In this series, Clearance Jobs will take a look at booming “spy cities” across the country and around the world—cities that have seen massive growth as hubs for intelligence agencies and activities.
On January 14, 1836, Colonel James C. Neill wrote an urgent letter to the provisional governor and council of the newly independent Republic of Texas. In the message, he warned of the grave situation at a small mission-turned-fortress called Alamo (so named for the surrounding cottonwood trees). “There can exist but little doubt that the enemy is advancing upon this post,” wrote Neill, who noted that while they’d been informed that the Mexican forces of Santa Anna were on the Rio Frio, “so situated are we, for want for horses, that we cannot, through our own exertions, gain any information, not being able to send out a small spy company.”
Everyone remembers what happened next, but the inability to field a team of spies was a mistake that San Antonio would never make again. Today, 178 years later, the city is home to the U.S. Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency—the only agency in the intelligence community whose headquarters does not orbit the immediate vicinity of Washington, D.C. Because of this, and because of the enormous military footprint in the area, the city has attracted and nurtured its own miniature defense industrial base. San Antonio has emerged as a key player in unmanned aerial systems, cyber warfare, logistics, and aircraft maintenance.
Still, the obvious question is: why San Antonio? How did it go from being surprised by the Mexican army to a spy city par excellence? The answer lies, perhaps unexpectedly, in the messy history of the National Security Agency.
Immediately after World War II, with gestating public fears of a possible “American Gestapo,” President Truman ordered the dismantling of the intelligence apparatus of the United States. This proved shortsighted, as the Soviet Union was growing increasingly antagonistic toward the West and the prospect of another war loomed. To get the information flowing again, the U.S. hastily established the Central Intelligence Group (soon thereafter, the Central Intelligence Agency) and in 1949, the Armed Forces Security Agency. The latter agency was organized as to unify the communications intelligence capabilities of the branches of the military, and with any luck, figure out what the Soviets were up to. (Luck never materialized but for intercepted plaintext communications.)
The military balked at the centralization, and the branches each moved to protect their turf. The Air Force relocated its cryptographic arm, the U.S. Air Force Security Service (USAFSS), from Virginia to San Antonio, Texas—halfway across the country. Once month later, the AFSA was established. Grossly underfunded, poorly managed, and with an impossible mission, the AFSA proceeded to fail almost as if by design. American cryptography remained crippled until General Walter Bedell Smith (who also saved the mismanaged and ineffective CIA) recommended and steered a reorganization effort. The NSA was born. Meanwhile, the USAFSS remained in San Antonio and eventually became the Air Intelligence Agency. Over time, it was re-designated as Electronic Security Command, and finally the USAF Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency.
Today, Joint Base San Antonio (made up of Lackland AFB, Randolph AFB, and Fort Sam Houston) is host to the 67th Network Warfare Wing, whose subordinate units engage in cyberwarfare operations, electronic intelligence, network operations, and network security command and control. The 558th Flying Training Squadron trains pilots to operate MQ-1 Predator drones. And, of course, the U.S. Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency handles spies and spy platforms. (It doesn’t hurt that the Defense Language Institute is also located there, training service members to speak upward of 40 languages and interact with foreign cultures.) These units are about as modern as modern warfare gets, and as you can imagine, have created security-clearance-related jobs aplenty in the area.
Defense contractors there include Northrop Grumman, CMX Technologies, and AT&T Government Solutions. Presently, the jobs most in demand orbit the sphere of information technology. If you have a clearance and know how to run a computer network, you won’t hurt for work in San Antonio. Kforce needs UNIX administrators. INDUS needs someone to keep the Air Force Enterprise Network from collapsing. CMX is hiring cryptographic network engineers for “space-to-terrestrial architecture integration and cryptographic insertion into terrestrial networks.” San Antonio is one of those places where even the help desk operator needs a top-secret clearance with a polygraph.
What’s it like to live there? Pretty nice. The cost of living is lower than the national average. It’s a buyer’s market for houses. The schools aren’t going to change your mind about the quality of public education, so that’s something to consider. Still it is the seventh-most-populated city in the United States, and so everything you might ever want to do can be found there. (Except eat at Waffle House, which drove me crazy when I lived there. On the plus side, I’ve been to the Alamo so many times that I could take over as tour guide in the event of an emergency.) Chart House Restaurant atop the Tower of the Americas is not to be missed. The River Walk is lined with great shopping, loads of entertainment, and excellent cuisine. It’s a business boomtown.
But more importantly, it’s a place with history and strong local culture. Not many cities outside of New England can claim to have played a direct and vital role in American wars fought both at home and abroad. San Antonio is one of them.
