl Harbor

In early 1941, Laurance Safford, again chief of OP-20-G in Washington, sent Rochefort to

Station Hypo ("H" for Hawaii in the Navy's phonetic alphabet at the time) in Pearl Harbor
as Rochefort was an expert Japanese linguist and trained cryptanalyst.

Rochefort handpicked many of HYPO's staff, and by the time of

JN-25.[9][10][page needed
]

Rochefort had a close working relationship with

Purple, the highest level diplomatic cypher, in the months before the Japanese attack, on the orders of the director of the War Plans Division, Richmond K. Turner.[11]

Battle of Midway

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Navy cryptographers, with assistance from both British cryptographers at the Far East Combined Bureau (in Singapore; later Colombo, Kenya, Colombo), and Dutch cryptographers (in the Dutch East Indies), combined to break enough JN-25 traffic to provide useful intelligence reports and assessments regarding Japanese force disposition and intentions in early 1942. Rochefort would often go for days without emerging from his bunker, where he and his staff spent 12 hours a day, or even longer, working to decode Japanese radio traffic. He often wore slippers and a bathrobe with his khaki uniform and sometimes went days without bathing.

Station HYPO maintained the coming Japanese attack would be in the Central Pacific, and convinced Admiral

Ernest King, Nimitz's superior in Washington, was persuaded by OP-20-G. Rochefort believed an unknown codegroup, AF, referred to Midway.[14][15][page needed
]

One of the Station HYPO staff,

FRUMEL) notify the main objects of the deception (Washington) of the Japanese message by reporting a message from the AF Air Unit saying that they had only enough water for two weeks: "This will confirm identity of AF". Rochefort then sent a reminder on Friday. [16]

The Japanese took the bait. Within hours they broadcast instructions to load additional water desalination equipment, confirming Rochefort's analysis.[17][page needed] Layton notes the instructions also "produced an unexpected bonus". They revealed the assault was to come before mid-June.

In Washington,

punched cards for five-digit number sequences. After finding low-grade codes, the team set about to unravel the cipher itself. Layton credits Lieutenant Joseph Finnegan for discovering "the method that the Japanese had used to lock up their date-time groups."[19]
An intercept of 26 May with orders for two destroyer groups escorting invasion transports was analyzed with this table and "really clinched the pivotal date of the operation" as either 4 or 5 June.

During May 1942, Rochefort and his group decrypted, translated, reviewed, analyzed, and reported as many as 140 messages per day. During the week before Nimitz issued his final orders, "decrypts were being processed at the rate of five hundred to a thousand a day."[20]

When Nimitz recommended Rochefort for a Navy Distinguished Service Medal, the recommendation was rejected by King who unfairly considered Rochefort “one of the most unmilitary-looking officers he had ever encountered.” Rochefort also told Nimitz to stop the recommendation since it would only "make trouble".[21] Other sources suggest Rochefort received no official recognition during his lifetime because he was made a scapegoat for the embarrassment of OP-20-G. Redman (whose brother was the influential Rear Admiral Joseph Redman) complained to King about the operation of the Hawaii station; as a result, Rochefort was reassigned from cryptanalysis to command the floating dry dock ABSD-2 at San Francisco.[22][23] Rochefort never served at sea again.[24] The fact that Rochefort received no higher recognition at the time is considered by some to have been an outrage and an example of King’s counterproductive personal vendettas.[25] However, he was decorated with the Legion of Merit at the end of the War over King’s objection.[26]

Rochefort headed the Pacific Strategic Intelligence Group in Washington after the war. He died in Torrance, California, aged 76.[27]

Awards

In 1985, Rochefort was

posthumously awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal. In 1986, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2000, he was inducted into the National Security Agency, Central Security Service
Hall of Fame.

  • Navy Distinguished Service Medal
    Navy Distinguished Service Medal
  • Presidential Medal of Freedom
    Presidential Medal of Freedom
  • Legion of Merit
    Legion of Merit

Legacy

On 6 January 2012, the CAPT Joseph J. Rochefort Building was dedicated at the NSA facility within a Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam Annex, Hawaii.[28]

Portrayals

In the 1976 movie Midway with Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda, Rochefort was portrayed by Hal Holbrook. Rochefort died a month after the movie premiered. In 2019 film Midway, he was portrayed by actor Brennan Brown.

References

  1. ^ "Social Security Death Index Search" 10 April 2010
  2. ^ "California Death Records" note: lists year of birth 1901 Archived March 7, 2018, at the Wayback Machine 10 April 2010
  3. ISBN 978-1591141617
    .
  4. ^ Carlson, p.37.
  5. ^ Carlson, p.39.
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7432-0129-2
    .
  7. ^ Stinnett. pp.74–76.
  8. ^ Holmes, W. J. Double-Edged Secrets
  9. ^
    ISBN 978-0-307-42518-8
    .
  10. ^ Holmes; Blair, Silent Victory (Bantam, 1976). They succeeded in making limited breaks by October 1940 and December 1941.
  11. ^ Layton, Edwin T., Admiral, USN, Ret., with Pineau, Roger, Captain USNR, Ret., and Costello, John, And I Was There: Pearl Harbor and Midway – Breaking the Secrets (New York, 1985), p.115.
  12. ^ Lundstrom, First South Pacific Campaign, p.155.
  13. ^ Layton, Pineau, and Costello, And I Was There: Pearl Harbor and Midway – Breaking the Secrets, p.421.
  14. ^ Layton, Pineau, and Costello, pp.412–4.
  15. ^ Holmes, Double-Edged Secrets.
  16. ^ Layton, Pineau, and Costello, pp.421–2.
  17. ^ Cressman et al., A Glorious Page in Our History, p.34; Holmes, Double-Edged Secrets.
  18. ^ Layton, Pineau, and Costello, p. 421
  19. ^ Layton, Pineau, and Costello, pp.427–8.
  20. ^ Layton, Pineau, and Costello, pp.422.
  21. ISBN 978-0-684-85932-3.; Holmes, Double-Edged Secrets.[page needed
    ]
  22. ISBN 0-593-04781-8.; Holmes, Double-Edged Secrets.[page needed
    ]
  23. ^ Carlson, p. 560.
  24. ^ Holmes, Double-Edged Secrets.[page needed]
  25. ^ Holmes, Double-Edged Secrets, p.117
  26. ^ "Valor awards for Joseph J. Rochefort". valor.militarytimes.com. Militarytimes Websites. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  27. ^ "California Death Records" Archived March 7, 2018, at the Wayback Machine 10 April 2010
  28. ^ NSA/CSS Public and Media Affairs Office (January 6, 2012). "NSA/CSS Unveils New Hawaii Center" (Press release). National Security Agency | Central Security Service. Retrieved June 29, 2012.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Rochefort&oldid=1216653519"