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by Ronald Russell
Updated 29 August 2009
(The
following originally appeared in Veterans Biographies, distributed
during the annual Battle of Midway commemoration in San Francisco, June 2006)
In
August 1940 Mac Showers joined the Naval Reserve while in his senior year at
the University of Iowa, where he majored in journalism and political
science. He was commissioned as a USNR
ensign in September 1941 and commenced active duty with the 13th Naval District
headquarters (Com 13) in Seattle. At
Com 13 he was introduced to the world of naval intelligence while a member of
the district intelligence officer’s staff.
In February 1942 he was transferred to Pearl Harbor and to the staff of Commander Joseph Rochefort, who was to become one of primary architects for the stunning victory at Midway. Rochefort was in charge of the Combat Intelligence Unit at Pearl, known generally in the history books as “Station HYPO.” HYPO was tasked with breaking the Japanese navy’s radio code, analyzing the intelligence derived, and providing CINCPAC (Admiral Nimitz and his staff) with the best possible view of the enemy’s battle plans. Rochefort was a master of the art, and under his supervision the cryptanalysts at HYPO ultimately divined virtually the entire Japanese operations order for Midway before the battle commenced. Ensign Showers was an intelligence analyst working closely with the unit’s cryptanalysts and Japanese linguists. He was specifically responsible for extracting key data from each intercept, plotting the movements of the Japanese ships en route to Midway, and preparing graphic presentations of such movements for delivery to CINCPAC.
The
remarkable success of the HYPO team, with support from a similar operation in
Australia, was the fundamental key to the “Miracle at Midway.” As it turned out, the quality of the
intelligence delivered to CINCPAC by Ensign Showers and his comrades was nearly
perfect—Admiral Nimitz stated after the battle that with regard to the initial
Japanese air strike on the atoll, his staff’s prediction for its arrival had
been off by only five minutes on the clock and five degrees on the compass!
Mac
Showers remained a fleet intelligence specialist throughout the war, after
which he transferred to the regular Navy.
He retired in 1972 and commenced a second career with the Central
Intelligence Agency, where he served until 1983. In 1986 he was instrumental in securing a posthumous
Distinguished Service Medal for Joseph Rochefort, who had received no awards
for his vital achievements at HYPO in 1942.
Navy Cryptology
at the Battle of Midway: Our Finest Hour (More about the communications intelligence victory at Midway,
by Phil Jacobsen)
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