When I arrived at Galloways, it not being my usual pre-seven a.m. visiting time, the place was half full. Mike Manning sat at my table, so I walked right over and took the seat next to him, which was also usually the chair I occupied.
“Want your chair?” he asked, without saying good morning or offering any other greeting.
I just watched the Mickey Thompson episode of Homicide on Netflix and I remembered that he appeared in some earlier installments of The Cowardly Lion. I didn’t make the connection at the time of reading. I don’t follow NHRA or any of that. I was living in LA county at the time of the murder and vaguely remember it. The way your life intersects with significant historical events and people is one the things that makes your stories so interesting. Such a tragic end for an iconic figure like Mickey Thompson.
He was amazing to me.
He fully understood what I’d been through, somehow, and then without ever
bringing it up, did things like fix my car and loan me his own personal Oldsmobile 442.
He trusted me to run the station for a bit and paid for all the fixes I had no money for at the time.
Not in the book or rendition of the story in TCL he did pay me a special compliment.
When he met my wife, he said that he’d never met someone like me who married so far above himself.
Thanks for putting two and two together.
I have been so blessed to have known some really famous and special people…and in not becoming one myself.
Semper fi, and thanks for that great comment.
Jim
My perception of reality around me wasn’t really of reality at all. It was only my view of reality. …and we each have our own view. Isn’t that a fact ??
After recently getting my cataracts removed I can attest to that !! Proving my wife was right more times than gave her credit for !! LOL 🙂
Onward with the new job and adventures ahead LT.
Semper Fi
Thanks for that affirmation and compliment SgtBob, now that you can see well enough to ready my work
and have gained a sufficiency of wisdom to listen to your wife as little closer….
Semper fi,
Jim
Late comment here but I had to read & reread this chapter. Lots going on. This led to researching of Hebert.
From this chapter “You don’t want to become famous for anything in the agency”
Could the CIA have been behind the hit job 60 minutes did on him?
I have no idea about the 50 Minutes hit job, and that was what it was. The Agency seldom acts against former agents unless there
is traitorous activity assumed or proven.
It will take your house, your cars, your money and leave you broke with your family however, if you commit rather extraordinary violations.
Usually, however, you simply get early retired, fired outright or continued on with payments you have to make back to them.
Thanks for the comment. Herbert shared almost nothing of his personal life with me.
Semper fi,
Jim
James, I did not see this chapter posted on your website – so went looking on Facebook for it. Surprise! It’s been up for three days.
I like this line – “My perception of reality around me wasn’t really of reality at all. It was only my view of reality.” …and we each have our own view!
I await the next chapter.
Some minor editing suggestions follow:
The seats were only 18 inches
Maybe add “there” to indicate the seats at the counter
The seats there were only 18 inches
seats at the counter were only occupied leaving one cushioned top open between each customer
Maybe add “alternately” after “only”
seats at the counter were only alternately occupied leaving one cushioned top open between each customer
It’s that place and how we can keep it back there where it ought to have been left
Context seems to indicate “can” should be “can’t”
It’s that place and how we can’t keep it back there where it ought to have been left
she passed me by to deliver a couple
Maybe flip “me by” to “by me”
she passed by me to deliver a couple
saving Young in the sure
“surf” instead of “sure”
saving Young in the surf
she was no tony too attractive to flirt with
Maybe reword
she was not only too attractive to flirt with
absolutely no idea of what he might be dealing with
Drop “of” after “idea”
absolutely no idea what he might be dealing with
Had I made the whole thing of the experience up?
Maybe shorten
Had I made the whole experience up?
she’d been about to share with her published had vanished with her death
“publisher” instead of “published”
she’d been about to share with her publisher had vanished with her death
Blessings & Be Well
Thanks Dan, much appreciate the hard work to hold the whole thing together once I get it out there to you.
Sorry about missing it on the website.
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
Jim,
I did much earlier read and cogitate about what you offered us in this chapter. I intended to pen a comment earlier, but got tied up in prep work (power washing, applying a treatment, washing it off) on a double sided 650 foot wood fence that I need to get ready to stain. At 76, I think I might be too old for this kind of work anymore. But back brace and Advil help.
Anyway, your enlightening and thought-provoking words of this chapter did cause me considerable thought as to what transpired and how it may show up later, or set the scene for a new twist
. Seems like one section of our life is wrapping up and another section is about to take off at warp speed. You sure were a good friend to those who you considered friends in your life back then at that time. I am sure they appreciated you friendship.
Thanks for the incredible ride of each chapter.
Anxiously awaiting your NEXT chapter to se where it takes us, my friend.
THE WALTER DUKE. What a pleasure, as usual, to get your take on the continuing work.
Yes, it was a period of considerable upheaval although that kind of topsy turvy stuff kept right on going for some time.
Thanks for the great comment and the compliment, as well.
Your friend,
and Semper fi,
Jim
LT, had no one ever noticed the serrations on your hand? Hard to believe with a wife as sharp as yours she hasn’t noticed and quizzed you to no end on how they came to be. The Kennedy thing is a bowl of worms. We will never know the truth. A sad part of history along with Tricky Dick in forced retirement brought on by his on doing.
Still have the serrations, although they’ve faded over time a good bit. Nobody really notices physical stuff on other people
except for faces, or blatant scars, etc. My wife didn’t take not of them for some time and then my explanation that I got burned by
working on a hot auto engine cylinder head did the ticket. She doesn’t know to this day..and doesn’t read these comments!
At least no so far. She wanted nothing to do with the ‘Voodoo,’ as she described the thing when we had it.
Thanks for the great comment,
and Semper fi,
Jim
Oh, wow, the intrigue just gets deeper and deeper. Keep it up, my friend! Batman
Thanks, Batman. I moved over from Mass Mutual to Bankers Life when I left for Albuquerque.
Talk about wild insurance times. To try to build an agency alone, knowing nobody, in the middle of
that desert. Wow. Talk about adventure. Of course, I had your coaching and leadership training when I made the move.
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
Jim, All the bouncing balls of moving from a place & people you may have not minded staying around for a bit longer. Plus the new job & wondering (?) who will come by for the artifact. A large bowl of stew with too many ingredients, resulting in having to focus too much on just what is in the next spoonful vs just being able to enjoy a simple stew. More later my friend. Regards, Doug (Oh, ever have to deal with multiple ‘trigger fingers’ on both hands? If so, ever get any relief of it?)
Thanks, my friend, for the usual in depth comment here.
Sometimes I wonder about comments, since I respond to them all. I wonder if my responses are a bit over
the top since no authors I know of any caliber at all do anything like that. I understand about not having
the time when one has a large following but I also decided some time back that this kind of personal response
is required to make me more personal in feeling as well as I think it allows readers to be straight from the shoulder with me
about my work. Here, you, and they are just that…or so I trust.
Thanks Doug and hope to talk to you soon.
Semper fi,
Jim
Every week I read the latest chapter then lay awake wondering about your latest reveal of history. I never liked history as a school subject but now I find myself trying to remember dates and stirring up old memories. I was hoping we would learn how you came to be photographed wearing your new Chief’s cowboy hat. If you or Gularte did not borrow it, did you find a movie prop?
Now, I must read the previous chapter the third time because I don’t remember what was said Onassis. Maybe it was a good thing that I was so busy studying to make certain that I stayed in school at that time I rarely listened to music, read anything for fun or noticed what was happening to our country. Thankfully, enough heros and good citizens did pay attention to keep me believing that our leaders were always honest for a few more years.
John, the cowboy hat in the picture is the actual one Brown wore and that photo itself is of him, not me. Never have worn a cowboy
hat or even put one on in my life. I am happy that my work may have raised up an interest in history from the dead. I excerpt from the tapes of the work but not always in full detail. I don’t need people coming for the tapes at my age (or any age for that matter). The real players in the baseball game of life don’t play softball and I don’t have a glove for the fast pitches anymore.
Semper fi,
Jim
After reading this episode, I felt like you are entering the Twilight Zone, everything seems too surreal, too many weird things happening back to back!!
Rod Serling, who wrote most of the Twilight Zone segments, had a life like what he wrote in many ways and I get the same
feeling as he must have. I almost literally have seen ‘the signpost up ahead’ many times in my life.
Thanks for the comment and wanting to continue on with me in the telling of this thing.
Semper fi,
Jim
I had all but forgotten about the artifact with all the other things going on. Lot of loose ends that are all somehow connected in a Gordian knot.
How was it that I was so important back then to so many, but never felt during those years like I was really
important to anybody other than my family…and maybe Bozo? The complexity is more like a Monkey knot but
Gordian will do.Thanks for the great comment, as usual.
Semper fi,
Jim
The book written by Tony Herberts childhood that I mentioned earlier was written in 2019 not early last year as I originally wrote . Time flies ! In the review that I read of it there seems to be nothing mentioned of Tonys other life in the CIA which his friend either did not know of or decided not to mention. I will soon be getting a copy of the book and read it and compare it with Tonys book Soldier it should be interesting. Now as a side note nowhere in the book Soldier can I find and references to Ronald O Kaiser which if he was a close childhood friend of Tonys like he says he surely would have been mentioned early on in Tonys recollections of his childhood in Herminie Pennsylvania.
Truly and sincerely appreciate the research you have been doing on Herbert. I, of course, knew about his CIA connection because of him being my
first control, although it was hard to understand why he held that post as he was becoming so famous. You don’t want to become famous for anything
in the agency or you find yourself out of the CIA overnight. Like Valarie Plame and all that. Thanks for the hard work and filling in some of thge
gaps where and there.
Semper fi,
My friend,
Jim
Now this chapter is another that hits close to home ! A couple of years ago I was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis and I was scared shitless after reading up on it . After more testing I was found to have Narcoleptic Cataplexy . That diagnosis didn’t make me feel much better because some of the symptoms are the same hence the the first mistaken diagnosis . Now back to your control officer Tony Herbert . I did start rereading his book Soldier and it seems that he got his start in the intelligence business quite early on . Not long after his return from Korea he was sent to the Army Intelligence School then sent to Chicago on a mission to infiltrate a ring that was stealing documents from the Fifth Armys Headquarters . One of the members was a Chicago police Lieutenant . Tony did not reveal in the book who they were selling the documents to though. So during this time frame Tony was leading what was essentially a triple life . His life in the CIA , his private life pursuing a degree in I believe it was psychology and a very public life in his battle with CBS and the Army to get his reputation restored . There was a book written about him by a childhood friend last year that i need to get because now I wonder how much his friend really knew about Tony and his life versus what you knew him to be.
Holy Cow, as we say in Wisconsin instead of MFing Shit! I read up on your affliction.
The falling asleep thing has to be a social bitch, much less dangerous under certain circumstances, like standing on a ladder!
And waking up paralyzed. Panic time. Mainly I feel so bad for you about this.
I am glad that you are still able to write on here, be as totally coherent as you are and even investigate stuff on my behalf.
Thanks. I have to think about this.
Send me your phone number.
Mine is 2625815300
Your friend,
Jim
The plot deepens, Jim.
You seemed to have a knack for being in the right place at the right time, or conversely, wrong place at the wrong time. I am glad it wasn’t me, as I’m not equipped to handle all that.
But whom can you tell? And keeping all that inside can’t have been good for you.
We are each of us made up in different ways. I’d go mad from an inability to share your newly acquired knowledge. Yet you seemed to be able to handle the information without bursting at the seams.
Eagerly awaiting the forth-coming chapters!
Thanks Craig, for a great comment. Hold everything inside is par for the course in the CIA, particularly with respected to field work.
Even the ‘home office’ gets to know very little about what really happened on missions, but then they really only wanted success.
Thanks again,
Semper fi,
Jim
Kilgallen had called her editor from her room and told him that tomorrow she would blow the Kennedy Assassination open!
And the next day she was found to have committed Suicide…. and all of her documents and notes were gone.
Not unlike Marilyn’s diary….
Yes, I read about that much later in the game. Back in those days there was no place to go for real information on stuff that wasn’t old history and available at the local
library. Thanks for your comment.
Semper fi,
JIm
Another interesting chapter. I didn’t realize that Nixon ever had any kind of relationship with Jackie, let alone where he might be asking about her marriage.
I sent you a PM you might can use.
Kemp
I don’t think very many people understand that Nixon was physically present in Dallas at the time JFK was killed!
Nobody talked about it and the ‘official’ records have him flying out just hours before the event, on a governmental aircraft
he was not entitled to fly in. All I have is what I have on tape and it was shocking to me too since nobody ever had one
word to say among the White House staff about her showing up…and they were all rumor mongers of the highest order.
But I sure as hell believed, and still believe, the tape’s contents.
Thanks for the great comment, as usual, and the number of times you appear on here writing like you do.
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
James,
I don’t know what to say! I’m scratching my head and wondering if I’m just having a weird dream. I know that isn’t true, but still bewildering.
I know I can’t wait for the next episode!
Thanks so much.
Steve Ward
Belief has become a much more difficult conclusion to come to in this strange day and age.
I do onderstaand, and so much of history, if written about as it really went down, is simply’ not believable.
The mythologies constructed by the more powerful pervade all of human presentation up and down every avenue and
in every thread of public presentation. Thanks for the comment and the ‘truth’ you reveal in its content about you.
Semper fi,
Jim
Captivating as usual, glad you are still around to share the story. Seems like there were penty of opportunities for that mot to happen. You have us hooked on the astonishing but bery teal story. God Speed!
Thanks David, much appreciate the compliment and the steadfast support in the reading and commenting.
The writing itself is a sort of risky adventure…although contact lately with any of the forces that
be has been non-existent after a bit of it a ways back. At my age now there’s just no point in doing
anything but laying the story down as I view it having happened. The ‘fog of war’ one of my good friends
comment about on here but truly I more fear the fog of cold age. I’ve still got the edge though and I’m
going to write until I can’t anymore.
Semper fi,
Jim
we all leave the war but it didn’t ever leave us. you are a great storyteller and I mean that in the most positive sense that you can take life situations and weave them as a compelling story that’s a great skill
you are juggling a lot of balls which I have learned is usually a choice we make thinking we and we alone can help and protect those close to us or those we feel a great responsibility to protect/guide/help those in our sphere: Lorraine , Gularte, Mike, even the pansy chief.
You also express a longing to connect with Butch.
Tells alot about your character.
Onassis, Jackie,et al are a distraction designed by the universe to challenge your insatiable honesty. Riddles inside an enigma- the Matryoshka doll
your writing is like seeing my reflection in a still pond
Very thought provoking
Now “Hotel California” by the Eagles is a song that has been interpreted in various ways -At its core, the song tells the story of a traveler who arrives at the mysterious Hotel California and becomes ensnared in its luxurious but ultimately sinister atmosphere. The hotel is depicted as a place of decadence and indulgence, but also one from which escape seems impossible. Some interpretations suggest that the song is a metaphor for the hedonistic lifestyle of the 1970s, while others see it as a commentary on the darker side of the American dream or the pitfalls of fame and excess. The iconic lyrics and haunting melody have contributed to the enduring fascination with the song and its enigmatic meaning.
And i think it is Metaphor fot the Viet vet experience
Ask Taylor Swift
Hotel California. The writer of that song. His daughter visited my home for dinner a few years ago.
She was saying one of my cousins at the time. She laughed when we started to discuss her dad’s famous song.
“He was so loaded on drugs he has and had no idea what he was weriting about, and then the other guys in the
group got hold of it and added their own parts. I like your interpretation better, just as I much enjoy your commentary
on here. Love the ‘seeing my own reflection’ comment. Thanks my friend,
Semper fi,
Jim
It is interesting how we move forward from a very structured existence; St Norbert’s, through the Matrix of RVN toward a normal life only we are uniquely able to navigate! I realize that this epiphany is based upon “review” and not the fog of war we carried at the time.
This includes some of your disciples that ride in the comments in their own battles.
Quite an accomplishment
Thank you Colonel Homan, who flew my ‘six’ over the valley in Vietnam. Thank you, I think, because I don’t always understand
what you are writing…and I know that’s me and not you. I’ll ponder over the ‘disciples’ part and the fog of war.
Thanks though, anyway, my friend,
and Ssemper fi, of course,
Jim