Hot Spot

November 11th got me to thinking about my time in the military, and brought to mind a true story I thought I would share today.

I came out of basic training with a MOS of 71R20. broadcast information specialist, and was assigned to Ft Hood as the radio-TV voice of the 2nd Armored Division.  Among my duties, I was responsible for recording radio and TV "Home-towners" - interviews that would be sent to the soldier's home town stations for broadcast.  

I also did quite a few interviews with soldiers returning from Viet Nam for publication the Armored Sentinel, the base newspaper. It was one of these that almost cost me my security clearance and my job - in fact, I was told that I might potentially end up in Leavenworth!

The subject of the interview was a sergeant who had served in Nam as a photographer on a helicopter.  He was operating a highly sophisticated infrared camera as they flew over the jungles searching for Viet Cong hideouts.  When the camera detected a hot spot they would mark its location and report back to base.

I typed up the story and submitted it downstairs to the sergeant major who ran the Armored Sentinel office.  The next day, I got a visit from two men in civilian clothes who identified themselves as members of the Army Security Agency.  They told me my story would never be published because it described equipment and tactics that were highly classified.  

I was able to show them a year-old story in Popular Mechanics that described the camera and how it worked.  They said that didn't matter, and they had no control what got published by civilians.  Then they asked,  " Did Sergeant Xxxx use the term 'hot spot' when he told you about his job?"

"No, I don't think he did."

"Well that term is also classified.  If you didn't get it from him, where did you get it?"

I stared at him for a moment, then replied "What the hell else would you call it."

The story never made it into the paper, but the ASA guys went away and I was able to keep doing my job.