Department of the Army Historical Summary: FY 1975

IV.

Intelligence and Communications

Intelligence support to tactical units was advanced during the year with the assignment of military intelligence officers to G2 and S-2 positions at division headquarters, maneuver brigades, and armored and air cavalry squadrons. The objective was to achieve a better balance between the operational skills of combat arms officers and the technical knowledge of intelligence personnel in tactical units. In a related development, the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence represented the Army on the National Intelligence Support to Field Commanders Study Group. Formed to identify intelligence support that could be provided from national intelligence assets, the study group plans to submit its report early in fiscal year 1976.

At Fort Hood, Texas, the 2d Armored Division tested a new divisional combat intelligence company that showed promise of improving the collecting, processing, and disseminating of intelligence. The heart of the new development was the Battlefield Information Coordination Center and its secure communications net, which has been accepted as the basis for developing military intelligence doctrine.

Army Systems for Standard Intelligence Terminals, described in some detail in last year's report, will standardize automatic data processing equipment (hardware) and applications (software) for the Army's Intelligence Data Handling System. AN/GYQ-21(V) minicomputers installed in Europe and Washington, D.C., in 1975 during Phase I of the project enabled intelligence analysts to query computer data bases of the World-Wide Military Command and Control System.

Full Army compliance with Department of Defense policies that restrict the acquisition of information concerning persons and organizations not affiliated with the department continued to be a matter of much concern. The Army letters that originally implemented these policies were superseded by the publication of AR 380-13, Acquisition and Storage of Information Concerning Non-Affiliated Persons and Organizations, 30 September 1975. This regulation extends restrictions on the

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During the year the declassification review of all pre-1946 Army classified records in General Services Administration depositories was completed. A total of 44,454 linear feet of records was reviewed: 99.5 percent of the records were declassified. The remaining documents, containing intelligence sources and methods, were referred to the Secretary of the Army with recommendations for classification beyond thirty years as provided for in Executive Order 11652, 8 March 1972. National Archives declassification reviewers also found a large number of documents originated by the Army in retired files of other U.S. Government agencies. A project to declassify Army records from 1946-54 also moved forward. Some 9,000 linear feet of records were examined during the year, bringing the total to nearly 24,000, or 47 percent of the 51,000 linear feet to be reviewed. Declassification was often in bulk lots because records were of a type unlikely to require continued classification.

Reserve officers on short tours of active duty or working for retirement points performed most of the page-by-page declassification review of both World War II and postwar intelligence records. Many reservists had extensive technical knowledge of the subject matter because of military or civilian experience or training; they worked a total of 13,294 man­hours during the year.

The Pentagon Telecommunications Center recommended that the thirty-two-year microfilm collection of War Department and Department of the Army electronic messages (1942 through 1974) be destroyed after unsuccessful attempts by The Adjutant General to offer portions of the collection to the National Archives. The Chief of Military History strenuously opposed destruction, and in December 1974 The Adjutant General recommended that the Center of Military History assume custody and administration of the entire collection. The Chief of Military History agreed, and in March 1975 a one-time exception to the prevailing regulations to permit

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The 17,401 reels in the collection will be withdrawn from temporary storage at the Washington National Records Center and forwarded to the U.S. Army Military History Research Collection (MHRC) at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, where they will be stored in a vault. The Commanding Officer, Central U.S. Registry, will authorize the establishment of NATO, SEATO, and CENTO subregistries at the Military History Research Collection. Only a limited number of MHRC archival personnel will be cleared for access to the files. No reference to or use of NATO, SEATO, or CENTO documents by any outside agency or the Center of Military History will be authorized.

Army records managers completed the initial phase of a project to establish effective physical control over about 40,000 linear feet of Vietnam War records. This involved the collection and correlation of a master index of record shipping documents that will be computerized. Similar actions were under way for records of other operations and missions in Southeast Asia.

The Adjutant General Center personnel conducted several records management surveys of Army staff agencies and their staff support and field operating agencies. The surveys revealed a number of deficiencies, particularly in files maintenance and disposition, records management training, and management of permanent records. Surveyors noted a general lack of emphasis on the management of records by key agency officials. Many of the records management officials designated by agency heads were overburdened with clerical and other administrative duties and could devote little time to records management.

On 31 December the President signed the Privacy Act of 1974. The primary purposes of the act were to limit access by other persons to information about an individual and to permit individuals to see information about themselves in federal records and to request that erroneous information be corrected. Federal agencies maintaining records from which information is retrieved by name or by number or other symbol assigned to an individual must publish annually in the Federal

Register a notice of the existence and character of such records systems. By the close of fiscal year 1975, the Army had made good progress in implementing the Privacy Act. System notices had been completed for Army records subject to the act, preparation had begun on privacy notification statements for forms, initial planning had been started for a Privacy Act training program, and actions had been initiated to establish and staff a permanent privacy and rule-making office on the Army staff.

In November 1974 Congress amended the Freedom of Information Act. Generally, the amendments made withholding information more difficult, authorized federal judges to inspect documents withheld from release, required disciplinary action against officials who acted arbitrarily in denying requests for information, set time limits for answering requests, and required annual reports to Congress concerning implementation of the act. The amendments required quick revision of pertinent regulations. Between November 1974 and 19 February 1975, the effective date of the amendments, Department of Defense Directive 5400.7 was completely revised and Army Regulation 340-17 was changed substantially. That the Army was able to meet the new requirements was evidenced by its on-time response to most requests for information.

In the wake of the killing of civilians by American troops at My Lai, South Vietnam, in April 1969, Lt. Gen. William R. Peers was directed to conduct an inquiry into the circumstances of the incident. In March 1970 General Peers submitted a four­volume report to the Secretary and the Chief of Staff of the Army. On 13 November 1974, the Secretary of the Army ordered Volumes I and III of the Peers Report released to the public. These volumes contained a summary of the evidence, together with findings and recommendations, maps, photographs, and exhibits of the inquiry. Volumes II and IV, which contained raw investigatory material, including impressions, suppositions, rumors, and hearsay concerning various individuals, were not released. Between November 1974 and February 1975, the Secretary of the Army pondered releasing Volumes II and IV. In keeping with the letter and spirit of the Freedom of Information Act he determined that these volumes should be released. In order to reconcile the right of the public with the privacy of persons accused, perhaps unjustly, names of individuals against whom there were unsubstantiated allegations were deleted. Volumes II and IV of the Peers Report were made public in March 1975.

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The Army Telecommunications Automation Program moved forward during the past twelve months. The first Automated Multi-Media Exchange (AMME) began providing service to the Oakland, California, area on 14 November 1974, and the installation of a second AMME in Huntsville, Alabama, was completed in May 1975. Requests for proposals on the Standard Remote Terminal (SRT) were submitted in May 1974 and drew two firm responses. By June 1975 only one bidder, Astronautics Corporation of America, continued to show interest.

On 14 February 1975, the Director, Telecommunications and Command and Control Systems, Office of the Secretary of Defense, instructed the Navy to obtain AMME's from the Army to meet their need for additional automated telecommunications centers. The Navy and the Air Force were also directed to get AUTODIN (automatic digital network) terminal equipment under the Army SRT contract, at that time still unawarded. The Deputy Secretary of Defense in March 1975 announced publicly that the AMME and the SRT had become standard equipment for telecommunications center improvement.

The Integrated Tactical Communications Systems Study being developed by the Martin-Marietta Corporation proceeded on schedule. The study was broadened to include echelons above the division and expanded to consider the Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio Subsystem and the Joint Tactical Communications Program. All technology and equipment that might be introduced by 1986 could be considered. In some cases, it was necessary to lift all constraints to define an efficient system representative of the concept.

Another study, the Special Analysis of Net Radios (SPANNER), was to determine appropriate acquisition objectives and recommend improvements in radio management. The completed study was approved and distributed to the field on 2 August 1974. Of the ninety-seven SPANNER recommendations, forty had been adopted by the close of the year.

For the Ground Mobile Forces Tactical Satellite Communications System, engineering development models of three 1/4-ton trailer-mounted and four 1 1/4-ton truck-mounted superhigh frequency earth terminals were delivered to the Army from the contractor, RCA, for developmental and operational testing. Development of ultrahigh frequency vehicular and man-pack terminals was still in the conceptual stage.

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Under the Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS), civilian contractors continued work on an order for twenty-three new 60-foot parabolic dish antenna earth terminals (AN/FSC-78/70). Delivery of the terminals was to begin in December 1975. Procurement of signal processing equipment began, and the Tobyhanna Army Depot was putting together more than fifty digital communications subsystems for the DSCS. In the research and development area, work on the spread spectrum modulator/demodulator AN/USC-28, the medium terminal antenna, and a larger antenna for DSCS contingency terminals continued. In May 1975, the third flight of two DSCS Phase 11 spacecraft was unsuccessful because of a launch vehicle failure.

Additionally, replacement of the Signal Operations Instructions (SOI) by the Communications-Electronics Operating Instructions (CEOI) was completed in Regular Army units, and production of an automated CEOI for separate brigades and larger units was well advanced. The Department of Defense Electromagnetic Compatibility Analysis Center advised that analytic data showed that the SAM-D radar system could operate compatibly with other users of the electromagnetic spectrum. Finally, the expansion of microwave systems in Germany and Korea resulted in better television viewing for American soldiers and their dependents.

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