Photo By Lori Stewart | Colonel (ret.) Parker Hitt (right), with his wife, Genevieve (left) and daughter Mary...... read more read more
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by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian
FATHER OF AMERICAN CRYPTOLOGY PASSES AWAY
On Mar. 2, 1971, Col. (Retired) Parker Hitt died at home in Front Royal, Virginia. The last words spoken by the 92-year-old were not about a lifetime of accomplishments that earned him the title of “Father of American Military Cryptology.” Instead, according to a story told by his daughter Mary Lueise, the modest Hitt said, “I should have had more dogs.”
Born in Indianapolis on Aug. 27, 1878, Parker Hitt studied civil engineering at Purdue University prior to enlisting in the Army in 1898. He received his commission as a second lieutenant in late 1899 and served in the Philippines, California, and Alaska. In 1911, he attended the Army Signal Corps School at Fort Leavenworth. His final paper on electrical batteries led to the development of a new field telephone switchboard.
For three years, then Captain Hitt remained at the school as an instructor, teaching courses on codes and ciphers, care and repair of Signal Corps instruments, and radio theory. During this time, he completed his seminal Manual for the Solution of Military Ciphers, the first practical work published on the topic in the United States. The book solidified Hitt’s reputation as one of the Army’s top cipher experts and proved essential for training the American cryptologists of World War I. Hitt put his knowledge to practical military application, helping solve intercepted Mexican government communications during the 1916-1917 Punitive Expedition while also teaching at Fort Sill’s School of Musketry.
Arguably one of Hitt’s most important contributions to Army cryptology was his proposal to replace the U.S. Army’s unsecure field cipher with either his sliding strip or cylindrical device to generate enciphered text. Another code and cipher expert, 1st Lt. (later Maj. Gen.) Joseph Mauborgne adapted Hitt’s cylindrical device into the M-94, which was adopted by the Army in 1922 and remained in service for more than twenty years. In the 1930s, the Army used Hitt’s original sliding device to develop the M-138-A, which was also used by the State Department and the Navy.
In 1917, Hitt went to France as assistant to the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) chief signal officer. He took charge of coding and decoding all AEF messages until AEF headquarters was set up in Paris. In 1918, realizing the vulnerability of transatlantic cables, Gen. John J. Pershing appointed Hitt to a Board of Officers charged with recommending measures to enhance the efficiency and secrecy of the cable code and cipher communications between France and the U.S.
In July, Hitt became chief signal officer for First Army in France, a position he retained until April 1919. During this time, Colonel Hitt supervised the preparation of a “Radio Service Code” used by all units down to regimental level. He was also instrumental in the employment of bilingual (French and English) American female telephone operators, commonly referred to as “Hello Girls,” to run the First Army switchboard.
In the post-war period, Colonel Hitt was assigned to the War College, lecturing students on his World War I experiences, before requesting retirement in 1928. Recalled to active duty in 1940, he served as the signal officer for Fifth Corps Area at Fort Hayes, Ohio, until retiring again in 1944.
Colonel Hitt inspired many of the Army’s cryptologists of the World War I era, including William Friedman, who led the Army’s cryptologic efforts through the 1930s and into World War II. In 1957, Friedman referred to Hitt as the “father of American military cryptology,” for publishing the 1916 manual that “guided our early, halting footsteps in the science and launched us upon our careers in the service of our country.” Colonel Hitt was posthumously inducted into the MI Hall of Fame in 1988.
For more information on Parker Hitt’s remarkable life, see Betsy Rohaly Smoot’s "Parker Hitt: The Father of American Military Cryptology," University Press of Kentucky, 2022
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| Date Taken: | 02.28.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.28.2025 14:37 |
| Story ID: | 491777 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 50 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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