Dayton Codebreakers Personnel and their associates

The Personnel section of the site is currently the most active, and the most enjoyable for me to assemble. Thanks to growing interest in the story of Dayton's role in code-breaking, and the power of the Google Search Engine as people look for information about their family members, I'm receiving more and more updated information about veterans of the project.

Please note: because so many women know each other when they were single, I prefer to list women by their maiden name whenever possible.

In this section:

The Database

The Personnel database is an effort to make accessible a list of names of personnel gathered from many sources. The sources of information include the 1943 and 1944 Rosters of personnel, the NCR News, letters and memorabilia from the 1995 and 2001 Reunions, oral histories taken during the 2001 Reunion and various archival documents. Because so many records were destroyed at the end of the war (and even 35 years later) to preserve secrecy, the list will never be complete. In addition, human error creeps in from time to time, with misspellings, fuzzy images, and incorrect dates. Despite those drawbacks, the database now includes over 500 individiuals with 956 pieces of information.

If you, or a relative, neighbor or older friend, have some information or a story to share, please contact Debbie Anderson so that I can enter it into my records. These will be shared with the NCR Archive at Dayton History and become part of their permanent collection. Also, if you have questions, please contact me and I'll try to find some information that might help you. There are no guarantees, however, as so many records have disappeared, been destroyed, or are available only at the National Archives.

387 NCR Identification badges from Bldg. 26, 1942 through 1945, are now online. These have been scanned, uploaded and linked to names in the database. Of those found so far, most are from the group of WAVES who arrived late April- early May 1943. Recently the sailors arriving Feb-Mar 1943 have been found. Scattered among these are visitors includng Joseph Eachus and Howard Engstrom. Please note: This growing effort is managed by Debbie Anderson, and is vulnerable to human error. Your help is appreciated. Please inform me of any broken links or other errors.

For more glimpses into the lives of the people in this project, see also :
--The WAVES of Sugar Camp
NCR News articles
personal photos
Sugar Camp Regulations

The Personnel database itself has each name entered linked to these items if applicable, plus the NCR News columns and NCR ID badges.

WAVES: 406 entries Surnames A-E Surnames F-J Surnames K-O Surnames P-T Surnames U-Z

NCR employees: 269 entries Surnames A-E Surnames F-J Surnames K-O Surnames P-T Surnames U-Z

Navy: 98 entries Navy surnames

Marine Guards: 25 entries Marine surnames

Tally of personnel numbers, 28 June 1945

The NCR Electrical Research staff

• Photos of the staff
• Links to the IEEE Oral Histories recorded in 1995:
• • Robert Mumma
  • E. Vincent Gulden
  • Jack Kern
  • Abstract of De Laet Interview Edward De Laet
  • Abstract of Rench interview; Full Carl Rench Interview
  • Donald Lowden
  • Roger Hull
• Interview with Capt. George McGinnis in 2003, and his obituary [under construction]
• Interview with Lou Sandor in 2004, and his obituary
• A sad addition to this section are obituaries as I acquire them. Contributions of notices are welcome. At this time I have: Bramlage, Carey, Unger-Eskey, Gulden, Henry, Lau, Mumma.
• WAVES Oral histories recorded in 2001 by the Montgomery County Historical Society at the direction of Claudia Watson. The WAVES include: Anderson and McKenzie, Bemis, Cheek, Goguen, Mackie, Precht.Unger, Urich.
• Excerpts from an oral history by former WAVE Louise Pearsall Canby taken by her daughter [under construction]