Naval Spooks - CT Sand Crabs

CT Marines - Marine "Spooks" served with the Navy "Spooks"

The Naval Security Group was the organization for which a few U.S. Marines having a cryptographic or radio communications Military Occupational Specialty worked.  These Marine spooks worked with the Navy spooks at many of the Naval Communications Stations around the world. Their signal and communications intelligence led to the uncovering of the Japanese Navy's decision to make Midway a target for invasion in WWII.  This battle was the turning point of the naval war in the Pacific.  From WWII until the early 1960s, various CT-Marine units performed radio intercepts, growing from platoon size to company size, and to battalion size by 1964.  The first battalion was named the 1st Radio Battalion.  Sub-units of the battalion were deployed to Vietnam from 1962 until the mid-1970s.  This and other Radio Battalions have sent detachments to carry out intelligence efforts around the world.

(Special "Thanks" to former USMC-CT Cpl. Dennis Fouts - for correcting the above information on this page)

To those U.S. Marines who served with the Marine Support Battalions working with the NAVSECGRU Commands and to those Marines who served with the Radio Battalions to augment other intelligence efforts, our gratitude for a job well done.

The recent disestablishment of the NAVSECGRU Command marks the end of a proud era and tradition.  The record will show that the NAVSECGRU was on watch from March 1935 until September 2005.  On 1 October, 2005, I.O.D. will begin coordination of the operations and signals intelligence missions within NETWARCOM.

The former MarSpt Bns (Marine Support Battalions) that had been aligned with the Naval Security Group have been renamed Marine Cryptologic Support Battalions.  The U.S. Marines currently have three (3) Radio Battalions:

The 1st Radio Battalion headquarters is located in California;

The 2nd Radio Battalion headquarters is located at Camp Lejeune;

and the 3rd Radio Battalion headquarters is now located in Hawaii.

Special thanks to former Marine - CT Don Boyd for allowing several of his pictures that were taken while on duty at San Miguel and Phu Bai, Vietnam during the 1960s to be displayed on this website.

The following picture was taken on a company trip that Don and several other CT Marines took to Corrigidor.  This photo and many others can be found in the "Guest and Trip Photos" (click tab near top of page) area of this website. 

Naval Spooks-”CT Sand Crabs” Website Owned by: Victor (Knork) Knorowski http://www.navalspooks-ctsandcrabs.us/