The seat in the Lear Jet was hypnotically comfortable and, as the pilot or pilots, since I could not see forward of the canvas between us, pushed the engine controls to maximum, I breathed deeply and went to sleep. The level of exhaustion I felt could not be held off any longer nor the fact that I’d eaten only one cheeseburger in two days without sleep. I wanted to think about San Clemente, the Dwarfs meeting again, Steed, and all of what that might be but none of that could happen until I was recovered.
“Orange County,” a voice near to my left ear said, startling me into full wakefulness.
After all that at last you get to spend a time with family and toes in the sand before the next event !!
Great chapter James, keep ’em coming 🙂
Semper Fi
Thanks SgtBob, and yes, family time for me was so damned precious and I was always upset that life seemed not to want
to allow for that. I have a wife and children who also truly understood and did not hold that against me, now or back
then, and that made me feel guility. Nice being stuck in Santiago, Chile, with no one in a bad hotel talking to the family
on Thanksgiving back home and not wanting to answer Mary’s incisive questions about just where the guy who sent me there
was himself (he was spending his Thanksgiving with family in the Hamptons but I didn’t tell her that). Thanks for the caring and accurate
comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
James,
Just finished the last chapter you sent out. It is so funny some of the parallels you and I go through. Here are just a few that I can tell you about:
When I was in upper Mongolia in the middle of nowhere, I was “disabled” of course I was taken to Ulanbatar by car after walking a couple of miles. I spent two days there in a clinic with a visit to an old Russian hospital to fix a neumothorax. I was then medevac’d to Seoul after being taken in an old van to the airport…it was my one and only flight on a Lear Jet. Of course I was enjoying the flight high on Morphine…lol.
The interesting part about it was I was put in the plane without a American escort and the whole plane was crewed with people from China. Luckily the only thing that happened (that I remember was they were going through my passport. They made a bed for me by putting two of the seats down then putting a board between them with a cushion.
Another similarity is that we had to fly cattle car (economy) also. The flights from DC to South Africa was painful about 19 hours on the United flight via Dakar. (we would have a 4 hour stop over) What’s interesting there were CIA team members imbedded with us that would get business on flights over 6 hours….go figure. One of them (Dennis) would bring a dozen donuts to give to the stewardesses.
When I was detailed to the OIG, two weeks after I arrived, they sent me on a trip to Uganda, Rwanda and Buruni. I was told to do evaluation of the cybersecurity. When I asked for their procedures, checklists etc. They said they didnt have any and I was told I would know what to do…lol. Just like your recent trip on the chapter. So I wrote the evaluation procedures on the flight over. Still to this day that checklist and procedures are being used.
I was trying to remember the acting Ambassador to Namibia back then. The name that comes up is Bill something. I hate getting old and losing my memory. He was a great guy.
There were “International” or “American” schools in a lot of the smaller countries I went to. I didn’t know that South Korea would have one since they had military bases there for the kids. Anyway, those schools were everywhere, I didn’t know that the company was involved with those? The Embassies or Consulates would help fund them and of course, sometimes I thought the DoS was only landlords for your folks.
I remember back then we were required to use the American Express folks to make our travel tickets on airlines. They seemed to always come up with some really bad flights for us. I would usually go look up the travel flights ahead of time so I could tell them what I would like to do. Most of the time they were okay with that. Before I retired they changed to “Concur” I forgot how to spell it. To make reservations.
Sorry just rambling….we seemed to have run into some of the same issues, places, and people.
Fantastic comment Mike, and I much appreciate the verification that it give some of the work. You were out there too, in many of the same places I was
and you know some of the people that were still there by the time you went to the field. Wonderful stuff.
Thanks so much,
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
Everything is intriguing and nothing you can plan for.
So you head for Seoul to set up a few shell companies to allow you to do whatever wherever.
Thanks Bob, for pointing out the strangeness of the whole thing, at least with the beginning of my service.
Semper fi, and thanks for the compliment.
Jim
One interesting observation over the years.
Financial Service Companies have been interesting havens for those persons seeking accepted entrance into global activities. ~~smile
Chuck, that’s a areal gently way to call all these people still using offshore accounts rotten crooks!
Semper fi,
Jim
So much left unanswered in San clementine (the marines, the boat run aground& more) & now you are thrust into a situation you know very little about. I wonder how Mary will react when you lay it all out to her. Fascinating read, Keep them coming.
Thanks Phil, I’m here pumping them out. Thanks for the support, compliment and being eager for more.
Semper fi,
Jim
Mickey Thompson, Mel Fisher, all these names from the past that have/had great cultural significance. (To my mind anyway).
The pace seems to be accelerating at a dizzying rate
A great read as always Jim. Thank you again. Happy July 4th.
Tim
You can kind of tell we’re a bit old can’t you? I have some young neighbors who didn’t know who Mickey was
which is astounding to me. Yes, I was able to associate with him for a while but still Mickey was huge back then.
Mel not so much, until he found the 400 million.
Semper fi,
Jim
I’m entranced by my reading. It’s almost like being in another universe. It’s the 4th and I feel so blessed to have you as my friend. 🦇
You are, indeed, one of my best friends and what I have learned and applied such learning over the years becomes very evident in the story as it unfolds.
Thanks for considering me such a friend, even though you never, back in those days, understood how much I was learning from you and applying you in the world. you changed the world, as we now are coming to understand, and you had no idea, then, or even really now, just how much.
Semper fi,
my great friend,
Jim
It is such a pleasure to hear you on these chapter posts, Tom.
I concur with Jim that you were and have been a dynamic influence on our lives.
Your guidance helped both of us “Make it Through” and enjoy blessed lives in so many ways.
Thank you
Well said, Chuck. The man was and remains a dynamic force for goodness and light. In the current world we live in Tom is now old enough to be president at 93!
Your friend,
Jim
James,
Just like clockwork, I see there is a new chapter up! Thanks for feeding me!
But I am having money problems. Not sure how much money was stashed in you carry-on on the private jet returning you to CALI. I thought it was 8 $100 bills, but at the bank, it appears to be 8 BUNDLES of $100s? (Unsure of cumulative total.) Not sure what Karen did with “the money”, still not clear to me about whether she get paid the life insurance money or not? Or if not, why not? Or DID she GET the life insurance money and because of that, the CIA did not have to provide her a large sum? I am confused more than usual.
Frustrating to me that this chapter did not shed more light on the mysteries from past chapters–Steed’s death, Karen, etc. Why do you feel the immediate need to go to FL to find Karen?
Salvage company…Mel Fisher!…Florida…fly to Korea?…to meet a guy from Namibia…form companies?…If MY head is spinning now, I cannot imagine how many rotations your head was doing back then.
Your day-to-day life planned out by others as to where you will be and what you will do? Appearing you have not much control over anything in your life? No way I could sign up for all this being managed and unknown stuff and not knowing more about the ins and outs of your ‘mission’.
Getting to know you through “Thirty Days” you quickly became a guy who liked to be in control, calculate the pluses and minuses of your circumstance, gave thoughtful consideration of what your enemy is likely up to or is planning to do, evaluate your assets on hand, formulate a plan of action to thwart and defeat the enemy, and then execute. The current situation you are in with the CIA is 180 degrees different! You have very little control. With THEM, you don’t even know who the “enemy” is or might be, are like a mushroom being provided a good dose of obfuscation manure and bits and pieces, provided very few facts and valuable data that you SHOULD have, and more or less you are told to wing it. When you had to “wing it” in Vietnam, you still had your radio and could call in air or artillery that you were 98% certain would be there for you to help you out of tight spots. It is sort of stunning to see you go through such a mental transformation. I guess once you get aboard that CIA rocket ship there is no getting off. But if I were in your shoes, I would have ended my relationship with them (or at least making plans to do so ASAP, when financially possible for you and your family). I personally do not do well working in “Murkiness” and “Unknowns”.
As always, I thoroughly enjoy your writings, including this chapter. Hope the next chapter provides more answer instead of more questions to add to the list of other questions and unsolved riddles. Yes, I know. That is life. We often NEVER find the answers to important questions of our lives…
Wishing you and yours an enjoyable July 4th holiday.
These days it is questionable as to how many more July 4th we might have left as a country unless we do major course corrections.
THE WALTER DUKE. You are correct in everything you brought forth in this comment. The money. That the Agency dealt in cash so much wa almost impossible to believe, but that was the way it was back then. Cash was untraceable before modern banking and electronic interations became so real and intrusive. PROMIS was met yet imvemted and operational back then as it it was to become and is operational today. Working with the Agency was at all times mysterious and the unknown was only known by others I had no knowledge of. they liked me and let me know that but in ways that were almost impossible to believe. I write on as to what happened back then with the hope that laying this down does indeed cause not only head-scrtching but understanding of a remarkable odyssey to goodness, for the most part and justice, for the most part…
I love the Marine Corps, and still do, but it was a long way from perfect. I love the CIA the same way. They were trying, at their best and I think they are trying today.
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
S
Your flight reminded me of the Flying Circus in Goldfinger. At least you got some sleep and did not heave to shoot out a window to de-pressurize the plane!!! Very interesting chapter to say the least.
You are too funny Charles. Shooting out an airplane window would, of course, brought about unforeseeable circumstance not likely
to allow for any kind of sleep. Thanks for the great comment.
Seper fi,
Jim
Still enjoying every chapter. I did see one potential edit for your consideration:
“I’ll meet you below lifeguard tower zero, where we usually go there.” Did you mean to put the ‘there’ at the end? It seems redundant and unnecessary.
Thanks for the editing help, Tim, asn you are correct. I got it wrong. I will fix this thanks to you.
Semper fi,
Jim
“……you’ll be greeted by the former U.S. Ambassador to the country of Namibia.”
Namibia did not gain independence and exchange ambassadors with US until 1990. Previously, it was a de facto province of South Africa.
So, pick another African country, say, Botswana (independent in 1966).
Bill served as the DeFacto Ambassador to Namibia just before it was declared an independent county.
He would be formally appointed in the nineties but not for long. He was a quiet, good guy, but in no way
ambassadorial material for the times.
Now a treasure hunter in the mix . Always wondering what new character will show up ?Another great chapter! Thank you!
The ‘characters,’ as you term them, came and went without my selection or control.
Glad you enjoy them and string along for the rest of the story.
Semper fi,
Jim
Out of the frying pan, into the fire. No extinguisher. Hope you kept your passport up to date.
What a wonderfully warm welcome to The Company!
Fisher was a very interesting guy. I used to take care of some of his “findings”. Damned spiders would walk across the night-time motion detectors, triggering a leap out of bed and trip down the road.
Triple happy to have a new chapter so quickly. You are a wonder!
Didn’t need a passport for Vietnam and Japan. the first one I got was from the CIA (and a few more after that!).
You personally knew Fisher? You have a pretty surprising background yourself…that I don’t know almost anything
about. We have to talk.
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
I read 30 days, great book, kept up with cowardly lion, you are one remarkable person. My Brother in Law was in Nam, wounded twice, came back with a drug and alcohol problem, tried talking to him, he would not talk about it, thanks to you , I know understand why he is like he is, and feel like a shit for thinking bad of him
Most real war stories have deep regret and some level of shame attached to them.
The indelible memory of those things is layered over with life experience, but those layers are paper thin…and when penetrated…well…you’re right back in the shit.
The Vietnam Vets wall is no place for guys like me (combat vets) to go and visit.
It’s for the rest of your culture to visit and honor those who gave their lives for the rest of us.
So many of my Marines are on that wall but I don’t have to go their to recall, remember or honor them.
They are right with me filling up this coffee shop now.
Fusner, Rittenhouse, Zippo, and the rest of “my guys.”
Thanks for the heartfelt comment and I’m so happy the novels have had the kind of effect on many, as they did on you
and consequently your brother-in-law.
Semper fi,
Jim
LT, thrown into the deep end without any life vest and expected to not only survive but perform. And now Kathy becomes another mystery to cloud your mind with no one to discuss it with. Deep.
JT, one of the readers on here actually knew Mel Fisher, the treasure guy so I’ve got to explore more with him about that. Sometimes this comment section shocks the hell out of me when I read what an amazing collection the writers on here make.
I once thought about all the comments and my replies there have been since I wrote the first ten day volume and maybe putting them in their own stand alone book, but didn’t do it.
The machine here keeps track.
There have been a total of 28,957 comments which 29,952 were approved (yes, all of the negative ones, of which there about 40, were approved too).
I replied to all comments.
There were 732 that Chuck took out as spam.
The machine doesn’t tell me how many comments are made by the same readers however…although you have made a lot yourself.
Thanks so very much,
Semper fi,
Jim
Despite all the smoke and confusion you keep moving forward, not marching, moving! Amazing, somewhere behind the curtain someone specked out a special requirement and you walked out! And no one thought you would be able to store it all and report as now….but they seem to trust no one will believe it anyway. But there are a bunch of us who were burnished in similar fashion to at least appreciate the environment! Uuraagh
Colonel, it would seem to me that the entire structure that was called the registered publications system crumbled and fell apart. What happened under Trump and some with Biden too, the taking home of secret stuff or even being in possession of it without custodians around. The trust placed in Snowden, Assange and Manning was outlandish and then their treatment, as well, after being caught or revealing themselves. One would have thought the efforts to catch and try them would have been much more high powered than it proved to be. Thanks for the usual understanding depth.
Semper fi, my friend,
Jim
artifact was gone into the U.S. system so governmental laboratories for further study.
* system to governmental
“About time, and that’s got to be a relief for all of us.
* all of us”.
Thanks for the usual help Don.
Semper fi,
Jim