Part One
Memorandum for the Director of Naval Intelligence
The Pentagon,
Washington, D.C.
“May I take this opportunity of commending Mr. Duval for his efforts in this matter; without the knowledge of the French language, he was able to make contact with one of the cleverest band of Corsican counterfeit passers operating in the Mediterranean Basin, a band which the Surete’ Nationale had been trying to disperse for a number of years; he obtained the confidence of the members of this band who, heretofore, had boasted that no police officer would ever enter into their organization under the guise of a purchaser. He did this through his own resourcefulness, as no one was there to guide him while in contact with members of this band.”
Very truly yours,
A.A. Christides
U.S. Treasury Representative,
Paris, France
I worked with Tom on this account of his operations in Marseilles, France. It is an interesting tale in several regards. It seems quaint in context, particularly after the repeal of don’t ask-don’t tell. He thought it was funny, and produced the passport he carried to demonstrate the bona fides of the tale. I began to poke around the edges of the story, and some of his comrades conveyed the results of my conjecture to him. He got agitated with me, and said that I could publish the story only with his words.
I was working on the story of another legend in Naval Intelligence at the time- CAPT Tony Marslow had just passed. He was a reservist, and one of the handlers of mobster Lucky Luciano, who offered his unique services to the Office of Naval Intelligence before, during and after the Operation HUSKY invasion of Sicily. There are some tantalizing things about the connection, and I was following a line of investigation that suggested perhaps the end of the war had not ended the connection between the Spooks and the Mob.
In deference to Big Smoke, I will not continue that line here, though I may get back to it. Instead, I will continue to ignore Sequestraion (two more days and the world ends) and return with you to Washington in the early days of the Cold War, and the adventures of one of our Tough Guys from long ago. We will start with this:
“December 31, 1952
In late November 1952, I was assigned to the Washington District Intelligence office, located on the pleasant grounds of the Naval Observatory. When I had received this assignment. Bill Abbott, Director of Counterintelligence, Office of Naval Intelligence, had me take up residence on Wyoming Avenue. Today it is the first large building on the left of an old home and it has a sign on it that reads: “French School.”
Directly across from this is a white office building that was the office of the SDEC Director in the United States, one Philipe Thyraud de Vosjoli, who was head of French Intelligence in the United States (and had a beautiful assistant by the name of Janine but that’s another story). Halfway down the block on Wyoming Avenue was the home of the Director of Naval Intelligence, Rear Admiral Carl F. Espe.
(DNI Carl Espe. Photo USN.)
As we generally went to work about the same time, we often would stop and have a few words. It was the last week in November 1952 when I was told that my boss, the District Intelligence Officer, Captain Noble Abrahams, wanted to see me. He called me into his office and said “Tom, the DNI needs to see you right away. One of the agents is bringing a car around to take you up to the Pentagon and will wait to bring you back.”
I nodded. You do what the DNI wants. When we arrived at the DNI’s office, the secretary told me to go right in, ‘they’ were waiting for me. I went into the office and and there were several people there with Admiral Espe. The Admiral immediately
went into the problem at hand and stated that whenever Sixth Fleet vessels went into French ports, it was flooded with counterfeit U.S. currency, and the French were getting very upset over this. No military organizations in Europe would give them any assistance and the U.S. Treasury Department had no agents in Europe to deal with the massive amounts of counterfeit dollars.
At that time in the 1950’s all military and U.S. Government personnel stationed in Europe were paid in MPC (Military Payment Certificates) except Naval Personnel stationed aboard ships operating in the area. Needless to say, although they were supposed to have exchanged their dollars for local currency they knew they could get much more on the Black Market.
The DNI went on to say that he remembered many times on his visits with me in Yokosuka, that I often mentioned that we had problems with counterfeiting.
What would I think of going to France and helping the Surete’ out with the problem they had? I, of course, told him I was ready to leave immediately when somebody spoke up and said “Admiral, he has to get a passport and that’s going to take at least 48 hours.”
Admiral Espe said “All right. Then let’s get on with the problem and stop talking about it.” He looked over at me and then said: “Tom while you are gone, I will take care of your apartment.” With that we were dismissedo. The agent was standing there who had brought me to the Pentagon. The Captain told him, “Take Tom and get him into uniform — he has to be in uniform for this project. Get him up to BUPERS at the Navy Annex and start processing him to get a U.S. passport.”
It was a whirlwind of activity, but we got it done. In the first week in December, 1952, I departed from the MATS (Military Airport Transport Service) Terminal, Washington National Airport, arriving at Orly Airport near Paris on the first Sunday in December.
I was met by a gentleman in civilian clothes who stated that he was Captain Maurice DeWolf, the ALUSNA (US Legation U.S. Naval Attache) Paris France. We went out to his car, which was illegally parked and one of the perks of being a diplomat. We then drove on to his office at the Embassy at 2 Avenue Gabriel in Paris.
That is when things started to get interesting. I will have to tell you more about that tomorrow.
Copyright 2013 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.comRenee Lasche Colorado springs