Senior Chief Frank Turban
US Navy
Frank was a communications technician, or as he calls it, a 鈥渟pook.鈥� He served in the US Navy from 1963-1983 - the height of the Cold War. Frank鈥檚 job was to interpret encrypted signals from Soviet submarines. In 1973, he was part of the crew of the USS Flying Fish under Captain JD Williams on a particularly successful special operation.
Using cutting edge detection equipment, Captain Williams and his crew found the first of the new class of Delta nuclear ballistic submarines on sea trials. Its R29 missiles had twice the range of its predecessor鈥檚, so could hit US targets from close to Soviet shores. It was a landmark moment in Cold War submarine warfare. Frank鈥檚 talent for deciphering helped fingerprint the most powerful submarine the Soviets had ever produced at that time. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 even operational yet 鈥� and we knew everything about it! I don鈥檛 have superlative words in my vocabulary to be able to describe how big that is!鈥�
