WWII Combat Information Center Magazine

[MIflyer]

Here is a link to a number of downloadable copies of the USN's WWII Combat Information Center Magazine. These were technical documents that described the CIC techniques and capabilities, especially for radar.

Combat Information Center

 

[Micdrow]

Here is a link to a number of downloadable copies of the USN's WWII Combat Information Center Magazine. These were technical documents that described the CIC techniques and capabilities, especially for radar.

Combat Information Center

Many thanks!

 

[Jimbob]

Very cool. Thank You for downloading.

 

[Token]

I have seen a similar magazine for the Army called "Radar". However I have never seen any online sources of the Radar magazines. I have seen hard copies of both Radar and CIC. Great to see the online sources for CIC (these pdf's, apparently the exact same ones, are also on the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association web site, a site webmastered by the same person).

Of interest, at least to some people, is the classification of these magazines, and how they were treated in years after the war. These magazines (both CIC and Radar) were / are marked "Confidential". This is a specific, and defined, classification marking, with specific control and protection direction. The last time I saw a hard copy of either of these was over 25 years ago, and at that time they were still being protected as classified data. This is / was normal, if something is marked as classified and its markings have never been changed, you must protect it at its marked level. Generally, only the original classifying agency (or the Executive branch) can declassify something, and if they never put out direction on a specific document then it was / is never changed. Unless the document has a specific "declassify date", a marking that did not come into use until well after WW II.

So it was for many years. Such documents were orphaned. There was little / no real reason to keep them classified, but the classifying agency had little reason to specifically declassify, often having generated thousands or tens of thousands of classified documents over a period of time. And in some cases the originating agency was disbanded, and no existing agency could declassify them. Since it can be a pain in the butt to have extra documents in your safe / controlled area, these documents were often destroyed. Sure, they may be cool from a historic standpoint, but eventually someone becomes a steward that does not want to be bothered with keeping them, and since you can't declassify you must destroy.

However, then came Executive Order 13526, in 2009. This order basically said that any classified document that was over 25 years old could be automatically declassified, unless it fell under one of several exemptions.

So basically EO 13526 automatically declassified these documents, and millions like them, even if they had not been specifically declassified or the notification to declassify was never properly applied.

An interesting twist. If one were to print out a copy of these 1944 or 1945 documents, as they exist with their markings, and then take them into a classified space, one would have to still protect them at the Confidential level. This is because they are so marked, and everything must be protected at least to its marked level. Of course, the "righter" answer would be to print them, mark them as unclassified, with the declassifying directive noted.

T!