March 27, 2009 by admin.

ATF North Carolina

In about 1959 my Dad left the Marines and became a Federal Agent for the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms), the agency that enforces the federal laws of the aforementioned three categories.

The ATF sent us to North Carolina, where my Dad primarily chased moonshine bootleggers. The feds wanted their tax money revenue off legal alcohol and the bootleggers paid no tax, so therefore the chase was on. Hence the bootleggers referred to ATF agents as “Revenuers”.

The moon shiners would build transport cars that Jesse James of Monster Garage would be proud of. They would take old junk cars with large trunk capacities and put in a souped up Cadillac engine in it. They would then weld a huge sealed tank into the trunk, which is where the many gallons of shine would be stored. From the outside, the cars did not look like much, but that was the idea. The moon shiners also knew the back roads of North Carolina like their own back yard, which it was. As soon as my Dad would get behind one of these cars, the race was on. They went zooming through the back dirt roads at tremendous speeds. Mind you that both players were bombs with four tires. The shiner’s car was topped off with volatile moonshine and my Dad was carrying dynamite in his trunk. Not the modern and safe dynamite, but the kind that sweated nitro. If it got bumped too much or overheated, bam, game over. Why was he carrying dynamite? Because when he found the shiner’s still (cooking apparatus) he would set a charge and blow it sky high.

One day he did find a still with no owner in sight. So he placed the explosive charge and set it off. The still lit up like a rocket from NASA, and flew in the air many more feet than expected and it almost landed on the moon shiners house. This rocket still then exploded with a massive fireball. My Dad dodged that potential problem by the skin of his teeth. He said that from then on, he planned his trajectories better. Booze in space?

Even the moon shiners had an intelligence network. They would drive by my house and see if my Dad’s car was parked there. If he was home, then Katie, bar the door. I am sure my Mom was not pleased that criminals were driving by while I was playing in the front yard. But like most Federal Agents, my Dad worked weekends and holidays, practically all the time. He was truly a dedicated thorn in the side of those that broke the law.

During this period of chasing shiners, my Dad went into his “James Bond car envy” period, which he never recovered from. He bough a red convertible and wore sport shirts with his .45 ACP pistol concealed under his shirt tails. He hardly looked like a federal agent. One day he got tangled crossways with two criminal types while driving out in the country. Once he had them pulled over for a traffic stop, the passenger immediately jumped out of the car and proceeded to come at my Dad. Without hesitating my Dad drew his .45 ACP pistol (Marine training), and pointed it at this thug. Suddenly the thug saw the business end of the gun pointed right at him. He froze, and then retraced his steps like he was in rewind, moving backwards, and got back in the car. My Dad said it was the weirdest thing that he had seen in a long time.  If you have ever seen the barrel of a .45 ACP, it looks like a bazooka. That explains why my Dad got so much respect from the ambusher. The next day my Dad was in the Sheriffs office doing some paper work and the Sheriff asked if he had an encounter out in the country yesterday. My Dad answered yes, looking quizzical. The two thugs complained to the Sheriff that some maniac in a red convertible had pointed a cannon at them. Guess they learned their lesson about trying to jump my Dad.

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August 21, 2007 by admin.

The Gadget Spooks

In the James Bond movies there was a character at Headquarters called Q. Q did all the gadgets for 007 and had fun showing off his toys. In the CIA during the 60’s and 70’s, the group responsible for all the gadgets was called TSD, Technical Services Division. This was the department that my Dad worked for. TSD was a very small group of dedicated agents that had to support all the field agents and CIA stations around the world. Since TSD people did not grow on trees, they had to travel a lot to deliver devices, install them, and train others on how to use them. When my Dad joined the agency he had to undertake a several year intensive training program in all the tradecraft that the CIA uses. The Government spent $250,000 training him, which was big money in 1960.

Here is a partial list of the types of things TSD did:

Field Support of Agents

Wiretapping of Telephones
Audio Surveillance and Transmitters (Bugging)
Visual Surveillance (Tailing)
Setting up OP’s (Observation Posts)
Concealment of objects
Black Bag Jobs (breaking into consulates and embassies)
Disguises
Forged Documents
Forged Identity Papers
Mail Interception (Flaps and Seals)
Microdots
Propaganda (White, Grey, and Black)
Psych Ops (Psychological Operations)
Exotic Weapons
Questioned Documents Examinations
Counter Terror - Counter Sabotage
Photography (Surveillance, Copying Documents)
Comm Gear (Communication Equipment)
Safe houses

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December 21, 2006 by admin.

Mom, Dad, I hate shots

When the Agency prepared an agent and his family to move to a “hostile” land, one of the first things to happen is a series of inoculations a.k.a. shots. As I recall, these shots were so toxic that a person could not handle all of them at once. The shots actually infected us with a little bit of the disease that we were trying not to get. This way our bodies built up immunities in case we came in contact with a full fledged case of the running crud, or whatever the shots were for.

So a few months before our first trip overseas, we loaded up the Rambler station wagon and drove to Langley Virginia from Fairfax Virginia. We check in with the guards at the gate, and then parked. As a family we walk into this great big lobby, with white pillars and a marble looking floor with some very impressive symbols on it. The giant eagle in the middle of this seal just fascinates me, and I stopped my Dad, and said, “What is that on the floor?” He did not answer and hustles the family down a corridor, to the section where the nurses are giving shots. We get our shots and we exited the building with no explanation. My curiosity was killing me, but the answers never came. One day when I was home from college, my mother happen to mention that it was funny how I was giving Dad fits over the seal in the floor of the lobby of CIA headquarters. Well I almost dropped my teeth. After all those years, my mother accidentally solved a mystery that plagued me for years but then forgotten. Sometime after we visited the CIA headquarters a few times for shots, the Agency got wise and starting having dependants (spouses and children) go to the State Department buildings for shots. It seems like they were blowing their own cover with dependants that did not need to know, like me! My poor Dad always had to fend off my barrage of questions. I was a pest, because I knew something was up and could not figure it out.

In case you were wondering, when we went to Laos, we had the full compliment of shots. I believe every shot known to man. Here is the partial list as I remember it: Diphtheria, Typhoid, Typhus, Cholera, Plague I and II, and several others for good measure. I recall the worst one being the Gamma Globulin shot. The nurse would have me stand at the edge of the examination table and hold on. She would then ask me to lower my pants as to expose one hip. The shot was kept in a refrigerator until the last moment and then a horse size needle was attached and then jammed into the hip. The nurses were all military nurses, so their tender loving care was all gone by that time in their career. They were use to giving shots in a great big assembly line. Slam, bang, thank you Mama. For about a week or so after the shot, I would have this great big ugly knot and bruise on my hip. We had to have to two Gamma Globulins before going to Laos. I still have nightmares about that needle. We also took Malaria pills every week in Laos, or at least we were supposed to, but that is another story.

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July 31, 2006 by admin.

My Mother and Father worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Our journey as a family into the world of espionage is an intense, dangerous, and demanding story. I will share my unique observations as seen through the eyes of a young man traveling the world, experiencing life with my family.

This book is a tribute to my Father and Mother’s dedication to preserving our way of life through their service in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). As it turns out, my mother also worked for the CIA for a short time, as a secretary and cable writer (early type of email) in Vientiane Laos.

My father joined the Marines, graduated from law school, served with the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) United States Treasury Federal Agent chasing bootleggers and mobsters. Then he joined the CIA during a very turbulent time of our history when Soviet and Chinese threats were all about. Because of his previous training and interest in electronics, he was assigned to CIA/TSD, or Technical Services Division, which did most of the stuff like “Q” did in the James Bond movies. This included providing tradecraft equipment and services that were required from CIA Stations all over the world. We lived in Fairfax Virginia, Frankfurt Germany, Vientiane Laos, and Rome Italy during his CIA career. My father traveled to many continents and when he retired wrote a fictional book about two CIA agents.

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December 27, 2005 by admin.

About Me and My Background

I have continued to travel around the world as an adult, working in strange countries and foreign lands.

I enjoy writing, cryptography, and the outdoors. I have been in Law Enforcement, as a patrol officer and as a developer of computer software for various County, State, and Federal agencies. I also have written many computer software applications for Fortune 500 companies including a few multi-national ones.

I like researching on the Internet, to learn more about espionage and Intelligence work. I have a collection of books on espionage and enjoy reading them. I love learning the tradecraft of some of the best agents in the world.

Lately I have been writing computer programs that relate to computer security and web site security. I also have been writing spider programs that collect and analyze information from various web sites.

My pen name is BLAIR, Eric. It is the real name of my favorite author.

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December 27, 2005 by admin.

Background Information on my CIA Father

This book is a tribute to my Father and Mother’s dedication to preserving our way of life through their service in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

As it turns out, my Mother also worked for the CIA, as a secretary and cable writer (early type of email) in Vientiane Laos.

My Father joined the Marines, graduated from law school, and then served with the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) as a United States Treasury Federal Agent chasing bootleggers and conducting surveillance of mobsters. Then he joined the CIA during a very turbulent time of our history when Soviet and Chinese threats were all about. Because of his previous training and interest in electronics and lock picking, he was assigned to CIA/TSD, or Technical Services Division, which did most of the stuff like “Q” did in the James Bond™ movies. This included providing espionage equipment and tradecraft services that were required from CIA Stations all over the world. We lived in Fairfax Virginia, Frankfurt Germany, Vientiane Laos, and Rome Italy during his CIA career. My father traveled to all five continents, applying his expertise, and when he retired he wrote a fictional book about two CIA agents.

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