Tin Cup

Art
(This fuzzy image is one of the few that Art permitted to be posted on his Linked-In profile. He preferred a low public profile).

Art left on my birthday this month, and the official obit was only disseminated yesterday. I was out of town when he passed, but had heard he was ailing- an aggressive form of cancer, we were told at a meeting out in McLain a few weeks ago. Late stage, they said, not much hope for his recovery.

That hit me pretty hard. Art had been a mentor and a co-conspirator, a guy who could do the impossible with a smile, and knew the arcane ways that things really work- or could be made to work- in the secret world. Finding the money to do unlikely things that give warriors the edge in the field.

One of his last projects I knew about was a pallet-mounted contraption that slid neatly into one of the vanilla cargo planes that supported the war in Afghanistan, transforming an instrument of logistics into an advanced sensor that could locate a Bad Guy from an astonishing distance and enable the trigger pullers to do their kinetic thing in the Find, Fix and Finish mantra.

When he left, Art was the unofficial Mayor of Charlottesville, dean of the cadre of Spooks who have set up shop north of town around the National Ground Intelligence Center. At the time of his passing, Art was assigned as Chief of the Defense Counterproliferation Office (DCP) in the Directorate for Analysis. That was the job he took at the last time I saw him in the missile lobby of the Agency over at Bolling, where he had been summoned to work issues around the Russian occupation of the Crimea.

All of a sudden the skills of the Cold Warriors was in demand again, and he was considered one of the best of the Old Guard. At the time, he had been working in one of the blue Towers as Deputy Director, Mission Integration Directorate at the NRO in Chantilly, VA.

He had a hell of a career at the Agency before they set him loose on the Intelligence Community. Art had been one of the most memorable members of the Senior Executive Service at DIA, an expert on the Cold War Soviet Union, and later applying himself to innovative technology. He was a wizard at securing funding for advanced technology projects outside the major program-of-record process. They call the process of funding projects in the year of execution- essentially unbudgeted good ideas- “tin cupping.”

That means you would see him meeting with all sorts of unlikely partners in the Big Services, waiting to take his good new ideas in front of people with deep pockets and maybe some loose change under the cushions of their office couches.

He was remarkably good at it, and a lot of good people lived and many bad people did not because of the capabilities he developed on the fly and got to combat well ahead of the big Programs of Record.

Art had joined DIA in 1977, the same year I raised my right hand and joined the Navy. In the early part of his career, he held various positions analyzing the Main Enemy. He started in the Soviet/Warsaw Pact Division, and then later was elevated to be Chief of the Command, Control Communication (C3) and Electronic Warfare Branch.

His expertise in understanding what the Soviets were up to was legendary. He was chosen to be the Defense Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia, and as Chief of the Transnational Warfare Group. In 2003, he was named as Deputy Director for Measurement and Signatures Intelligence (MASINT) and Technical Collection (DT), leading the new directorate in exploring the possibilities of applying the phenomenology of physics to the art of war.

That is where I worked most closely with him, and his mastery of the bureaucracy and program and budget process became the gold standard for delivering capabilities to the field. Art made things happen.

He was a legend in the community and was recognized for his remarkable abilities with numerous awards, including the DIA Meritorious Civilian Service Medal, DOD Civilian Meritorious Service Medal, the DIA Exceptional Civilian Service Medal, the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement, the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive, and the NRO Gold medal for Distinguished Performance.

All that official recognition aside, perhaps the most telling item not in his resume is the fact that he had friends- a lot of them- all over the community, the DoD, and the allies. He was much loved, and I am just one of the many who are going to miss him a great deal. The world is a smaller place without him in it.

Art is survived by his wife, Michal, his son, Arthur III, and his daughter Anneke.

Information regarding final arrangements will be made available within 2-3 weeks. In the interim any condolences can be sent c/o Arthur Zuehkle II, to 208 Audrey’s Court, Vienna, VA 22180.

I will keep you posted.

Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com

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