This is the KAL 55B tactical authentication device, called the KAK wheel, that I used every afternoon to enrypt map references of our upcoming night acts. It was somewhat labor intensive. I can't remember the exact procedure, but a separate crypto sheet was issued for each day of the month, placed in a clear plastic code wheel binder; the binder contained a spinning wheel with an outer ring divided into 9 segments and an inner ring with a circle marked "set." Map grid references were encrypted into phonetic alphabet and voice-transmitted to the receiver who would decode with an identical crypto sheet and wheel.
These were classified and NOFORN. In rifle companies RTOs carried them on a lanyard. We had no RTOs in our small unit. I carried it in my right thigh pocket. Short messages from the field could also be encrypted but anything longer than a sentence took some time. I expect this looks pretty Mickey Mouse to most of you. Better than smoke signals, though.
These were classified and NOFORN. In rifle companies RTOs carried them on a lanyard. We had no RTOs in our small unit. I carried it in my right thigh pocket. Short messages from the field could also be encrypted but anything longer than a sentence took some time. I expect this looks pretty Mickey Mouse to most of you. Better than smoke signals, though.
