Remembering RADM Earl E. Stone, USN, First Director of the AFSA

Rear Admiral Earl Everett Stone, USN, was the first director of the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA), the immediate predecessor organization of the National Security Agency (NSA). An ardent opponent of the unification concept, Stone found himself charged with making AFSA a reality and he attacked the problem with the zeal of a convert. Although Stone was not a career cryptologist, he holds a significant place in cryptologic history.

Earl Everett Stone was born on December 2, 1895, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Beginning in 1914, Stone attended the U.S. Naval Academy. He graduated and was commissioned an ensign on June 29, 1917. Stone was a man of academic talent. By June 1925, he had attended the Naval Postgraduate School, completed a Master of Science degree in communications engineering at Harvard University and spent four months at the Naval Research laboratory for additional instruction.