CIA Memorial Wall

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Located in the Original Headquarters building of the American Central Intelligence Agency, the Memorial Wall bears a star for each CIA operative who has died in the line of service.

The wall bears the inscription "IN HONOR OF THOSE MEMBERS OF THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY", and is flanked by the Flag of the United States and a flag bearing the Seal of the CIA. A Moroccan goatskin-bound "Book of Honor" sits in a steel frame beneath the stars.^[1]

While the identities of many of the dead are known, others bear no name.

On May 22, 1997, the surviving family members of many of the dead were invited to a private event organised by Director George J. Tenet, at which he disclosed the names and service of four of the anonymous deaths.^[1] That year, the Washington Post published a collection of the stories of six men who they had identified, as being behind the anonymous stars on the wall - though agreed not to publish the story of a seventh man they had identified, due to national security issues since he had died in the previous two years.^[1]

Contents 1 Douglas S. Mackiernan 2 James J. McGrath 3 Stephen Kasarda, Jr. 4 Matthew Gannon 5 Rachel A. Dean 6 References

[edit] Douglas S. Mackiernan

The first star on the wall^[2], Douglas S. Mackiernan was born in Mexico City in 1913 as the oldest of five sons of a Whaler. Attending a German school, he was fluent in German, English, Spanish and French by the age of eight. His father moved the family to Massachusetts and bought a gas station where Mackiernan worked after school.

A fan of horseback riding, he went on to become a professor at MIT, where he lectured on meteorology, with a specific interest in hurricanes.

When the Second World War broke out, he joined as an Army meteorologist but was noted for his skill in cryptology, and was named chief of the Cryptographic Cryptoanalysis Section in Washington and advanced to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. There, he also learned to speak Kazakh, Russian and Mongolian. He was later stationed at Tihwa in Western China, where he researched weather patterns to help plan bombing raids over Japan.

In February 1947 he was recruited by the CIA to return to the region, under the guise of a State Department secretarial clerk at a salary of $2,160 annually.^[1] There he kept contact with anti-Communist Russians, and watched the growing Cultural Revolution in China.

He was formally promoted in the State Department to the role of vice-consul, which allowed him the ability to act without oversight. As declassified memos stated, his actions would be "left to him for development without any advice or assistance until completed, decisions during operation depending entirely on his own judgment.", and it would be expected of him to "assist with increasingly heavy load of code work to be expected; make extensive trips, collecting politico military and economic information".

He convinced an American freelance journalist named Pegge Lyons to pose as a tourist and photograph anything that looked military near the border using his Leica camera, and allow him to send the images to Washington, before they were sent to her publishers. The intention was to monitor Soviet aid crossing the border to support Chinese communists.

The pair were married, and on September 30, Pegge gave birth to twins named Mary and Mike, in Shanghai. On November 10, Pegge and the children were ordered to evacuate the country, as Communists began taking power, and she flew back to California aboard a Pan-Am flight.

He was shot trying to cross the border into Tibet with two others, mistaken for Communists by Chinese forces in 1950.

[edit] James J. McGrath

A native of Middletown, Connecticut, James J. McGrath died following an accident while working on a high-power German transmitter in January 1957. A star was not put on the wall for him until 2007.^[3]

[edit] Stephen Kasarda, Jr.

Stephen Kasarda, Jr., a native of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, died in 1960 while stationed in Southeast Asia, related to air supply missions being flown into Tibet.^[3]

[edit] Matthew Gannon

An expert in Middle Eastern affairs, Matthew Gannon was the CIA's deputy station chief in Beirut, Lebanon. He was one of at least four American intelligence officers aboard the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103, sitting in Clipper Class seat 14J, when it was blown apart.

[edit] Rachel A. Dean

The 87th star added to the wall, Rachel A. Dean was a native of Stanardsville, Virginia who joined the CIA as a support officer in January 2005. She died in September 2006, while stationed in Kazakhstan.^[3]

[edit] References