Wendy Noble is a former deputy director of the National Security Agency.
Twelve months have passed since I was released on April 4, 2025, as the 20th deputy director of the National Security Agency. I believe that the president always has the right to choose his team — that is not a political statement, it is a constitutional one. Executive authority over the national security apparatus is real, and proper. Over the past year, as I reflected on my nearly 40 years at the agency, my overwhelming feeling has been a sense of gratitude for having worked with the countless professionals who play a vital role in safeguarding Americans.
My journey began in 1979, with enlistment in the U.S. Air Force as a Russian linguist — a young service member with a fundamental belief that answering the nation’s call was its own reward. Joining the National Security Agency in 1987 opened a career that spanned the full breadth of the NSA’s mission, and I eventually had the honor of becoming the agency’s senior civilian leader.
The intelligence community’s work rarely makes headlines — and that, paradoxically, is a measure of success. The analysts who burn the midnight oil correlating fragmented signals; the collection specialists who develop sources and methods in the shadows; the linguists who decode meaning from noise; the engineers who build the technical infrastructure of national awareness — these professionals do not seek recognition. They seek results. And day after day, they deliver.
To the policymakers in Washington and the combatant commanders in the field, intelligence is the invisible foundation upon which decisions of consequence are made. Timely, accurate and relevant intelligence — the kind that keeps soldiers out of ambushes, that warns of adversary intentions before they become action, that shapes diplomacy before words are spoken — does not emerge by accident. It is the product of disciplined minds and an absolute dedication to getting it right.
Then there are the scientists and engineers who push the boundaries of what is technically possible. Analysts whose grasp of geopolitics, culture, language and human behavior would humble any scholar. Underpinning everything is the work of mathematicians — cryptographers and algorithm designers. The advanced mathematics they develop and protect forms the invisible armor around the most sensitive government communications and the command-and-control systems of weapons platforms.
These people labor in near-total obscurity, and America’s security depends, in no small part, on the elegance of their work. The nation is fortunate beyond measure to have them.
In national security, the talk is often about systems, platforms and capabilities. But the most durable infrastructure encountered across a long career is relational. The trust built between a signals intelligence or cybersecurity professional and a foreign partner. The interoperability forged between an intelligence analyst and a combatant command over years of working problems together. The bonds between the services of the United States and its allies around the globe allow information to cross borders in minutes because decades of professional respect have made it possible.
These relationships — within the intelligence community, across the federal government, with international partners, with the private sector and the academic community — are not incidental to the mission. They are their connective tissue. The most capable technical system in the world is diminished without the human networks that give it direction and purpose.
The most innovative capabilities do not emerge from government alone; they come from collaboration, sometimes from an industry partner who brought a technical approach not previously considered, or from a university researcher who introduced an analytic framework that changed how a problem was understood. Cultivating and sustaining those partnerships requires patience and respect for what others bring to the table. It is among the most important work any senior leader in the intelligence community can perform.
I’m grateful to have been a part of this community. To those still in the fight — the analysts at their terminals, the collectors in the field, the engineers building tomorrow’s capabilities, the leaders bearing the weight of decisions that cannot be made public — know that your work matters, every single day. The nation you serve may not always know your name, but it is safer, freer and stronger because of you.
And to the families — the spouses, partners, parents and children of the civilian and military professionals who give so much in service to the nation — you are the unsung heroes of this work. You keep the home fires burning through the deployments and the long nights, the missed dinners and the empty chairs at graduations, the vacations that never happened and the holidays cut short. Your sacrifice is real, your contribution is essential and your service, though rendered quietly, without clearance or ceremony, is no less meaningful than that of the men and women you support. The intelligence community owes you a debt it can never fully repay.
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