THEY SERVED IN SILENCE

The Story of a Cryptologic Hero

SSG DONALD D. DAUGHERTY

“He was a person with a great sense of humor and great

to be around.... memories of him bring a smile to my face.”

 Kathleen Garrett

Staff Sergeant Donald D. Daugherty, USA, was born in San Diego, California 

on the 20th of February 1937. He was born into a Navy family and spent his 

formative years at the San Diego Naval Station. His father was not only a 

veteran of the Pacific War but was serving as a Chief Bosun’s Mate on the 

famed destroyer USS Helm on the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. Donald attended the local schools in 

the area, and graduated from Sweetwater High School in the mid-1950s. In time, he would enlist in the 

United States Army where he would be trained in the art and science of radio intercept and become part 

of the legacy of the Army Security Agency (ASA). December of 1961 would find him serving as a member 

of the ASA’s 3rd Radio Research Unit (RRU).

By the early 1960s Don had been in the military for almost a decade and was intending to leave the 

service. His dream was to one day homestead in the wilderness of the American Northwest. Vietnam

was intended to be his last assignment. Don volunteered to go to Vietnam, despite the fact that he was

a sole surviving son. 

From the earliest days of the United States’ entry into Indochina, the U.S. Army had employed cryptologic 

specialists operating under the RRU cover designation to collect critical intelligence from enemy 

communications. ASA initially set up its operations at Tan Son Nhut airfield just west of Saigon. In addition 

to being the central headquarters for ASA operations, Tan Son Nhut was the center for U.S. military 

offensive air operations within South Vietnam. 

By 1966, the ASA units had been in the country for half a decade, and their operations and missions had 

increased exponentially. The danger of enemy attacks had increased as well. However, because of its 

proximity to Saigon, the consensus was that the likelihood of a full-fledged attack on Tan Son Nhut was 

small, so small in fact, that the ASA’s weapons were locked in transport containers. 

That would all change on the evening of 13 April 1966, when, for the first time, 

the entire air base was subjected to a deadly Viet Cong mortar and sapper 

attack. The ASA soldiers on site were limited in their response, because the 

soldier who possessed the key to the ASA weapons storage area was in 

Saigon on an evening pass.
Photographs courtesy of the Brent Family

SSG DONALD D. DAUGHERTY

20 February 1937 - 13 April 1966

United States Army

MP #211079

Almost immediately, individual soldiers began to fight back, but they were hampered by the general 

confusion caused by the surprise attack. Daugherty and others were able to make their way into a 

bunker near the west end of the compound. At one point, the shelling temporarily abated, prompting 

Don to inform his fellow soldiers that he intended to make his way to the arms room to get his hands 

on a weapon. His buddies urged him not to go until they could be sure the attack had fully subsided. 

Daugherty was determined, however, and exited the bunker. 

Eyewitnesses to the tragedy noted that as he began running toward the armory, the attack suddenly 

resumed and he was felled when a mortar shell struck the sidewalk directly in front of him. Daugherty 

was one of three U.S. servicemen killed that night. In addition, 15 men would be wounded in the attack. 

The attack was so stunning, that the next day General Westmoreland, the Commander of U.S. forces in 

Vietnam, visited the ASA compound to survey the damage and speak with the men. 

The April attack was the first in a series of surprise attacks on the airbase and would forever remind 

everyone on Tan Son Nhut that the horrors of the war would not be limited to the rural areas and 

jungles of Vietnam. It would be a part of their everyday lives. Like so many cryptologists before them 

in countless wars and conflicts, they realized that, while their mission could often be performed in safe, 

secure surroundings, they could nevertheless find themselves in harm’s way, like the infantry soldiers 

they supported. 

Donald Daugherty left behind a loving family. His niece Kathleen Garrett, 

herself the wife of a retired Navy Captain, noted that he was “a person with 

a great sense of humor and great to be around.... memories of him bring a 

smile to my face.” In the end, his service and sacrifice would serve as an 

inspiration to his fellow soldiers, soldiers who like him had devoted their 

lives to providing critical intelligence in the fight to gain an advantage over 

their adversaries and, most importantly, to save lives.