[FOX] DENVER -- Born in St. Louis, Nancy Tipton was attending university when she heard the news about Pearl Harbor."It did not sink in right away, I think we went to a movie after that," she said. The United States was at war. In 1944, Tipton was recruited by the U.S. Army into the Signal Corps.
"I had to pass a test and I had to have two references," she said. The Army had special plans for Tipton. She remained a civilian, was given paper and pencil, and told her she was a cryptographer.
Her first order? "They said you cannot open your mouth and tell anybody what you were doing," she said.
She didn’t. Up until five years ago, what Tipton did for the Army was considered classified, top secret.