United States Air Force Security Service The United States Air Force Security Service ( often abbreviated USAFSS ) was essentially the United States Air Force ' s cryptographic intelligence branch ; its motto was " Freedom through Vigilance . " It was created in October 1948 and operated until 1979 , when the branch was re - designated the Electronic Security Command . It was later re - designated Air Force Intelligence Command , Air Intelligence Agency , and is currently called the Air Force Intelligence , Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency . Composed primarily of airmen culled from the cream of the Air Force ' s enlisted recruits ( the top 1 / 2 of 1 percent ) , the USAFSS was a secretive and tight - knit branch of Air Force cold warriors tasked with monitoring , collecting and interpreting military voice and electronic signals of countries of interest ( which often were Soviet and their satellite Eastern bloc countries ) . USAFSS intelligence was often analyzed in the field , and the results transmitted to the National Security Agency for further analysis and distribution to other intelligence recipients . Individual airmen — stationed at locations scattered across the globe , ranging from Northeast Cape Air Force Station , Alaska to Pacific Islands to The Far East to Mediterranean Countries to The Middle East to Western Europe to North Africa — did a variety of jobs , almost all of them related to listening to and interpreting Eastern Bloc , Communist Chinese , and North Vietnamese military communications . Some airmen were linguists who listened to voice communications . Others - known as morse intercept operators , or " ditty - boppers " - monitored Soviet and other nations ' military Morse code broadcasts . Others , such as non - morse intercept operators , were engaged in monitoring other types of radio signals such as single and multi - channel radio printer signals and facsimile transmissions . Some locations like Elmendorf AFB and Clark AFB were equipped with direction finding shops from which " fixes " on targets could be obtained by requesting a line of bearing from other direction finding shops in other locations around the world . This would give a triangulation fix on a target and that target could then be plotted on a board and the coordinates then forwarded to take proper action on the targets . All this was accomplished by using the AN / FLR - 9 antenna ( or the Flare 9 or elephant cage ) as it was sometimes called . The antenna array covered of ground and was composed of A , B and C band elements that covered the high frequency ( HF ) range of signals that targets of interest transmitted on . Some were assigned to clandestine missions to monitor telephone exchanges in the European Theater of Operations . The information collected in the field was usually sent via encrypted land - line and radio systems to a co - located group of USAFSS analysts who would interpret the data , format reports and send them on to the National Security Agency or other recipients . The NSA shared these reports with all the government agencies involved in intelligence including every branch of the Armed services , the FBI , the CIA , and others . Many feel that if this kind of inter agency cooperation had existed in 2000 , the plans for the 9 / 11 attacks would have been detected and the attacks prevented . These jobs , which required top secret codeword clearance ( the original " Q Clearance " ) , were extremely high pressure and were considered essential to U . S . cold war efforts . Members of the USAFSS were not allowed to discuss their jobs with outsiders — in fact , USAFSS members could not talk amongst themselves about their jobs unless they were in a secure location . Because of their value as targets , e . g . in Cold War Berlin , the capture of a USAFSS member was worth several thousand dollars , their off - base travel was severely restricted . Many adopted " cover jobs " to more easily conceal their real work . The USAFSS had two major areas of operations : ground based and airborne . Ground based units were scattered throughout the globe and collected information from fixed sites with large antenna arrays . Airborne units flew from bases around the world , skirting sensitive areas and collecting data in a variety of aircraft , including C - 47s , C - 130s , and EC - 135s . Some airborne units were associated with the strategic reconnaissance units of Strategic Air Command , and flew aboard SAC ( and non - SAC ) reconnaissance flights to collect data from shorter range communication systems and other types of signals . A primary job of USAFSS airborne linguists and Morse Intercept Operators aboard SAC reconnaissance aircraft was to provide self - protection early warning of impending fighter or missile response by a target nation ' s air defense system . Of equal value were the " ferret missions " flown into Soviet Block countries to gather intel on their air defense systems . The command also maintained a cadre of TRANSEC ( TRANsmission SECurity ) , later known as COMSEC ( COMmunications SECurity ) personnel . Their mission consisted of monitoring and analyzing US military radio and telephone communications to identify practices and individual communications that could compromise and endanger sensitive or classified operations . TRANSEC / COMSEC teams operated in both tactical and strategic environments , utilizing both fixed locations and deployed ( TDY ) teams , and their reports were frequently provided directly to field commanders involved in the targeted operations . Many USAFSS personnel were dedicated to this mission throughout their Air Force careers , while others moved between TRANSEC / COMSEC and the more traditional intelligence operations . The TRANSEC / COMSEC mission was occasionally used as a cover story by the intelligence gathering operations . The activities of the USAFSS were declassified in 1997 . Country music icon Johnny Cash was a USAFSS member and morse code intercept operator stationed in Germany in the early 1950s . The USAFSS command emblem seen here was designed by Airman Second Class ( A2C ) William " Bill " Rogers of Miami , Florida . His design was selected from a command - wide contest of entries . The Freedom through vigilance motto was authored by my father , then Lt Mike Egan . See also . My source is him and the plaque on his wall that says that .