![]() They were doing that, so we knew it was close.”įor two days, McKenzie wasn’t allowed to leave the compound. That means if we had to, as soon as the war started, the thermite would melt the equipment and the files if infiltrated. The military police were putting thermite bombs on all equipment. “If it goes to (DEFCON) 1, it would be nuclear war. When McKenzie returned to the secure compound where he worked, the DEFCON sign was flashing DEFCON 2. “I just got off work, and this officer came and said, ‘You got to get back to work immediately.’” “The most exciting time, I guess, was during the Cuban Missile Crisis,” he said. McKenzie said the most exhilarating time of his service was during the Cuban Missile Crises. “They had me listen to it, and I told them if it was worth printing or to forget about it.” “These guys were sitting around with headsets and radio equipment tuning into different frequencies until they found something,” McKenzie said. They changed codes every day, so every day we had to re-decipher what the code was.” “We had to attempt to decipher code and read messages and send that on to the higher-ups and the national security agency in Washington. “We monitored Russian communications, military communications, which they sent in code,” McKenzie said. After training, he traveled to Misawa, Japan, in August of 1962 to work as a radio intercept analysis specialist. He also had some college experience, which qualified him to go into classified security service. Then 24, McKenzie was older than most servicemen when he was drafted. ![]() As a result of his four-year service, he experienced the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis firsthand. The 79-year-old was drafted in 1961 and decided he didn’t want to go into the Army, so he went into the Air Force instead. Westfield resident Robert McKenzie kept a secret for 50 years.
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