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Daniel Hutchinson
Thom, it is so great to hear from you, and I appreciate your setting me straight on where you lost your “Kolea”. Tell us what Kolea means? Losing your photos and logs must have been a blow, something you have and will always look back on with regret, sadness.
Your writing is excellent, Thom and I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post.
When I was divorced in 1985, just after returning from two years in Korea, my ex-wife took my two daughters with her, bought a nice town house in Fairfax County, Virginia, and my son (the one who passed away) came to live with me in an apartment about 10 miles away in Fairfax County.
Financially, I was up to my ears in debt, since I took all of the bills, lost the overseas perks, housing, utilities paid, plus losing her income. I was given a lofty sounding job as Chief Operations Officer to our Engineering Division, but wasn’t able in a staff job like that to make any extra money. I called a friend at our Headquarters and was able to make a change were I could work overtime, night shift, getting night differential, which paid the bills. The down side was I was away from home most of the time, and my son suffered, being alone so much. I tried when getting some time off to do things with him, for some memory building. There was a secret government group which had a site in Fiji, and the slot for the Chief was open. I took my son to Washington, D.C. to a boat show, and we got all of the information on a 34-36 foot sail boat. I thought it would be a great adventure to get the job in Fiji, take my son (then 15 years old) and sail to Fiji. One of life’s missed opportunities. Instead, I was offered a job with our Special Operations Group, which required my traveling a lot. I’ve related the story of going to Swan Island off the coast of Honduras, during our support of the Nicaraguan Contra operations. My ex had taken an assignment to Rome, Italy, left with the two girls, and after discussing with her, we felt it best for my son to join his sisters and mother, since I would be away a great deal.
Thom, was there a large geodesic dome, (the white satellite dish cover-big golf ball) that you noticed on FIJI? If so, it would have been the site I referred to.
The ‘secret’ government organization I mentioned was disbanded, eliminated back just about the time I was transferring from Bangladesh to Paraguay. Paraguay was another central site for the organization. Now that it’s history, the organization was called National Intelligence Service Organization (I’m not 100% sure that is the exact name, but close) we always just referred to it as NISO. This was a totally autonomous agency which was established to provide continuity of government, should we suffer a catastrophic nuclear attack. They drew heavily on the CIA to provide them with the much needed communications networking and personnel to operate their sites. There were nodes all around the world which other points/countries could operate into – Fiji was one of those sites. My assignment to Paraguay was to be Chief of the South American site in Asuncion, Paraguay. As I said they shut down NISO just as I was in transit, so there I was in Paraguay with tons of communications equipment and computer capabilities to handle all of South America. With NISO’s demise, I was sitting in Paraguay without too much to do.
I apologize for jumping around like that, but Thom, back to your story, it brought those memories back for me – opportunity lost in my case. Your travels sound ideal for an old Navy guy. I loved going to sea. It would be very good to hear about some more of your life on the sea. I know a bunch of folks would relish reading something from you, getting a break from all of the palabra from ol’ Dan.
Awh the old Parking Lot Clan. There were a bunch of us. I remember slumping down in the front seat of my old lime green Oldsmobile, in the parking lot when Robert Alley would come to the parking lot, outside of the Auto Shop, rounding up guys to send them to class. One of life’s regrets, for not applying myself more to studies. Another topic, similar to what Steve Nielsen related about growing up and home life – could have been more conducive to study in a more stable home environment. I know I’ve made more than my share of mistakes in life, but have always tried to show my love and support to my children. Thank God they’ve all turned out pretty darned good, and relatively successful.
In response to Ferron: Yes, black ops is a big part of what the CIA is all about. When you say ‘black ops’ it’s a very large field to cover. There are so many different operations going on, some with more deep cover than others. My career was mostly in supporting the operations officers, with providing them a means to get their information back to Washington. The neat thing about my job, is: no matter where or who obtained information in the field, they all brought their information to me to prepare in message format to send to Washington – I got to read it all, and held clearances, some, even the type or name of the clearance was classified. That was the case with the NISO group. I held three of their top five sensitive security clearances. Some only know terms like ‘top secret, secret, confidential’ but there are tons of compartmented clearances, ‘ termed need to know’, which many lose when leaving a particular position. In my case I carried all of those clearances for my entire career. I need to be careful to not divulge any methods or sources, which is a serious violation of our security oath. I’ve related a couple of stories in the past, which are old news and nothing which gives away any sources or methods.
Ferron, No I never did try Mogan David wine, I think that would make a nice flavor for the fruit cake.
None or our lives have been boring – all we have to do it look back at those special times, raising kids, working our various jobs, to know there have been special times. I think the most important and memorable times have been the small things the kids growing up have done or said. Everything I’ve read on this site from all of you folks has been deeply appreciated, interesting and fun. Thanks to all of you who take the time to contribute. I’d like to see the participation grow – perhaps it will, we’re seeing some growth which is super!
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