Arnold Franco, a cryptanalyst during World War II, took a pledge of secrecy along with the other members of 3rd Radio Mobile Squadron (G), assigned to the 9th Air Force. Now, more than 50 years later, the government has declassified the documents pertaining to their work. The men of 3rd RSM acted as a "roving ear," listening to both the wireless and oral German radio transmissions. This "wireless" Intelligence, Diane Putney of the Office of Air Force History states, "has to this day remained hidden in the shadow of ULTRA high-grade signals Intelligence. . . ." Now the story is being told. Franco describes the war as a resolution of a giant drama:
Layer upon layer of scenes unfold -- stories that fit together as strategies were planned,
maneuvers executed, and alliances formed. Lives are changed because of brilliance, stupidity,
absurdity, and luck. . . . I was experiencing all of it.
Franco experienced "the smell of the grease, the roar of the bomb." Three weeks after D-Day, his Detachment landed at Normandy.
I had my first view of the Daliesque beachhead in full sun. I was aghast. . . . Fear gnawed at our
guts. We wondered what catastrophe had taken place, and into what we were heading.
Life, for Franco, at this time "seemed to divide itself into two worlds -- war and wonder."
My connection was inescapable. . . . As the war progressed, persecution of the Jews moved
from theory to reality in my world. . . .
What Franco saw was that Hitler was real. The Holocaust was real. His "coming of age" in World War II was complete. "Each day," he states, "I can more fully appreciate how fortunate I was to have not only survived the war, but survived intact."
Arnold Clement Franco was called to World War II duty in March 1943. After initial training, he was sent to Michigan State University for German-language instruction, then to Vint Hills Farm Station Signal Intelligence Headquarters code-breaking school, secluded away at Warrenton, Virginia. In April 1944 Franco went to England, assigned to the 9th Air Force. Trained by British officers, he learned how to intercept and break "in-the-moment" coded messages sent by German pilots.
Code to Victory tells of Franco's experiences as a World War II cryptanalyst and of his unit, the 3rd Radio Mobile Squadron (G). Franco has spent years researching and publicizing the story of 3rd RSM and, because of the resurgence of neo-Nazism which denies the existence of the Holocaust, has established a scholarship fund at his alma mater, Queens College, New York, to support the study and evaluation of historical evidence.
Franco is one of the first "non-flyboys" to be elected to the Board of the 9th Air Force Association. He is the founder of Franco & Son, Inc., an international insurance brokerage firm in Manhattan, New York.
Paula Aselin Spellman, an award-winning humor and nonfiction writer from Ojai, California, has condensed the many written pages and notes of Arnold Franco's recollections and research, and has interwoven them with interviews and many long-distance conversations. A graduate of the University of Southern California, Spellman and her work are recognized as one of Two Thousand Notable Women.
