Being the active shift supervisor for the weekend in the comm center I was stationed with in the Army, I wasn't granted a Top Secret clearance until after I was forced to handle a top secret flash message that came into the station over an unsecure teletype from a comm center on the other side of the Canal........
That was on Sunday and I had to give a report to the station CO Monday morning. I was worried because Tuesday I was leaving for home in the states for the first 30 day leave in a year and a half. When I got back to Panama, my security clearance had been upgraded from Secret to Top Secret.............just like that!
What's funny is the fact that since we were a relay station and the only equipment we had was teletype, all messages coming into our station were via teletype tape and all we did was take the tape to the other side of the room and send them out on the transmitting bank to their designated stations.
So all I had in my hands was a teletype tape and never did see what the flash message was all about..........LOL!
Considering where it came from, It was probably just a practice message.......
The second time I was in Korea I was housed in a SCIF. The comm center’s equipment was dated 1944. This was in 1982.
“What’s funny is the fact that since we were a relay station and the only equipment we had was teletype, all messages coming into our station were via teletype tape and all we did was take the tape to the other side of the room and send them out on the transmitting bank to their designated stations.”
Sounds like you were a 72B/E aka tapeape