Service Experience & the Official Secrets Act

Just thought, as it is midweek, and I sometimes have a ’thunk’!!!

Does anyone out there in cyberland who has served in the military ever had yearnings to ’spill the beans’ as it were as to what they got up to during their service career - I don’t mean extra-curricular ’activities’ around the NAAFI Bar and in off-duty hours down the local Pub.

I know most if all who took the King or Queens Shilling when they signed up, also signed the Official Secrets Act 1911, or a copy off. I have also signed said piece of paper in subsequent years when I worked for the Civil Service in different functions on a temporary basis after leaving the mob.

I also worked for a number of years as a Police Civilian staff for a county constabulary.

With the historic interest in Bletchley Park widely publicised in recent years, and the interest in the ’codebreakers’ of World War Two - the GC & CS Bletchley Park and subsequently GCHQ were not deemed to have ’existed’ until around the 1970s when old timers from the war years started to be open about what they did - and the rest is history.

I also am aware that service in ’Noren Iron’ is still a very sensitive area, especially for anyone who was involved in intelligence during those years. Besides these issues of sensitivity, has anyone ever had the urge to talk more openly about what they did during service life, especially those who were in the R. Sigs and Int Corps. Or are you all still going to keep the old memories ’zipped up’ as it were because we don’t know how hard the government suits, MoD or the Security Services might come down on someone in light of the US Snowdon and Mr Assange’s ’Wikileaks’ revelations in recent years.

I know that my Dad and an Uncle who saw service during World war Two didn’t speak much about their experiences, and anytime I happen to mention matters, my Dad would look at me and remind me of "Official Secret Act, son" as he knew that I was in the Royal Signals during the 1960s and 1970s and had done a tour of ’Noren iron’.

Does the passing of the years, even 30 years plus distance us from those events that might be of interest to Military Historians? What say you?

First signed the OSA as an apprentice at Harrogate, also had to be positive vetted. It had to be signed any time we were handling cipher gear, which at the School of Signals was almost every day. Last signed on my final clearance from the army.. As the stuff I worked with are all museum pieces now, I think I can talk about them.

Yes, I trained a Data Telegraphist and during my time in the mob, learned the problems of setting up the BID 610. Someone posting on another Services Forum mentioned that the R. Sigs Corps Museum at Blandford has BID equipment on display.

I also completed a 6 week Cypher course at Catterick in the early 1970s using some sort of kit that looked like a German 'Enigma' machine, but this type had around 6 rotors so memory serves, which had to be load into a plastic cage of sorts. I also served in the 'Y' intercept stations at one point, 223 Sig Squadron (Radio) at Bushfield Camp and Flowerdown near Winchester. (During the years of WW2, the Germans 'claimed' to have 'sunk' HMS Flowerdown on a number of occasions. It was manned by RN Matelots).

Of course the equipment used today by various military, including our own, has vastly changed over the years. However the basic principles are possibly still the same. Apparently some of the systems used at Bletchley Park to decrypt 'stuff' is still highly classified even today.

I have a great interest in Military history, but have not managed to get out drive down to places like Blandford for many years. It is just the costs of motoring that restrict my motoring to my local area in East Angular....!

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http://www.skibbereeneagle.ie/uncategorized/the-greatest-civilian-maritime-disaster/ Churchill put this incident away for 100 years. Not sure there will be anyone alive to spill the beans today?

Oh I spilled a lot of beans,soup, porridge I was a cook but don't tell anyone