ANOTHER SPECIAL LITERARY NIGHT
Last night we had a special treat when James Olson, the author of Fair Play, spoke to the CP Public Library Meet the Author event. We are always wary that no one will come and when we were driving up at 6:30 I commented that this subject might attract some odd people. As we got to the parking lot, two motorcycles were being parked. One had a man and his wife, the other a grizzled older man with a POW/MIA hat on. Turns out they are from Eastland. The man and his wife had a son graduate from A&M with an Aero degree and after 3 times of trying finally got in Olson's course where the man had visited the class one time. The other man was a Marine veteran.
Olson is a retired CIA operative after 30 years of covert activity with his petite wife, who was also a CIA operative. He is now a prof at the George Bush center and teaches courses in foreign intelligence. He charms his students and the an audience. He told us how he was recruited by the CIA after a short time in the Navy after his bachelor's degree in Economics and Math when he went back for a law degree. He planned to practice law in a small Iowa town but took the offer to serve his country as a covert operative. The training is much like a special services officer even to parachuting out of planes to be dropped behind enemy lines. They learn to become proficient in several languages. He mastered French, German, Russian and Spanish. His first assignment was in Paris. He also served in Mexico, Vienna and Russia.
He detailed one operation that has been declassified. In Russia he was working at the embassy when the CIA got a note from a KBG agent who wanted to meet someone at a statue at 10 p.m. Olson was chosen because of his command of the language. He left in the morning with his wife and 3 children in his car. He knew the there were 12 KBG agents trailing him. He started toward the embassy when he suddenly whipped down some side streets and finally lost the tail, he bailed out of the car into a bush and his wife drove on to the embassy. He then put on a new plastic face, blue coveralls to look like a Russian worker and walked around until the meeting time. They were afraid of a set-up and being ambushed. He wore a wire and a scanner that scanned the KBG radio to know that they were still looking for him. He found the agent who said he hated communism and wanted himself and his family taken out. That was another story that hasn't been declassified.
The agent gave him a shoebox with 200 rolls of film that he had taken of secrets for two years. Olson knew he couldn't take it back to his house, so he stashed it in a secret place under a broken stair and covered with rocks and dirt. He went back to western clothes and when he got about 10 blocks from his house the KBG caught him and beat the stuffing out of him. Broke his jaw, knocked out teeth, etc. Later another operative recovered the loot and it was a major breakthrough in the cold war with Russia. It was a story straight out of a Clancy novel.
He told how they were uncovered in Vienna by Iranian terrorists and received a letter threatening him, his wife and children by name. He said that later the terrorists were taken out, but he was moved out of Vienna.
Margaret Waring came over from Comanche. Lavonne Childress said that she and her husband, Bob, who is on the Library board, heard Olson at a pecan growers convention. His book looks at the problems with the ethics of covert operations. I thought he would discuss that but he told stories about his career. We had a good crowd even with the school having a BB game between students and faculty.
Lou is feeling better. She walked to the front gate this morning and her hair is beginning to show some growth. The Tamoxifen is causing some side effects, but she is putting up with it. She is working on the MS of her memoir. She lost a paragraph that she wrote when I tried to help move her files around and deleted some.
Last night we had a special treat when James Olson, the author of Fair Play, spoke to the CP Public Library Meet the Author event. We are always wary that no one will come and when we were driving up at 6:30 I commented that this subject might attract some odd people. As we got to the parking lot, two motorcycles were being parked. One had a man and his wife, the other a grizzled older man with a POW/MIA hat on. Turns out they are from Eastland. The man and his wife had a son graduate from A&M with an Aero degree and after 3 times of trying finally got in Olson's course where the man had visited the class one time. The other man was a Marine veteran.
Olson is a retired CIA operative after 30 years of covert activity with his petite wife, who was also a CIA operative. He is now a prof at the George Bush center and teaches courses in foreign intelligence. He charms his students and the an audience. He told us how he was recruited by the CIA after a short time in the Navy after his bachelor's degree in Economics and Math when he went back for a law degree. He planned to practice law in a small Iowa town but took the offer to serve his country as a covert operative. The training is much like a special services officer even to parachuting out of planes to be dropped behind enemy lines. They learn to become proficient in several languages. He mastered French, German, Russian and Spanish. His first assignment was in Paris. He also served in Mexico, Vienna and Russia.
He detailed one operation that has been declassified. In Russia he was working at the embassy when the CIA got a note from a KBG agent who wanted to meet someone at a statue at 10 p.m. Olson was chosen because of his command of the language. He left in the morning with his wife and 3 children in his car. He knew the there were 12 KBG agents trailing him. He started toward the embassy when he suddenly whipped down some side streets and finally lost the tail, he bailed out of the car into a bush and his wife drove on to the embassy. He then put on a new plastic face, blue coveralls to look like a Russian worker and walked around until the meeting time. They were afraid of a set-up and being ambushed. He wore a wire and a scanner that scanned the KBG radio to know that they were still looking for him. He found the agent who said he hated communism and wanted himself and his family taken out. That was another story that hasn't been declassified.
The agent gave him a shoebox with 200 rolls of film that he had taken of secrets for two years. Olson knew he couldn't take it back to his house, so he stashed it in a secret place under a broken stair and covered with rocks and dirt. He went back to western clothes and when he got about 10 blocks from his house the KBG caught him and beat the stuffing out of him. Broke his jaw, knocked out teeth, etc. Later another operative recovered the loot and it was a major breakthrough in the cold war with Russia. It was a story straight out of a Clancy novel.
He told how they were uncovered in Vienna by Iranian terrorists and received a letter threatening him, his wife and children by name. He said that later the terrorists were taken out, but he was moved out of Vienna.
Margaret Waring came over from Comanche. Lavonne Childress said that she and her husband, Bob, who is on the Library board, heard Olson at a pecan growers convention. His book looks at the problems with the ethics of covert operations. I thought he would discuss that but he told stories about his career. We had a good crowd even with the school having a BB game between students and faculty.
Lou is feeling better. She walked to the front gate this morning and her hair is beginning to show some growth. The Tamoxifen is causing some side effects, but she is putting up with it. She is working on the MS of her memoir. She lost a paragraph that she wrote when I tried to help move her files around and deleted some.
posted by Dr. Rodenberger at 6:59 PM
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