Army Codebreaker reflects on his time in Vietnam

Yahoo

29-04-2025

ERWIN, Tenn. (WJHL)- It's 1967, and people are getting drafted to the war zone left and right. There were some exceptions, though, and one of those included being enrolled in college.
That's where Robert Hughes was when his childhood best friend was killed in Vietnam, and he dropped out to go on the front lines.
'He was born six hours before I was. We grew up together. He lived across the street,' Hughes said of his best friend. 'He was with the 101st Airborne Division. He was killed at the Asha Valley in 1967.'
Hughes went into the Army in hopes of becoming a helicopter pilot.
'A gentleman showed up at my door after I had signed up and told me about [the Army Security Agency] and said that I probably would qualify,' Hughes said. 'And I jumped at that.'
'We were the only group in the Army that did not report to the Department of the Army. We reported to the National Security Agency.'
'It took a year to get a security clearance. They talked to everybody,' he said. 'All of my teachers in grade school and high school. The people in my neighborhood thought I had robbed a bank because the FBI went to all of my neighbors. I'm very proud of [my security clearance].'
He became what's known as a 'ditty bopper,' learning Morse Code and how to intercept it.
'12 hours a day, I searched for North Vietnamese or Viet Cong radio transmitters and copy code, which we then were fairly successful in breaking,' he said. 'We provided approximately 70% of the tactical information gleaned during Vietnam… I was able to read most of the stuff we broke. I was involved quite a bit.'
Hughes' team provided the information to help find the enemy.
'We were able to find transmitters using techniques that we had. And sometimes those transmitters were attacked after we found them,' he said. 'Sometimes we just follow them to find out where they were going and what they were doing.'
Hughes was stationed in 'Rocket City.'
'We were hit more than any other place, except for Kazan, which is where the Marines were,' Hughes said. 'We were hit mostly every night with rockets and mortars.'
The job requirements helped him get an Amateur Radio License, which turned into a hobby he still uses today. Hughes talks to people all over the world, and it really came into play when the floods hit Erwin in September.
'We did health and welfare for people that were involved in Hurricane Helene,' he said. 'A couple of people I was able to contact that had relatives there that and they had no telephone service. And I was able to hook them up.'
His time in Vietnam also had an impact on his health. He was recently diagnosed with leukemia, presumed to be from Agent Orange.
Join News Channel 11 on Tuesday at 5 p.m. as we continue our series The Vietnam War: 50 Years Later.
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