Volume Three - Part One - Authenticity

The Calling

In my files their is a folder labeled "DD214/CIA." The DD214 is my official Navy honorable discharge paper. I was officially and honorably discharged with medals and commendations on December 12, 1968 from Terminal Island in San Francisco, California. It is aptly named. I immediately went to a theater in San Francisco and watched the movie "2001" in the front row on acid. I remember people applauded that. I soon found out why. You became the movie.

In the file are also several letters from the Central Intelligence Agency.

1. March 4, 1982. It is a letter regarding a tentative evaluation offer from a Thomas Culhane. He states that he is "Pleased to nominate you for employment with the Central Agency. I enjoyed meeting you and wish you the best future." I met Mr. Culhane in an empty and under construction office building in downtown Portland, Oregon. The CIA likes drama.

2. April 1, 1982. "Your request for employment is being treated confidentially; therefore, please do not inform anyone other than immediate family of you interest in employment with our Agency. Everything possible is being done to expedite a decision on your application." Gene F. Wilson, Deputy Director of Personnel for Recruitment and Placement.

3. April 21, 1982. I am told to contact a Delroes Nelson about my application. Letter from Gene Wilson, Deputy Director of Personnel Recruitment and Placement.

At this point there are no further letters or documents because the Central Intelligence Agency does not provide such documents once the employment decision is made.

I am giving all of these documents to my eldest daughter December for safe keeping. They can be easily authenticated.

The CIA's interest in me was my employment with was two-fold. First, I was employed by a major international development company called Daniel, Mann, Johnson and Mendenhall (DMJM). This firm was designing and building airports, seaports and sport arenas in Iran under the Shah of Iran. The firm collapsed after the return of the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran 1979.

Second, my bachelor degree was in geography and I was interested in remote sensing. That means identifying activities on the ground by satellite. I still have my textbooks on the subjects. I still have my "Interpretation of Aerial Photographs" (1968) in my library. So they did not want to hire me to be a secret agent. They wanted to hire me to track enemy movements around the world. It is said you could read the front page headline of Pravada by satellite.

So what happened next? The CIA offered me the job and a plane ticket to Washington, D.C. None of this I can discuss by contract, but they wanted to test me with a lie detector test... among other things. They already had interviewed my family and friends. So the CIA story ends here as the contract provides.

In June of 1892, I was hired to work for the Oregon Economic Development Department in it's research division for a Saudi woman whose father was an Egyptian General. I even got this letter for U.S. Senator Bob Packwook congratulating me on my new job. How odd is that. A U.S. Senator congratulating a low level policy analyst?

I remember siting alone in a park in the Salem, Oregon capital park. I was thinking what the Hell is this about? And then I got the phone call and then I knew.