I was ushered into a room that had a table and two chairs set in its center, and on the table were two large metal rings set very securely into a several-inch thick slab of hardwood that served as its top.
“Take a seat and wait for developments,” the big MP said, pointing at the far chair.
great read
how did they communnicate so qulcy in thies dYs?
Loving this
Okinawa camp gonsalves
cobra blood
good food
Only you Rich! Cobra blood. I heard about drinking that with it mixed in alcohol in Vietnam but never got to the sear to find out out more. Communication was hard in those times, however, the under ocean wires had been laid years before to be able to reach almost any place in the world…although it was frightfully expensive and time consuming to get through. There were only a few ‘Telstar’ satellites back then but they weren’t up there for normal telephonic communication. Thanks for the short but great comment.
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
Jim,
Continuing to tie up the ‘loose ends’ of this mission while getting info on your next – Prior to getting any kind of ‘de-brief’ on this one. Not so good on that part.
And your ‘brig brief’ is done by a guy in “a gray suit”? Since I thought you folks wore black suit, seems this was a quick ‘tell’ he was from somewhere else. Agree on how to address NCOs by their proper rank – It was and I think still is important to them.
And then he “delicately opened it”, the file, before stating “I don’t like dealing with men like you,”? First off, how do you ‘“delicately open” a file? Secondly, the guys a dick. You both work for the country – He should know that your missions were probably more dangerous. And it seems his mission included “dealing with men like you” to get home. Why start off the meeting on an adversarial footing? Kinda FU and stupid. Maybe the agency was his primary desire, but he didn’t make the grade. Regardless, stupid.
And then came the “dip”. Seems he knew a bit of the process, but either was not that familiar or didn’t really care, as he stated he didn’t know what the process was called. Either way, makes me wonder just how many “men like you” he’d ever dealt with. Also makes me wonder just how competent he was with dealing with “men like you”. Couple that with his “shaking hand” while lighting a cigarette indicates to me that he wasn’t that far from needing a Depends. And who chose the song for the Walkman and why put it on there in the first place?
And then getting a bag indicating you were attached to the State Department? Maybe they wear Gray suits. And did he really think you wouldn’t look inside the bag? Out the door and into the truck, with no ‘goodbyes’, ‘have a nice day’, nuthin’? I think they wanted to get rid of you ASAP as well.
But a 15 + hour flight in 1st class would be nice. Bummer that didn’t work out. At least you got an aisle seat. But then ‘they’ sent an analyst to protect you because of death threats? Yoy. And “they’ didn’t it was important enough to give you a ‘heads up’ about the death threats?
And for someone to think you wouldn’t want to see your wife and family and finish setting things up for the folks in SK to finish the mission? Looking forward to seeing how all this gets settled when you get back.
As always, regards my friend,
Doug
The Agency was a lot like the Marine Corps when it came to considering wives or kids of the people they were working with. “If we wanted you to have a wife,” a D.I. in the Corps once said, “we would have issued you one.” There’s that attitude. Most field agents get and stay divorced or they quit or retire early if they can. Field work is really wearing on the body as well as the mind…although the challenge of both of those things can also be very rewarding. Thanks for the usual introspective and self-soul searching you do in thinking about the work and then expounding about it on here…and the compliments are truly sublime and well appreciated too.
Your friend,
Jim
Cool chapter. Very spyish. Shows the tremendous power and reach of the Agency.
I always thought Flying Tiger was a freight operator. I’ll have to research it.
Once again, thank you for an engaging read. Keep ’em coming.
Regards, Tim
Flying Tiger Airlines also flew passengers for a bit back there, and, of course, that’s illustrated in the story.
Back in the day there were still airlines flying passenger planes with only one class, unlike the nightmare of weird classes today…and a whole lot less comfort, space and care. Only eight major airlines share the U.S. market today and they are basically a monopoly…now being able to get away with outrages like charging for luggage, no real food service and tiny thin seats suited mostly for midgets. Once I came to realize the full power of having the CIA the other intelligence agencies and the U.S. military behind me, that part was awesome.
Semper fi,
Jim
I flew from Da Nang to McChord AFB on a FTA plane in July ’69.
Yes, Bill, FTA was very real at the time and I loved the name too. I was sorry when my old classmate from the Basic School, Fred Smith, melded the company into FedEX in 1989. Thanks for the verification.
Semper fi
Jim
This is such a tangeled web how can you even tell the story great job
God gave me this memory…or cured me with it. I have no other explanation. I write what happened s best I can remember
it and then you have to decide what your belief system can accept.
Thanks for the great comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
Talk about service with a smile!!! Reread this twice to keep up with the fast pace and hidden Easter eggs. Seems like you’re a lot more important than you think, Your trip out of Korea was like what it was, a spy novel!!! Keep them coming and Semper fi Sir!!
Egress from that one was difficult and would have been much easier if I’d been more seasoned, but how do you get properly seasoned without being out there. 197 countries, or so, thousands of language variations and also religions. Training can be about central stuff, like shooting, weapons, communications and such, but most of the detail (that can mean life or death) has to be acquired by being out there.
Semper fi,
Jim
Mr. Strauss, Sir,
Yes, you get a Sir from me, and even though I might not use it properly, my intent is to show you respect in the only way I can think of. In terms of this trip to Korea, I’m trying to figure out what you did in the first place that made the Koreans upset. I get that Chris Hill was upset because he just seems to be the kind of guy that needs to be upset about something and needs someone to blame for it. But like I say, I can’t figure out why the Koreans were. What have I missed?
Thank you for sharing your story.
The Korean’s were a whole lot smarter than they were given credit for being.
They quite accurately saw me as some sort of unknown threat…even though I was not.
The way of life out there when you arrive in countries as an American attempting to do ‘business’ of any kind.
People back here have no idea.
Semper fi, and the thanks for the interesting and informative comment.
Jim
Jim,
You sure leave a wake behind you everywhere you go. Thanks for my weekly fix on your wild adventures of yore.
Who provided Tom to be your ‘bodyguard’ to protect you on the flight?
Blessings to you and yours.
THE WALTER DUKE. Some of the mysteries of the work and the story cannot be resolved, simply because I would have to make up some resolution that I don’t really have any idea about. Going backwards to try to find out who did what wasn’t really available at the time. Reports went in about my own rendition of the mission but I never saw any others. The Agency takes in information…it does not put it out unless vitally necessary, and the comfort and understanding of agents in the field is not part of that formula.
Semper fi, my friend
Jim
LT, what danger? You’re on a FTA headed to LAX over international waters. Nothing to worry about unless some foreign national spy is also aboard. What a FNG trip first time out of the sand box. Guessing all the way on who, what, when and where. Keep’em coming. Great reading.
One time, in the future of the story, I rode quite comfortably and secure across the world. Midway through the flight, and I was in first class, the bathroom failed up front. I had to go to the very rear of the plane to use the restroom. As I passed one row I saw someone I recognized, which was astounding. The good fortune was that the person was a twin brother, twin brother to a terrorist I’d been a party to ridding the world of. Thanks to his being a twin and the bathroom being out I could prepare for what was likely waiting for me when we arrived. You are not always safe in the air. Nothing happened on the remainder of the flight but all hell broke use in Vienna when we landed.
Semper fi,
Jim
The truck was moving away before I was fully down, but I managed not to fall, shaking my head in wonder – I thought that was SOP as it seems to be the way I remember those events !! 😉
Hard to believe you never knew FTA was run by the Agency as they brought in and took out agents from neighboring countries back then !!
I knew nothing about Flying Tigers, although that would cnange, and certainly at that time had no clue to just how the CIA penetrated so many operations and companies around the world. There was no manual on what was what when I began field work, and if there was, well I was writing a good bit of it without knowing that.
Semper fi, and thanks for the great comment, as usual.
Jim
This one was actually funny. That nervous CIA clerk with the Steyr was comedic relief
It really was sadly funny although not tragic. The poor kid, although he was bright enough to take direction. I was a new agent to the field but not to life itself but I wasn’t an FNG like the kid. At least I did not have to put him up on point.
Semper fi,
Jim
As an officer, you probably always knew where you were going. As a draftee, we were dropped in the middle of nowhere with no information on where we were .
A new 2nd Lieutenant is like a draftee in many ways. Training does not teach life. It teaches analytical detail in many areas fut dow not prepare you for a real combat sitution. Never ever forget that the places and people that train for combat are doing so to assure that the troops and Marines actually go into combat, not desert or avoid it. So, they can’t exactly tell the truth about how it really is. The Battle of the Bulge…remember that famous WWII struggle to face and hold against the last onslaught of the Nazi war machine? Heroic, great fitting units and men. Nobody, but nobody, ever discusses the over 29,000 U.S. troops that deserted during that conflict. Combat trains you by killing you and that is immediately learned when you are truly in the shit. Nobody wants to die. Nobody wants especially to die like so many do in open combat. Hence, most will do anything not to be in combat once they learn about it. Just the way real life is.
Semper fi,
Jim
Well, Jim, not quite as exciting as some previous chapters, but interesting, nonetheless.
I had realized that you were winging it, with absolutely no training, and am glad that you are finally getting “educated”.
I think I was 9 when our neighbors in Philly took me along for a two-week holiday to Cape May. Was just a beach town way back then, about 70 years ago.
Got my copy of “The Last Ten Days, and am avidly reading it. I was on a carrier about that time, with two A-1 squadrons and two A-4 squadrons. Lots of close air support work before we rotated to Yankee Station.
I am still surprised at the casualties in the Valley, and more surprised that anyone survived. Makes me glad I signed up for Naval Aviation.
Your current situation, enroute to New Jersey, foretells a new and possibly more dangerous future, however. Glad to know that writing your autobiography proves that you survived.
Semper Fi, my friend. But please write faster, as I feel as though I am on my last downhill run.
Craig, as always, your final words make me shudder. I don’t want to lose you even though I don’t really know you…and I think some other readers must feel the same way as they have read your poignant and well written comments along with me. Thanks for being such a steadfast reader and supporter of mine. Yes, I got better, like in the valley, as I went along. After the Nam I should have been sent to Quantico to train new officers. After the CIA I should have been sent to Charm School to teach new field agents. That’s not the reality of life in those areas, however. How many would go if they really knew? In both cases I volunteered, but was immediately turned down…and both knew my background. That was on purpose. I write now, the truth as close as I can make it, of those days and nights…and reach are than I once thought I would but also those who simply can’t believe the story because the sources that send people into combat also control the message of what that’s like. It’s like the idiocy of Top Gun school Tom Cruise stuff, or Mel Gibson in Vietnam or Sylvester coming home as the totally stupid Rambo. I persevere, whoever…and I worry about you.
Semper fi, my friend
Jim
Jim, those schools turned you down because you are a realistic person, and they need the instructors to constantly be really upbeat and always looking at smoothness and things always going to plan.
You, on the other hand, know that things rarely go smoothly, and often you need to react very rapidly, and correctly for any give situation. Not good for young, impressionable people. Those pie-in-the sky types – “Wow! I’m gonna be a slick super spy!”
Craig, West Point offered to allow me to give a lecture but my wife, when I was ready to go nixed it. “What do you suppose they are selling to all those young men and women?” she asked. “They’ve read your work and you’re sure as hell not encouraging young people to go off and get killed, or worse. They want you to come because you’ve created dissension in the ranks with the books that one professor bought for his class. They’ve invited you to eviscerate you…and as bright as you are you’re not ready for that kind of full frontal attack. The Gunny would tell you the same damn thing.” I didn’t go, although I still marginally regret that I did not face into that fire. My wife is a bright woman, like the Gunny, like so many Sergeant Majors. I didn’t go. Thanks for the great comment, as usual.
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
This chapter was a curve ball to say the least. How the heck did this kid get stuck with this gig? What’s next? Is the Gunny going to meet you at Cape May?
Charles, the Gunny retired to New Mexico so, although I will cover our meeting in the next volume,
he was never ‘in play’ with international intrigue, adventure or contact. It was definitely strange times
in Agency work back in those days, but those days were not that long from the actual creation of the Agency,
or conversion over from OSS. Thanks for the tongue in cheek comment here my friend.
Semper fi,
Jim
Soviet Union was the only enemy and Asia was a disaster because of RVN, which didn’t exist anymore! So you are part of “Laugh In”! Funny our trip to Eastern Europe, Serbia not in EU, but Bulgaria & Romania is but separate, indicates the naive have shifted with lack of a real threat.
Great stuff, I keep comparing my slide through these times and seeing the same fog but with no purpose!
You were out there too my great friend, and you are absolutely right, the USSR was an octopus everywhere back then,
and involved already in Korea while I was working through and in that country. I was still unaware of the exposure
although the training would encompass all of that later on. The Cold War was in full swing but not always apparent from
country to country. Thanks for the input of your own background and you analysis of my own.
Semper fi,
Jim