CHAPTER Ill, SECTION 7
per month

(including the reproduction work

-requested by the Honolulu Office).

RECORDS CENTER
The AEC
rated in May,
July 1953, 56
warded to the

Records Program was inaugu1952 on a part-time basis. By 1
records schedules had been forSanta Fe Operations Office for

approval; 415 cubic feet of records were for-

warded to less expensive storage facilities; 220
cubic feet of records were transferred to the
AEC Records Service Center at Los Alamos,
New Mexico; and 149 cubic feet of records were
destroyed. A full-time Records Officer was
appointed on 1 July 1953, at which time the
H&N Records Center started operating on a
full-time basis. By the end of 1953, the Records
Center holdings totaled 861 cubic feet, or double

the amount reported for the preceding six

months.

Reference services furnished from Records

Center to the Home Office amounted to 83 in
1952, and 1,086 in 1953. The monthly average

of reference services from 1 July 1953 to the
end of the year was 166. In 1954, a peak of 994
was reached during the month of April, then
gradually decreased to 161 in June 1954.
Investigations and studies regarding the

possibility of microfilming all vital records were

made.

However, the space-saving advantage

gained through the use of microfilm did not

warrant the over-all cost of this undertaking in
view of the fact that storage of vital records,
by contractual agreement, need not exceed seven

years.

COMMUNICATIONS
TELEPHONE. On 24 July 1953, the 120-posi-

tion PBX in the Home Office was replaced with
a 160-position board. Approximately 558 long
distance calls a month were made over a sevenmonth period, including the peak period, and
approximately 44,000 local calls were made for
the same period.
TELETYPE. Teletype communications between
the Home Office and Eniwetok were effected
by means of the radio teletype facilities in-

stalled at the AEC Communications Center at
Los Alamos and Eniwetok. All classified and

unclassified messages were sent over this means
by TWX to Los Alamos, thence over the radio
teletype circuit direct to Eniwetok. Incoming

teletypes were relayed by this same means to
Los Alamos, and then in turn relayed on to
Holmes & Narver, Los Angeles, by TWX collect.

During Operation IVY, classified messages

to Eniwetok were encoded in the Contractor’s
Home Office, then transmitted to Los Alamos.
Los Alamos decoded and re-encoded the mes-

sages for relay to the Task Group Communi-

cations Center at Eniwetok Atoll. In October

1952, prior to the commencement of CASTLE,

Page 3-36

a cryptographic system was issued for the Contractor’s use in Los Angeles, and for the Communications Center at Eniwetok. This system
enabled H&N to send and receive messages
classified Restricted, Confidential, and Secret
without the delay involved in having Los Alamos
decode and re-encode these messages.
“Back-up”? communication circuits were
available in the event of failure of the radio teletype circuit. The “back-up” circuit operated
from Los Alamos to the AEC Communications
Center, Sandia; from there messages were sent
over Military circuits to Fort Sam Houston,
Texas, thence through the Sixth Army Headquarters at San Francisco.

From San Fran-

cisco, messages were sent by Military radio teletype to the Communications Center at Oahu
and from there to Eniwetok.
In July 1953, due to continued adverse at-

mospheric conditions resulting in the failure of
the radio teletype circuit between Los Alamos
and Eniwetok, Holmes & Narver was advised
to file unclassified messages with the Army
Communications Center in Los Angeles. These
messages were then relayed to the Sixth Army
Headquarters Communications Center, San
Francisco, where they were sent by Military
radio teletype to Oahu, and thence to Eniwetok
and. or to H&N’s office in Honolulu.
In March 1953, the Holmes & Narver Message Center in the Home Office was officially
recognized by the Military as a “trained TWK
tributary station of the Los Angeles Communications Center.” As a result of this recognition,
H&N was furnished Military Procedure Publications which enabled the Message Center to
operate efficiently and in accord with other
units of the circuit.

The Army Communications Center at Los
Angeles was unable to accept Holmes & Narver
classified messages prior to 5 April 1954 due to
Military regulations governing encoded mes-

sages sent over TWX equipment. This equip-

ment was, until that date, the type of equipment installed at the Home Office. The filing

of classified messages continued through Los

Alamos. However, after 5 April 1954 new equip-

ment, formally known as an AKAN circuit, was

installed at the Holmes & Narver Home Office,

and encoded messages were permitted via a

leased line to the Army Communications Center
in Los Angeles.

To expedite procurement, teletype facilities

were also employed between the Contractor and
commercial companies within the United
States.

The peak in H&N’s teletype traffic was

established during the months of August and

September. A monthly breakdown of the teletype traffic transmitted and received for the

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