Remembering SSGT Donald Hill, USAF and A2C Earl Radlein, USAF

The Story of Cryptologic Heroes Staff Sergeant Donald G. Hill, USAF Airman 2nd Class Earl W. Radlein, USAF

Korean Peninsula, 1953

It was the 29th of July, 1953. Forty-eight hours earlier at 10:01 a.m. the Communist and Allied negotiators had brought a tenuous, but nonetheless official, finish to the hostilities on the Korean Peninsula. For the first time in three long years it appeared that the “Land of the Morning Calm” was finally going to have an opportunity to live up to its name. However, for Staff Sergeant Donald G. Hill and Airman 2nd Class Earl W. Radlein of the 1st Radio Squadron Mobile based at Yokota Air Base, not much had changed. They had a morning mission, and despite the news of the armistice, they were focused on the task at hand. For thousands, the Korean War had ended. But for others, a new “Cold War” was just beginning.

The 91st

Sergeant Hill and Airman Radlein were still hard at work partly because, since the spring of 1947, American policy makers had faced a perplexing problem. The Soviet Union, an ally during WWII, had become America’s chief adversary. To make matters worse, because the USSR was a closed society, Washington faced any number of challenges in discerning the capabilities of the Russian Bear. Only effective intelligence work could provide the necessary answers.