Veterans with Secret War Roles Reunited in Kansas City:

LENEXA, Kan. -- If you drove by Shelter Number One at Shawnee Mission Park around noon on Thursday, you wouldn't think anything of the group of citizens gathered. But that group holds a lot of secrets, many their parents and spouses will never even know. "What we did was classified. How's that? I don't know how much I can tell you about that!" Veteran Christi Scaduto told 41 Action News. "Our job was... in intelligence," another veteran, Bob Harvey, said. Thursday marked the anniversary of his homecoming from Vietnam in 1969. These veterans, who served all over the world, met to talk about their time in the Army Security Agency, the intelligence branch predating what is now the NSA. "When things would happen, and get real exciting, you get nervous and scared, but it's exciting. And these are the only people who understand that," Scaduto said. Agents in the ASA intercepted messages, copied Morse code, and monitored communications for the U.S. during wartime, along with a long list of other duties that many people will probably never know about. "We were never there, and are not here today. That's pretty much what was drilled into us: keep it secret, what you're doing," Harvey said. "So it's a joke now." Many veterans were meeting the only people they could swap stories with for the first time. Their silence was considered a necessity. "It was very necessary for security and safety, so you felt you were a very, very small wheel in a very big, important job that needed to be done," Scaduto said.

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