Remembering Captain Harold L. German, USNR (Cryptologist)

Captain Harold L. German, USNR, grew up in Smethport, McKean County, PA, where he developed an early interest in radio. A family friend was an amateur radio operator, taught Harold to use Morse Code, and showed him how his equipment worked.

After graduating from high school in 1930, Harold attended Penn State for several semesters, but dropped out. He was determined to work in radio, and spent 1932-33 in New York City, completing the radio course at RCA Institutes, where his coursework included coding, radio engineering, and work on transmitters and circuits. He received his amateur first class radio operator license in July 1933, as W3IMN.

Employment opportunities for newly minted radio engineers were all but nonexistent during the Depression, so Harold returned home, worked at a wood chemical plant, and joined the Naval Reserve as a Radioman 3rd Class. He was commissioned an Ensign in July 1935, and placed in charge of Unit 1, Section 6, of the Naval Communication Reserve in Bradford, McKean County, PA.