An excerpt from the
second volume of Greg Parker's study of the historical context for Lee Harvey
Oswald's intelligence-related activities. From Jim DiEugenio’s Kennedys and
King Web site.
Volume Two: New Orleans, Fort Worth, California, Japan,
Indonesia & Santa Ana
Excerpt from Part 1
Reprinted with
author's permission
Creation of the CAP
The Civil Air Patrol
was formed by Administrative Order 9 on December 1, 1941 to provide civilian
air support during WWII. In July, 1946, it was incorporated as a benevolent
non-profit organization and made the auxiliary of the newly created US Air
Force with mission areas set as aerospace education, cadet programs and emergency
services. [xxxiv]
In New Orleans, the
Wing Headquarters and AF-CAP Liaison Office of the CAP Louisiana Wing moved
from Building T-232 New Orleans Airport to the International Trade Mart on
February 1, 1950. [xxxv]
The CAP and Col. Cord Meyer, Sr.
Col. Cord Meyer, Sr.
was Northeast Regional Director of the CAP from January 1, 1952 to May 27, 1955
at which time his title changed to Regional Commander. He retired from the CAP
on May 21, 1956. [xxxvi]
Meyer was born in New
York City, owned a business in New York City, had his CAP headquarters in New
York City, was Commander of American Legion Air Service Post 501 in New York
City, headed a draft board in New York City and as at 1954 was living at 116
East 66th St. This was only one and a half miles from the Pic apartment on East
82nd St. [xxxvii]
Loyalty Police
In 1948, Norman J.
Griffin, Information Officer for the Pennsylvania CAP (part of what would
become Meyer’s regional responsibility), prematurely announced a plan being
hatched at the national level. What follows is the complete text of the story
as published on page 8 of the February 22 issue of the New York Daily
News titled Publicity Stalls ‘Loyalty Police’.
The intention to set up the Civil Air Patrol
as a sort of “Loyalty Police” with overtones of a strong-arm squad for American
industry may have been scotched because of premature release of the idea
through the Pennsylvania Wing of the CAP.
The National CAP has been a bit coy about the
whole business, declaring that the press release, issued by Norman J. Griffin,
Public Information Officer of the Pennsylvania CAP, was inaccurate and not in
keeping with the national organization’s policy. The Civil Air Patrol,
originally under the wartime office of Civilian Defense, is an official
auxiliary of the US Air Force.<
However the national CAP admits that some sort
of plan using the CAP for “espionage” work to act in case of a national
emergency is now in the tentative stage, and is awaiting the approval of US
Central Intelligence and FBI.
The plan released by the Pennsylvania Wing
indicated the organization was getting set to send selected CAP recruits to the
Army Counter-Intelligence School at Holabird Signal Depot, Baltimore, Md. It
declared that these recruits would be taught the Russian language, Russian
military tactics, Russian politics and all characteristics of the Russian
people.”
The release further stated that Col. Philip F.
Neuweiler, Commander of the Pennsylvania Wing, had asked the cooperation of the
FBI and the State police in screening candidates for this training.
According to the release Col. Neuweiler was
quoted thus:
“We are asking the industrialists and business
men of Pennsylvania for three things” first, that they enlist one member of
their firm in CAP and have them take this course; second, report via this
enlistee, all persons in the organization known to have Communistic leanings or
subversive tendencies; third, lend any financial support they are able to so
that CAP can carry out this program”
Col, Neuweiler is quoted further:
“This is the first opportunity the business
men have had to do something about this growing menace of Communism. We, of the
CAP, are going to call a spade a spade and do something about it.”
In backgrounding the idea, Col. Neuweiler
stated:
“We feel that someday, and, possibly sooner
than we expect, an attack may be made against the shores of the US by some
unfriendly foreign nation. Many of us in CAP are certain that any open and
violent attack against the peace of the US will be preceded by an intensive
enemy-guided ‘softening up’ campaign utilizing sabotage, espionage, propaganda,
and many other underground subversive activities. It is against activities of
this type that CAP with adequate and proper training, can help…”
Col. Neuweiler did not explain why such work
would be done by volunteers, rather than the regular security force of the USA,
nor did he have any suggestion as to why industrialists were to recruit
candidates and pay the bills.
Industrialists in central Pennsylvania, asked
for their reaction, said they had not yet been approached. Some thought it
might be a good idea, and they indicated an understanding of what they might expect
for their financial support, especially with their own handpicked recruits
doing the job.
Griffin’s premature release of the scheme
seems to have put the quietus on it for the time being. However, neither the
national CAP nor the Pennsylvania Wing stated that the idea has been dropped. [xxxviii]
The CAP and Col. Harold Byrd
(David) Harold Byrd was
Commander of the Texas Wing of the Civil Air Patrol from December 1, 1941
through May 25, 1948. He had been among a small group who had established the
CAP in Washington [xxxix],
and was appointed Texas Commander by another co-founder, Fiorello La Guardia,
who happened to also be Roosevelt’s Director of the Office of Civil Defense. [xl] Byrd
rose in rank from Major to Colonel in 1943 when the CAP was transferred from
the Office of Civilian defense to the Department of War.
During the war, Byrd
personally oversaw and guided the activities of the CAP in Texas which included
border patrols, antiaircraft training, radar testing, fire patrols, courier
services, anti-sabotage patrols and search and rescue missions.
In 1948, Byrd was made
Coordinator (later retitled Regional Commander) for CAP’s Southwest Region
which is comprised of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana, Arkansas and
Arizona. That same year he was also made Vice Chairman of the National CAP
Board and took over as Chairman in 1959. [xli]
Also in 1948, Byrd,
along with Earle L. Johnson helped establish the CAP cadet program. [xlii]
Following WWII, when
there was talk of disbanding the CAP, Byrd’s political influence was
instrumental in the organization’s incorporation and in fact, he was one of the
signatories to that legal instrument. [xliii]
Byrd and the TSBD Purchase Scam
Byrd is widely said to
have purchased the building at 411 Elm St. in Dallas at public auction on
Independence Day, 1939 from the previous owner, the Carroway-Byrd Corp. Thomas
Carroway and Harold Byrd had started up as Carroway-Byrd Engineering, but
changed the name circa 1936. The corporation was involved in air-conditioning
and had purchased the building for $400,000 to use as a manufacturing plant. [xliv]
The whole auction deal
was a scam. It would have taken some string-pulling to run an auction on a 4th
of July holiday, revered at the time probably more than Christmas Day – the one
day you could guarantee virtually no opposition bidding. The ostensible reason
for the sell-off was that the company had defaulted on its loan. As a result,
Byrd got the building for $35,000 – less than a tenth of the price his company
had paid for it. [xlv]
The CAP and David Ferrie
David William Ferrie
was born on March 18, 1918 in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of a police captain
turned attorney. Originally studying to become a priest, he was forced to leave
Saint Mary seminary and later, St Charles seminary over what was delicately
termed “emotional difficulties”. In between, he had obtained a Bachelor of Arts
degree from Baldwin-Wallace University in 1941.
Ferrie obtained a
student pilot license in 1945 and two years later, as a fully-fledged pilot,
became a CAP instructor at Hopkins Airport. According to Stephen Roy, who has
spent many years researching the life of Ferrie, a year or two after joining,
he was chased out of the CAP for some unorthodox flying activities and
taking a group of underage boys to a whorehouse. Roy goes on to say that by
1950 Ferrie had joined the US Army Reserve and began writing letters to
the Secretary of Defense as well as to the Commander of the First Air Force,
asking for a direct commission to train pilots ("I want to train
killers...") . This bravado should be considered however
alongside his letter to St Charles seminary seeking to speed up his admission
to avoid the draft for WWII. In any case, he certainly was not volunteering to
be a fighter pilot himself, though in fairness he may well have had the
capacity to be a very good instructor. The HSCA bio on Ferrie quoted noted
aviatrix Jean Naatz as saying that Ferrie had done more for the
[Cleveland] Civil Air Patrol than anyone else and built up the squadron to one
of the biggest squadrons in the state of Ohio.
In 1951, with the
Korean War in full swing, a civilian pilot shortage saw him land a trainee
position with Eastern Air Lines and he was soon transferred to New Orleans via
Miami. A year after arriving in the Big Easy, Ferrie became an instructor, and
later, a commander of the CAP Lakefront Cadet Squadron, but in April, 1955, he
was advised that he had failed to gain reappointment. This is where the story
becomes muddied through lack of inquisitiveness by the WC and HSCA, as well as
by interference being run by more recent individual efforts. Ferrie’s next CAP
activity was via an “unofficial” relationship commencing in June with the
smaller Metairie squadron out of Moisant Airport. This relationship apparently
terminated later that same year. From here, the official history shows that
Ferrie was allowed back into the Lakefront squadron in 1958, but was booted out
again in June, 1960. In September, he formed his own cadet squadron without CAP
accreditation, but oddly, was allowed to base his group called “Falcon
Squadron” at Metairie’s CAP base at Moisant.
Something doesn’t add
up.
On November 23rd,
there was Ed Voebel in the media stating that he had …served in the
same CAP Metairie Falcon Squadron with Oswald under the command of Captain
David W. Ferrie. If the official story is true, this would have been
impossible. Oswald was in the Soviet Union at the time we are led to believe
was the only time the Falcon Squadron existed, and Voebel was attending the
Marion Military Institute in Alabama.
Jack Martin, a private
investigator working for Guy Banister, heard the media reports and passed the
information on to the FBI. [xlvi] The
FBI duly caught up with Voebel on November 25 after confirming with WWL-TV that
they had interviewed him. Voebel repeated that Oswald had been in the CAP under
Ferrie, but was not apparently pressed for any details. On the 27th however,
Voebel was interviewed by Sergeant Horace Austin of the New Orleans Police
Department and was explicitly asked if he had heard of the Falcon Squadron.
Voebel flat out denied ever hearing of it. [xlvii] Given
that Voebel had used that name in the media, he most assuredly had heard of it
– but since he could not have been involved in the 1960 version, it follows
that there must have been an earlier incarnation.
On the same day that
the police were interviewing Voebel, the FBI interviewed Joseph Ehrlicker,
Commander of the Louisiana Wing CAP. He located records showing that Oswald was
enrolled as a CAP cadet at Moisant on July 27, 1955 with Serial Number 084965.
There was no termination date listed. Regarding Ferrie, Ehrlicker stated he had
been able to determine that Ferrie’s first period as Squadron Commander was
terminated on December 31, 1954 and that Ferrie was working at Moisant
Airport at this time. The Wing Commander added that it was later found that
Ferrie, subsequent to this date, was working with the squadron at
Moisant without official connection with the CAP and that as
of late 1955, he was no longer with the squadron. Ehrlicker added that
Ferrie was again connected with the CAP in late 1958 and was terminated on
December 31, 1960 and that afterward Ferrie had set up a “spurious” CAP
squadron - that being described as one with no connection with, or
recognition by, the CAP. [xlviii]
In researching
Ferrie’s Falcon Squadron it was noted that some of the literature references an
elite inner-circle known as “the Omnipotents” while other sources refer to an
elite group called “the Internal Mobile Security Unit” (IMSU). One might be
forgiven for thinking that these were just different names for the same group,
or that two separate elite groups existed within the Falcon Squadron
simultaneously – but no source and none of the literature has ever suggested
either possibility. The closest we get to any explanation that actually might
work is from Ferrie researcher Stephen Roy, writing under his internet
pseudonym of “David Blackburst”. Roy claimed in an online discussion group that
Ferrie had merely considered forming the Omnipotents and that
this was around September, 1960. Instead, he went on to form the IMSU from his
squadron the following month. According to Roy, the purpose of the IMSU was
to respond in the event of an attack on the US. According to the
HSCA, based on testimony provided at Ferrie’s FFA fitness hearings (conducted
following a morals arrest and a number of other complaints), it was the
Omnipotents who were formed to respond to any attack upon the US.
In its footnote however, the committee clarified (or muddied further, perhaps)
by saying that despite would-be members being approached to join, Ferrie
associate and former FBI SAC (Special Agent in Charge) in Chicago, Guy
Banister, had testified that there never was any group by that name. Not even
the footnote accurately reflects the record though. What it actually shows is
that Mrs. John F. Barrett had complained to her employer sometime in early
August, 1960 that her 14 year old son had been influenced to join an
organization called “Omnipotent” and that her son had to swear allegiance and
obedience to a 19 or 20 year old male. Mrs. Barrett’s son had told her that a
Dr. Ferrie was behind the organization. That information speaks of an existing
group – not one merely being contemplated.
IMSUs actually did
exist in other states. The idea was not the brainchild of Ferrie, but of
unknown individuals in Chatauqua County in New York who formed the first one in
August, 1956. In 1959, after three years of operating in the shadows, it
partnered up with the local Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization. [xlix]
Whatever the truth, it
shows Ferrie had a propensity for organizing kids with civil defense and
counterintelligence operations in mind. It also reinforces the possibility of
Oswald being utilized in similar fashion in NYC as contemplated in volume one.
Clearly, kids were not off limits in Cold War operations.
Further evidence
surfaced in 1968 when the ONI interviewed a Marine who had been one of Ferrie’s
teenagers in 1961. The Marine, whose name is redacted, was used by Ferrie as a
messenger and delivery boy for the Cuban Denocratic Revolutionary Front and was
soon requested by Ferrie to obtain a passport with the intention of sending the
youth to an unnamed South American country for training in “infiltration” into
Cuba. [l] This
somewhat follows Oswald’s trajectory of being a delivery/messenger boy in New
Orleans before joining the Marines where training could take place for his
coming “defection” to the Soviet Union. Beyond all of that, we have the HSCA
interview with former CAP member, Robert Boylston. On October 17, 1978 Boylston
told Bob Buras and L.J. Delsa that
- Ferrie
had paid a $1,000 in tuition fees for him (Boylston) to study at the
University of Loyola and had never asked for repayment. [li]
- Ferrie
was always hinting about “secret” orders of a military or intelligence
nature. Two examples were given, one relating to the 1958 Lebanon Crisis [lii] and
the other relating to Cuba circa 1961 (most likely a reference to the Bay
of Pigs).
- Ferrie
talked a great deal about a group who knew what was going on in this
country and was going to take care of it.
- Ferrie
knew people in Dallas.
- Ferrie
had once hopped a lift on an Air Force C-47 and that,
- He
(Boylston) felt back then and still did, that some of the people around
Ferrie, as well as Ferrie himself were not playing around when they talked
of “taking care” of something.
Boylston’s friend, Van
Burns added to the concerns during a May 21st 2001 interview with author, Joan
Mellen. Burns told Mellen that in September of 1959, he had seen Lee Oswald
with Ferrie. This was just prior to Oswald leaving for Europe. Burns also
stated that he had been interested in the CAP in those days and had learned
that some cadets were studying the Russian language. Jim di Eugenio has also
written about some of the same issues. In Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba,
and the Garrison Case, di Eugenio informs his readers that Ferrie told his
cadets he was going to control their outside activities and their
destinies. [liii]
Marguerite Oswald & the Recruiting Officer
Young Oswald commenced
10th Grade at Warren Easton High on September 8, 1955. Barely a month into the
term Lee (or a third party) forged a letter in his mother’s name stating that
he had to leave school due to a looming relocation to San Diego. He dropped out
a few days later, not quite having attained the age of 16.
During Marguerite’s
second session before the Warren Commission, the following colloquy occurred:
Mr. DOYLE. Tell them about the defection.
Mrs. OSWALD. Would you please consider that I
can’t go any more today? It is 4 o’clock. The defection is a very long and
important story that leads into a story where a recruiting officer at age 16
tried to get Lee to enlist into the Marines. And it is a very important story,
gentlemen. And I think you would be quite interested in it for the record.
The CHAIRMAN. We will recess now until
tomorrow. Mr. Doyle, I understand in the morning you have a court appearance
that you must make. But you will be available at 2 o’clock.
Mr. DOYLE. Two o’clock, Your Honor.
The CHAIRMAN. Very well, we will recess now
until 2 o’clock tomorrow afternoon.
Mrs. OSWALD. I appreciate it, because I was up
until late last night trying to get the papers for you. It wouldn’t do you any
good if I break down.
The CHAIRMAN. Well, we don’t want to overdo
the situation in any way. So we will adjourn until 2 o’clock tomorrow.
Marguerite had handed
the commissioners a key to understanding the path her son had taken, but as
already suggested, she would prove abysmal during future appearances, at laying
out the details. This was possibly due in part to withholding self-implicating
information, given the past roles played by her third husband, Edwin Ekdahl,
and eldest son, John Pic in the real Lee Harvey Oswald story.
This failure made it easy to marginalize her testimony and to paint her in the
most unflattering light.
Margurerite’s major
contention has some support from a surprising source. Donald Monier was with
Military Intelligence and was interviewed by the Assassinations Record Review
Board on August 12, 1996. Monier covered topics such as the activities of the
112th Military Intelligence Detachment, Military Science and the art of
deception, espionage at home and in the Soviet Union, and Civil Rights. Monier
also stated that he recalled Navy Code 30 operations relating to a “fake”
defector program run by ONI. [liv]
Unfortunately we are
left with two alternatives here. “Code 30” is the Navy operations department
dealing with programs for the recruitment of enlisted, officer and reserve
candidates. But there is also a Code 30 Department within the Office of Naval
Research (ONR). It is unclear at the time of writing if ONR Code 30 existed in
1959, and if it did, whether its role was the same then as it is now and which
incorporates Human Performance Training and Education, as well as Intelligence,
Surveillance and Reconnaissance, among other streams. It should be added here
that Robert Webster, who defected to the Soviet Union shortly before Oswald’s
arrival in Moscow, was employed by Rand Corp, and that Rand Corp had a close
working relationship with ONR.
Notes
[xxxv] The CAP National History Program
Website, File #819: General Orders No. 3 January 24, 1950. The author
gratefully acknowledges researcher, Paul S. Vine as the finder of this document
[xxxviii] The York Gazette and Daily of
January 19, 1948 referred to the plan in its editorial column as “Fascism
wrapped in the American flag” and a “gestapo” whereby
the CAP would be turned into an organization of stool pigeons recruited and
financed by industrialists who would in turn also provide the victims. This
editorial also gave the additional information that the plan included the
provision of classes in military intelligence and internal security by the
state units. It is no doubt this type of adverse publicity which delayed the
program. Secrecy would be forced upon it for the same reason, but more so by
the very nature of any “off the books” operations it might undertake.
[xxxix] Ever since the assassination,
there has been an effort by some supporters of the Warren Commission to try and
limit Byrd’s historical involvement with the CAP to that of founding the Texas
Air Wing. Byrd’s autobiography along with other sources, puts the lie to that.
Byrd was indeed a co-founder of the organization in Washington and was so
heavily involved from day one that he earned the nickname of “Mr. CAP”.
[xliii] Information obtained in 2005 by
Duke Lane via telephone interview with Col. Len Blascovich, CAP National
Historian.
[li] This was from a man who purchased
religious and scholastic credentials from diploma mills for himself.
[lii] Eisenhower authorized Operation
Blue Bat to deal with the crisis in what was the first test of the
Eisenhower Doctrine where US intervention would be restricted to protecting
regimes considered threatened by “international communism”.
[liii] There was more than a shade of the
Athenian System in Ferrie’s sexual attraction to teenaged boys, and his desire
to “control their destinies” – specifically to turn them into Spartan warriors.
In ancient Athens, shy teens in particular, were attractive to the older males
– and we see time and time again, Lee’s apparent shyness described by former
CAP cadets. An axiom among those ancient Greek “mentors” was the absolute identification
of friends and enemies. Help friends, hurt enemies is
ubiquitous in Greek literature. It may be no coincidence that Lee wanted to
name a son (should he have one) David and dub (misspell?) his own political
system the “Atherian System”
[liv] NARA Record No 10772 – Sound
Recording of Monier (misspelled as “Moneir” by NARA) interview conducted ARRB
8/12/96
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modified on Wednesday, 02 November 2016 21:56
Tagged under
Greg Parker was born
in Newcastle, NSW Australia. His interest in the Kennedy assassination began in
1999 when he was given a copy of Anthony Summer's Conspiracy to
read. Parker was intrigued by the book and has been doing his own research
since 2000. His work on the Kennedy case has been widely cited in articles and
books by such writers as Joan Mellen, George Michael Evica, Larry Hancock and
Jim DiEugunio. He runs the Reopenkennedycase website and
forum. His work is aimed at gathering enough new evidence to force the
case to be re-examined by relevant authorities.
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