Ryan Chiou

  

Volume 10 | Issue I | March 2026

Palos Verdes Peninsula High School ’26

California, United States

  

As a USS Iowa volunteer tour guide, I realized that the ship’s exhibit focused primarily on famous events and people. Inspired to balance this, I wanted to tell more stories of unsung individuals. So, when I first read about Alan Turing and his work on the Enigma machine at Bletchley Park, I did some research about codebreaking on other World War II fronts. Tracing the stories of American cryptanalysts in the Pacific front like Agnes Meyer Driscoll and Harry Kidder through declassified naval records and other papers, I sought to connect technical innovation with human experience, showing how codebreaking was not just about machines and messages, but about persistence, creativity, and even luck. My paper grew out of that work. The writing process taught me how to synthesize archival evidence with narrative clarity and to place individual contributions within broader historical periods. Beyond research, I bring these stories to life as a volunteer exhibit designer aboard the USS Iowa, through the Library of Congress Veterans History Project, and as the founder of my school’s Military History Club. Writing for The Schola affirmed my belief that history is most powerful when it restores forgotten voices. I hope to continue uncovering the hidden dimensions of intelligence and war in my future studies.