Captain Forrest Rosecrans "Tex" Biard (December 21, 1912 in

Bonham, Texas Bonham is a city and the county seat of Fannin County, Texas. The population was 10,408 at the 2020 census. James Bonham (the city's namesake) sought the aid of James Fannin (the county's namesake) at the Battle of the Alamo. Bonham is part of the ...

– November 2, 2009) was an American

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingui ...

in the U.S. Navy

codebreaking Cryptanalysis (from the Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems in order to understand hidden aspects of the systems. Cryptanalysis is used to breach cryptographic se ...

organization during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. A pre-war student of

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, Biard's translation work is considered to have been an important part of American military success.

Early life and education

Biard graduated from

North Dallas High School North Dallas High School is a public secondary school located in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas, Texas, United States. It enrolls students in grades 9- 12 and is a part of the Dallas Independent School District. As of 2017, the principal admini ...

in 1930 and from the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a United States Service academies, federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of ...

in 1934. He served as an ensign on the heavy cruiser from 1935 to 1937. Biard was sent to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

in 1939 for full immersion

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ...

and culture training. His planned three-year assignment was cut short in September 1941 due to the rising tensions between Japan and the United States. Biard later earned a master's degree in physics from the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pu ...

in 1953.Maffeo, p. 215

Retrieved 2020-02-08.

World War II service

In September 1941, Biard (then a Lieutenant (navy), Lieutenant) was stationed at

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...

as a senior linguist for

Station HYPO Station , also known as Fleet Radio Unit Pacific () was the United States Navy signals monitoring and cryptographic intelligence unit in Hawaii during World War II. It was one of two major Allied signals intelligence units, called Fleet Radio Units ...

, part of American attempts to break Japanese military codes, including the key strategic code,

JN-25 The vulnerability of Japanese naval codes and ciphers was crucial to the conduct of World War II, and had an important influence on foreign relations between Japan and the west in the years leading up to the war as well. Every Japanese code was ...

. In February 1942, he was temporarily assigned to the as the radio intelligence officer under Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher. His translation and decryption work on JN-25 contributed substantially to Allied efforts in the

Battle of the Coral Sea The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the batt ...

and the

Battle of Midway The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under A ...

. He was promoted to

Lieutenant Commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding rank i ...

on March 1, 1943. Biard was promoted to

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain ...

on February 1, 1944. He then worked with Tom Mackie to decrypt and translate captured

Japanese Army The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force ( ja, 陸上自衛隊, Rikujō Jieitai), , also referred to as the Japanese Army, is the land warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Created on July 1, 1954, it is the largest of the three service b ...

code books for Douglas MacArthur; MacArthur was able to use Biard and Mackie's data to accelerate his "

island-hopping Leapfrogging, also known as island hopping, was a military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War against the Empire of Japan during World War II. The key idea is to bypass heavily fortified enemy islands instead of trying to cap ...

" strategy to liberate

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

and hasten the end of the war.

Postwar career

In 1946, Biard served as Executive Officer in the Intelligence Division and Chief of the Security Section for

Operation Crossroads Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. They were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity in July 1945, and the first detonations of nuclear devices since the ...

, the first nuclear weapons tests conducted by Joint Army/Navy Task Force One at

Bikini Atoll Bikini Atoll ( or ; Marshallese: , , meaning "coconut place"), sometimes known as Eschscholtz Atoll between the 1800s and 1946 is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a central lagoon. After the Sec ...

. Biard retired from the U.S. Navy in January 1955 and received a promotion to Captain based on his wartime service record. After retirement, he taught Physics at

Long Beach City College Long Beach City College (LBCC) is a public community college in Long Beach, California. It was established in 1927 and is divided into two campuses, the Liberal Arts Campus in Lakewood Village and the Pacific Coast Campus in central Long Beach ...

. Biard was interred along with his wife Winifred in

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

on January 20, 2010.

Notes

References

* Layton, Rear Admiral Edwin T., U.S.N. (Ret.), with Captain Roger Pineau, U.S.N.R. (Ret.). and John Costello, “And I Was There” - Pearl Harbor and Midway – Breaking the Secrets, William Morrow and Company Inc., New York (1985) at 51, 470. Regarding the accomplishments of the Station Hypo codebreaking group, Adm. Nimitz "enthusiastically endorsed" the following statement issued by then-Capt. Jasper Holmes in a postwar assessment report (which was not declassified until 1984): "The fate of the nation quite literally depended upon about a dozen men who had devoted their lives and their careers, in peace and war, to radio intelligence" at 470. * Kahn, David, The Codebreakers, The MacMillan Company – New York (1967) at 38. *Dear, I.C.B., and Foot, M.R.D. (Eds.), The Oxford Companion To World War II, Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York (1995) at 796, 1174.

External links

Transcript of a 2002 speech by Biard
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Biard, Tex 1912 births 2009 deaths People from Bonham, Texas Military personnel from Dallas United States Naval Academy alumni United States Navy officers American cryptographers Pre-computer cryptographers United States Navy personnel of World War II Ohio State University Graduate School alumni Long Beach City College faculty Burials at Arlington National Cemetery