Monday, Monday… short bits
First up, a familiar name from the ’80s – Major General Richard Secord of the Air Force has died, age 92.
Major-General Richard Secord, who has died aged 92, was a highly decorated US Air Force bomber pilot who worked with the CIA organising covert operations, directing the only successful rescue of prisoners during the war in Indo-China.
He achieved notoriety a decade later when, having left the military, he was exposed as the logistical middleman in the Iran-Contra scandal that tarnished Ronald Reagan’s administration. Secord had worked with his friend Lt Col Oliver North, deputy military affairs director for Reagan’s National Security Council, to sell arms illegally to Iran and use the profits to arm rebels (or “Contras”) fighting Nicaragua’s Leftist government. The Telegraph
Yep, Iran-Contra – he and LTC Oliver North were the two lynchpins of an operation which sold $45 million+ dollars of weapons to Iran and funneled part of it in weapons and dollars to Contra-Sandanista rebels in Nicaraugua. Millions also came up missing, and Congress had a field day with it. Read the article if you are weak on Reagan-era scandals.
Next up, a SIGINT guy’s dream. There weren’t a slew of articles on Pearl Harbor on Saturday, but in the last couple of days some interesting ones appeared. One, in the Military Times, is an absorbing account of how the Japanese suckered us in the Pacific.
With a great deal of foresight and planning, the imperial navy’s leadership had enacted a synchronized strategy for the attack on Pearl Harbor that combined radio silence, active radio deception and its own effective radio intelligence to be assured that the Americans remained in the dark throughout the final moments of peace.
U.S. naval intelligence was aware of Japan’s defensive outlook and had come to accept it as absolute. The Americans believed wholeheartedly that in any future conflict the majority of Emperor Hirohito’s naval forces would choose to remain in home waters rather than run the risk of leaving Japan undefended.Military Times
The Navy at this time was not overburdened with sophisticated SIGINT assets. That, combined with extremely limited direction-finding (DF) helped convince us that the Japanese fleet was sitting quietly in their home waters when in fact, they were headed for Pearl.
Quite a bit to read in the article. Enjoy!
Quick plug – just rewatched a movie about one of the US’ greatest linguists. “Hell to Eternity” is about a WWII Marine who enlisted on his 17th birthday named Guy Gabaldon. A Chicano kid from California, he was taken in by a Japanese family and learned fluent Japanese. You may remember the images of civilians throwing themselves off of cliffs there; on Saipan he was credited with talking over 1500 mixed military and civilians to surrender instead of suiciding. His nickname was “The Pied Piper of Saipan.” Not the best war movie ever, but an interesting tale. Made in 1960, so old that the young George Takei in it is still interested in girls.
And a bit of good, and in some ways incredible, news.
Remember a few years ago in ’19 when fire turned quite a bit of Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral into a burned out shell? The French vowed to rebuild it, an effort that some said would take decades.
From 340,000 donors, big and small, 846 million euros (US$895 million) poured in from more 150 countries after the 2019 inferno to fund the rebuild.
Together, all those who helped and all those who prayed proved that it’s the people who cherish and venerate buildings like Notre Dame that keep them alive, making them more than inanimate examples of human history, architecture, and culture.
Five years to fix all that. Wow. From above to this:
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Iran, Navy, WWII
Congrats on the rebuilding of Notre Dame in such a short time. There may be something in Paris worth coming to see after all.
And if ya wanna keep Notre Dame the way it is now, keep the muzzies off’n the rooftop takin’ smoke breaks.
In 1998, when my boat made a port call to Toulon, a shipmate and I managed to make a 25 hour visit to Paris. Touring Notre Dame and climbing the bell towers was a highlight of the trip I will never forget.
Other highlights included the Arc de Triomphe and up the Eiffel Tower minutes after checking into the USO-booked hotel and a whirlwind tour of the Louvre before the cathedral, and finally a visit to the Moulon Rouge before hitting the train back to Toulon with minutes to spare before mustering for duty.
The French did also clean up their river a bit, but the jury is still out on whether they were serious and keep it that way
Chicoms moving into position for another round of wargames around Taiwan… force bigger than last two this year and (with Jan 20th coming up) uprecendented.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/china-begins-military-movements-around-123713001.html
Meanwhile, engagement with matters is a bit on the low side before Jan 20th:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-remains-absent-final-weeks-141140468.html
Chicom effort, apparently, is largest such in years:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/taiwan-reports-surge-chinese-military-021121551.html
Wonder if John Clark and Domingo Chavez attended the funeral service? Sanford Felter was unavailable for comment. Rest Easy, General.
Some schools of thought suggest the our grubermint knew more about the impending attack(s) that history would know.
Is a smart interpreter also known to be a cunnilingus? Georgie wouldn’t know.
Toured Notre Dame waaaaaay back yonder. Amazing place. It may “look” the same, not sure if it “feels” the same. Accident my ass!
“Rest Easy, General”
Indeed. He was a key figure in the defense of site 85 and
that was long before fame and fortune.
For some really good background read:
Tragic Mountains
The Hmong, the Americans, and the secret wars for Laos.
Jane Hamilton-Merritt
I’m sure Mr. Clark and Ding were there. Unseen, unnoticed.
Yesterday, upon the stair, I saw a man who wasn’t there.
Then what happened?
He wasnt there again today. He must be from the CIA.
Whoah, déjà vu!
Holy f*ck, Batman… there’s now “medical PTSD” (just just from getting shot at, military sexual trauma, accidents, but because you got treated by the doctor/dentist and it hurt bad). I don’t deny that sucks (three wisdom teeth removed under novacaine, less painful than having my gum sewn-up at the ER after getting smacked in the face by a screen door) but frickin’ adult the heck up people! (You tell folk they’ll be traumatized by something and, sympathetically, many will be.) The VA claims alone will be awe-inspiring.
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/what-is-medical-ptsd-how-trauma-can-manifest-following-health-treatment
One wonders how the human race has survived.
Pain is part of life. And we all have death to look forward to.