Monday, October 21, 2013

CG = CANDLEGLOW?

A few days ago I was wondering about the meaning of the suffix CG in the Canadian SIGAD CAC-98CG.

But then I dredged the following out of my files:



It's a Personnel Evaluation Report for a member of the military Communicator Research trade who was assigned to 771 Communications Research Squadron in 1999-2000. I found it posted on the Internet.

771 Communications Research Squadron was disbanded in 2002, but at the time of this report its members primarily worked in the Sir Leonard Tilley Building, CSE's headquarters, alongside the civilian employees of CSE.

And so it would seem to have been for this individual, who evidently worked closely with the civilians in what was then CSE's G Group (which probably focused on SIGINT Acquisition).

The report shows that the subject was a communications satellite (COMSAT) Signal Research and Target Development (SRTD) analyst and that he focused in particular on computer to computer (C2C) communications. The satellite monitoring dishes used for this work are located at the nearby CFS Leitrim, and the report notes that he received a letter of appreciation from the commanding officer of Leitrim for some of the work he did.

The report also notes that he worked closely with a group of C2C analysts designated CANDLEGLOW.

Is the CG suffix in the CAC-98CG SIGAD an abbreviation for CANDLEGLOW?

The pieces would seem to fit.

CANDLEGLOW appears to have been a group of analysts working at CSE headquarters (which is consistent with the second C - for civilian - in CAC), using the facilities at Leitrim (consistent with the 98 in the SIGAD), and processing computer-based communications (consistent with the appearance of CAC-98CG on a list of sites collecting Internet-related traffic).

Update 26 May 2015: As noted here, CANDLEGLOW may be the overall designation for foreign satellite (FORNSAT) monitoring operations at Leitrim.

4 Comments:

Blogger P/K said...

Very interesting find!

October 21, 2013 6:42 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Bill,

I have an odd request. I am trying to find a blank template for a PER, but most if not all other traces seem to have disappeared from the Internet, and I don't have access to CF facilities. I was wondering -- if you still have the document, and if you feel like going to the trouble -- if you might post a higher-resolution scan of this PER, of course with the member's information redacted. The entire thing could be redacted, even -- I am strictly looking for the document layout and the names of fields, etc.

If you don't feel like doing this for a complete stranger, I completely understand. (Ditto if you no longer have the document.) But I figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

Thank you for posting it as-is; I've made a partial reconstruction of a blank PER from what I can make out of it. I have not looked at the rest of your site yet, but it looks very interesting and I appreciate the effort you must have taken, I will have to take a better look when I am not at work lol.

Take care out there,

--Anonymous Internetter

PS: if you wondered or if it matters, this is strictly for my own personal use; I am not planning on publishing the template anywhere.

July 27, 2023 9:43 am  
Blogger Bill Robinson said...

Hi -
The image I posted is the highest resolution I have. I found it on the Internet and have never had the original document.

- Bill

July 27, 2023 12:09 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you for the quick update!

July 27, 2023 4:36 pm  

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