The New York Times reports that President Obama has nominated a new NSA director. “The Obama administration announced Thursday that it would nominate Vice Adm. Michael S. Rogers to become the new director of the National Security Agency and the commander of the new Pentagon unit that directs the country’s offensive cyberoperations, according to senior administration officials.” The Washington Post notes that “In an unusual move, Obama himself interviewed Rogers last week, in a reflection of the job’s high profile at a time when the NSA has drawn fire for the scope of its surveillance practices.”
That’s not all that’s unusual. It seems to represent one of the few times that both the NSA and the NSA Deputy have been replaced in the same year. In a paragraph a little further down in the NYT article it says: “The administration also intends to nominate Rick Ledgett to serve as deputy director of the N.S.A. Mr. Ledgett leads the agency’s Media Leaks Task Force, which has been assessing the damage done by Edward J. Snowden, the former agency contractor who obtained more than a million documents as a systems administrator in Hawaii.”
Wikipedia lists the tenures of NSA directors going back to 1952.
| MG Ralph Canine | 1952–1956 |
| Lt Gen John Samford | 1956–1960 |
| VADM Laurence Frost | 1960–1962 |
| Lt Gen Gordon Blake | 1962–1965 |
| LTG Marshall Carter | 1965–1969 |
| VADM Noel Gayler | 1969–1972 |
| Lt Gen Samuel C. Phillips | 1972–1973 |
| Lt Gen Lew Allen | 1973–1977 |
| VADM Bobby Ray Inman | 1977–1981 |
| Lt Gen Lincoln Faurer | 1981–1985 |
| LTG William Odom | 1985–1988 |
| VADM William Studeman | 1988–1992 |
| VADM John M. McConnell | 1992–1996 |
| Lt Gen Kenneth Minihan | 1996–1999 |
| Lt Gen Michael Hayden | 1999–2005 |
| LTG/GEN Keith B. Alexander | 2005-2014 |
Now let’s look at the tenures of the Deputy Directors as shown by Wikipedia, as shown below. The reader will have no difficulty noticing that the terms of the Directors and Deputies are separated by a year or so. This may be coincidental, but it might also be caused by a desire to maintain continuity within the NSA.
| Joseph Wenger | 1952–1953 |
| John Ackerman | 1953–1956 |
| John A. Samford | Jun-56 |
| Deputy Director | Term |
| Joseph H. Ream | 1956-1957 |
| H. T. Engstrom | 1957-1958 |
| Louis W. Tordella | 1958-1974 |
| Benson K. Buffham | 1974–1978 |
| Robert E. Drake | 1978–1980 |
| Ann Z. Caracristi | 1980–1982 |
| Robert E. Rich | 1982–1986 |
| Charles R. Lord | 1986–1988 |
| Gerald R. Young | 1988–1990 |
| Robert L. Prestel | 1990–1994 |
| William P. Crowell | 1994–1997 |
| Barbara A. McNamara | 1997–2000 |
| William B. Black, Jr. | 2000–2006 |
| John C. (Chris) Inglis | 2006–2014 |
In 2014 the director and the deputy have been replaced at the same time. This suggests that the replacement of General Alexander is not entirely a routine event. But since the NSA is “no such agency”, then we are unlikely to be told why. My guess is that something out of the ordinary is happening, a shakeup of more than the normal scale. But it’s only a guess.
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