Monthly Archives: December 2012

This is what my mother, Joan Wehlen Morrison, wrote one week after she turned 15 years old, on December 31, 1937.

Friday, December 31, 1937

I had the awfullest dream last night. I dreamt a war was begun and people were running about with brightened looks in their eyes. I was a boy and I knew I would have to be a soldier. I was afraid to go to war. I kept seeing trenches and mud and horror and pain and things—and killing people—and I was terribly scared inside. But I knew I would have to join the army anyhow because otherwise people would call me coward. I went to enlist and that’s all I remember. I figured I might have three months in a training group before I would have to fight. It was a terrible dream and I was so scared. That’s all I remember. . . .

I sit here and wait for the last minutes of 1937 to come to an end. 1937 sounds like such a momentous year—like 1492 or 1066 or 1588 or 1776, doesn’t it? I’m sure it marks a crisis in our history. But 1940 sounds even greater—well, we must wait.

I’ve been reading my journal over, my journal of this year—and plenty seems to have happened. A king has been crowned—England’s George VI. Edward married Wallis

Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII, who abdicated to marry “the woman I love.”

and closed that part of England’s history—or did he? The Spanish Civil (?) War continued and the Japanese began and conquered an undeclared war in China. Now the civilization of thousands of years is under the flag of the rising (or setting?) sun of Japan. . . . Add to things that have happened: the Hindenburg, last but one of the great airships, burned to cinders in New Jersey. . . .

P.S. Marconi[1] also died this year.

An article in the Austin American-Statesman by Ken Herman tells the wonderful story of two women cryptographers in World War II.  What did cryptographers do?  They had to put messages into code so that the enemy wouldn’t be able to understand.  Helen Nibouar, now 91, is quoted as saying, ““I have to admit I was a little frightened, just thinking how important that was and how responsible I had to be.” She and her fellow cryptographer and friend, Marion Johnson (now 95!!!), were honored in November 2012 at the National Security Agency‘s National Cryptologic Museum in Fort Meade, Maryland.

Here is a picture of Helen today.

Helen Nibouar, age 91, in an article from the Austin American-Statesman, November 2, 2012 by Ken Herman

Nibouar is quoted as being “shocked” that anyone would be interested in what she did during wartime.

Oh, but how fascinating what she and other women and men did during the war!  Especially important are the legions of “unknown” people who worked for the war effort.  All such stories are valuable, indeed invaluable, for the historical record.  Thank you, Helen and Marion, and the countless others, for all you’ve done!

Here is the Enigma Machine at the National Cryptologic Museum.  To learn how it works, click here.

The Enigma Machine at the National Cryptologic Musuem

And, if you are equally intrigued by the concept of the National Cryptologic Museum, check out this page where you can download documents from the World War II era about cipher machines, Western Communication Intelligence and the Holocaust, and Woman and Cryptology, among other fascinating and important topics.  Here there is more about Women and Cryptology.

And be sure to check out my post on Carrier Pigeons who carried coded messages during World War II–and before and since!