author
Parker Hitt
b. 1878
Best known for helping shape modern American military cryptology, this Army officer wrote one of the earliest practical U.S. guides to military ciphers and worked across signals, aviation, and intelligence. His career stretches from the Spanish-American War era into the age when coded communication became central to modern warfare.
1 Audiobook
Manual for the Solution of Military Ciphers
by Parker Hitt
About the author
Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1878, Parker Hitt studied at Purdue University before leaving to enlist during the Spanish-American War. He went on to serve as a United States Army officer in a career that included postings in places such as the Philippines, Alaska, and California, and he became closely involved with the Army Signal Corps.
Hitt is most often remembered as a pioneer of American military cryptology. Before the First World War, he wrote Manual for the Solution of Military Ciphers (1916), widely described as the first practical American work on military ciphers in more than a century. He is also associated with early cipher devices and with the development of secure military communications at a time when the field was rapidly changing.
His interests reached beyond codes alone: accounts of his career also note work connected to military signaling and early aviation. Later writers and institutions, including the National Security Agency, have treated him as a foundational figure in the history of U.S. cryptologic work.