{"id":76571,"date":"2022-09-26T22:34:30","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T22:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/09\/26\/that-time-johnny-cash-might-have-intercepted-secret-russian-code\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:26:18","slug":"that-time-johnny-cash-might-have-intercepted-secret-russian-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/off-duty\/2022\/09\/26\/that-time-johnny-cash-might-have-intercepted-secret-russian-code\/","title":{"rendered":"That time Johnny Cash might have intercepted secret Russian code"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before legendary country musician Johnny Cash became the Man in Black, he served during the Cold War as a man in blue with the U.S. Air Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shortly after his marriage to first wife, Vivian, Staff Sgt. Cash was sent to Landsberg, West Germany, where the rumor began that the young airman had intercepted and cracked a secret Russian code about the March 1953 death of Soviet Premier Leader Joseph Stalin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his autobiography \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/en\/book\/show\/35488.Cash\" target=\"_blank\">Cash<\/a>,\u201d the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee wrote, \u201cI was the ace. I was who they called when the hardest jobs came up. I copied the first news of Stalin\u2019s death. I located the signal when the first Soviet jet bomber made its first flight from Moscow to Smolensk; we all knew what to listen for, but I was the one who heard it&#8230;\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One source, however, has since debunked that statement \u2014 to a degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Cash was involved in some way, the idea that he alone decrypted the transmission confirming Stalin\u2019s death is likely an exaggeration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his book, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=6qaANnvGwGkC&#038;pg=PT37&#038;lpg=PT37&#038;dq=%E2%80%9Cwry+smile+to+the+faces+of+those+who+worked+with+him.+%E2%80%98That%E2%80%99s+nonsense,%E2%80%99+says+one.+%E2%80%98He+didn%27t+understand+Russian,+and+if+it+came+in+code+we+wouldn%27t+have+been+able+to+decipher+it+anyway.%27%E2%80%9D&#038;source=bl&#038;ots=N0S6bMBJax&#038;sig=ACfU3U204Q-vgiljBund2o9uiKUdxr9tyw&#038;hl=en&#038;sa=X&#038;ved=2ahUKEwjBta7QjLP6AhWqF1kFHZXcCYoQ6AF6BAgDEAM#v=onepage&#038;q&#038;f=false\" target=\"_blank\">The Man Called Cash<\/a>\u201d, biographer Steve Turner writes that, although Cash was indeed serving in the right place at the right time for the message intercept, the singer\u2019s account is a bit overblown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The story told by Cash brought a \u201cwry smile to the faces of those who worked with him,\u201d Turner wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Turner quotes one of Cash\u2019s fellow airmen as saying, \u201c\u2018He didn\u2019t understand Russian, and if it came in code we wouldn\u2019t have been able to decipher it anyway.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cash served from 1950-54. Before his separation, he wrote to Arkansas Congressman Ezekial Gathings requesting to transition to work for the National Security Agency. Gathings sent back a typewritten letter saying he believed Cash\u2019s chances of being accepted were favorable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1036\" height=\"1220\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2022-09-26-at-4.09.54-PM.png.png\" alt=\"(Sarah Sicard\/Military Times)\" class=\"wp-image-106702\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2022-09-26-at-4.09.54-PM.png.png 1036w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2022-09-26-at-4.09.54-PM.png.png?resize=255,300 255w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2022-09-26-at-4.09.54-PM.png.png?resize=768,904 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2022-09-26-at-4.09.54-PM.png.png?resize=870,1024 870w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1036px) 100vw, 1036px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Man in Black could, in essence, have been a much darker nickname had the NSA been his career of choice. Then again, perhaps it was &#8230; secretly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/quotes\/454606-sometimes-i-am-two-people-johnny-is-the-nice-one\" target=\"_blank\">once said<\/a>, \u201cSometimes I am two people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Johnny Cash served in the Air Force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":106698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-post-observation-post","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":13,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[100,23,93,12,25,13,70],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3305],"class_list":["post-76571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-off-duty","category-your-army"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QA7V766J2JEZJBUF24DWUC6MMU","arc_canonical_url":"\/off-duty\/2022\/09\/26\/that-time-johnny-cash-might-have-intercepted-secret-russian-code\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"observation-post","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>That time Johnny Cash might have intercepted secret Russian code - Army Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Johnny Cash served in the Air Force.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"That time Johnny Cash might have intercepted secret Russian code\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Johnny Cash served in the Air Force.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/off-duty\/2022\/09\/26\/that-time-johnny-cash-might-have-intercepted-secret-russian-code\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Army Times\" 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