Brian Rexroad, vice president of Security Platforms in Bedminster, New Jersey, always knew that his grandfather Carl Rumpel had worked for AT&T. But when you’re a kid, you don’t think to

ask what “Gramp” did from day to day. Recently, when going through one of his grandfather’s old journals, Brian made an amazing discovery: his grandfather fought Nazis, by helping to create a voice encryption system called SIGSALY.

“It’s one of the first — if not the first — voice encryption systems that was used by [Winston] Churchill and [Franklin D.] Roosevelt to communicate during a World War II effort,” Rexroad said.

Yes, the man Brian called “Gramp” was instrumental in creating technology that was used to defeat Nazi Germany. With stations set up in Washington, D.C., London and Northern Africa, SIGSALY allowed phone conversations without any unwanted listening in.

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