SEAT OF POWER: There is a tradition among cabinet level agencies within the US government that when their leader leaves office, his or her staff chip in and buy the nice leather chair their former boss occupied in the White House cabinet room and present it to them as a farewell gift. There is typically a nice brass plate on the back of each chair indicating who once warmed it. This week, President Trump presented Ric Grenell, the recently unseated acting Director of National Intelligence with his chair. On social media Grenell wrote: “Today I officially resigned from the State Department. And President Trump presented me with a going away gift - my Cabinet Chair. ‘Acting’ Cabinet Secretaries do not get chairs but President Trump wanted me to have mine because, as he said, ‘You are the First Openly Gay Cabinet Secretary and it’s a big deal.’”
GIVE HER THE GUN: Last week, we told you about U.S. Air Force efforts to get more women into the cockpit. Now we hear they are taking steps to not offend them in the process. Air Force Times reports that the service is in the process of changing the lyrics to their official song, you know the one with the “Wild Blue Yonder” stuff. The song, which dates back to the 1940’s, is full of gender specific language. For example, in the second verse: “Hands of men blasted the world asunder” and “Souls of men dreaming of skies to conquer.” Also, in the traditional version of the song is the line: “at ‘em boys, give ‘em the gun.” Outgoing Air Force Chief of Staff General Dave Goldfein said: “Quite frankly, nobody really knows the second verse or ever sings it.” Goldfein added “But it is important that we complete the task we started at the academy and update our Air Force Song to celebrate all of us that are members of the profession of arms.” The Army and Navy updated their service songs more than a decade ago.
MAY THE SPACE FORCE BE WITH YOU: The fledgling U.S. Space Force is out with its first recruiting commercial. Not surprisingly, it stars a stargazing female space cadet…or spacewoman or whatever you call folks in the new service. We hope someone is working on a gender-neutral service song.
SPEAKING OF WOMEN: We hear that Nathalia Holt, author of the 2016 book, Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, From Missiles to the Moon to Mars, has landed a deal with Putnam books to put out a new book titled, Wise Gals: The Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage. It is said to tell the story of “four trailblazing women in the Cold War-era intelligence service who were central to the agency’s formation, instrumental in its work for decades, and who rose to positions of great power and influence but are largely forgotten today.” No word on when the book will be published, however.
WELCOME ABOARD MR. SECRETARY, SEE YOU IN COURT: The good news for Kenneth Braithwaite is that he was sworn in as Navy Secretary last week. The bad news is that hours later, he was named in a lawsuit filed by retired Navy SEAL chief Eddie Gallagher. Gallagher doesn’t claim that Braithwaite personally did anything wrong – only that the service Braithwaite now leads leaked documents to the media a couple of years ago in an attempt to smear him. As you may recall, Gallagher was originally accused of invading an Afghan teenager’s personal space with a hunting knife. After a botched trial, Gallagher ended up being convicted of posing for a photo with a dead prisoner. Among the leaks that upset Gallagher were details of video interviews with some of his former teammates who called him “freaking evil,” “toxic,” and “perfectly OK with killing anybody that was moving.”
SIGN OF DISRESPECT: A couple of weeks ago, The Dead Drop told you about a recent discovery of gravestones in Veterans Administration cemeteries that bear swastikas and tributes to Adolph Hitler. The graves are those of former German POWs who died on U.S. soil before the end of World War II. For some reason, the controversial markers have only recently come to public attention. After several weeks of defending the markers, the VA announced on June 1 that they will remove the swastika-adorned stones which many find offensive and disrespectful. Just a week before the announcement, VA Secretary Robert Wilkie told Congress that there was a law preventing him from removing the markers and if he were to do so he would be ignoring history. Apparently, some history is worthy of, if not being ignored, at least dishonored.
PET PEEVE: Of all the impacts of the global pandemic on national security, here is one we had not thought of. U.S. military personnel serving overseas and transferring back to the United States are facing huge hurdles getting their household pets back to the USA. Stars and Stripes says that cutbacks in international transportation mean that people like Air Force Tech. Sgt. Gregory Oakley almost had to give away his kid’s Corgi to another family in Germany. For a while, government red tape appeared to require that he pay $3,000 out of his pocket to ship the Corgi to CONUS. Some US carriers like United Airlines have stopped flying pets in cargo compartments. Another serviceman was quoted a price of $14,000 to airlift two German shepherds from Korea to the US And you don’t want to leave Spot in Seoul where he could be considered dinner.
PLAME OUT: Loyal readers of The Dead Drop know we have reported several times on the electoral aspirations of former CIA officer Valerie Plame who has been running for Congress in New Mexico. The Land of Enchantment held its primary this week and Plame came in second to Teresa Leger Fernandez, an attorney and activist. Despite a war chest of over $2 million, Plame garnered only about 24% of the vote in a seven-person race. Fernandez pulled about 41% of the votes.
POCKET LITTER: Bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
KEEPING THE SHARKS AT BAY: The were lots of dangers associated with flying CIA U-2s and A-12s. But you would have to be having a really bad day at the controls of one of those high-flying surveillance aircraft if your plane fell out of the sky (due to mechanical malfunction or missiles) and you ended up in the ocean surrounded by sharks. NationalInterest.org says the Agency had a plan for that, equipping its pilots with a device that was essentially a large inflatable bag that the downed pilot could jump in and inflate. The CIA say the device (known as a shark screen) was “the most effective shark attack deterrent yet tested.” Thankfully, no pilots were eaten during those tests.
SLOWLY SMITTEN: It took a while, but social media in India have discovered an interesting nugget in former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel’s 2015 book JFK’s Forgotten Crisis: Tibet, the CIA, and the Sino-Indian War. A video clip of Riedel discussing the book at the International Spy Museum in 2016 recently surfaced. Riedel said that Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was so “smitten” with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy when he met her that he kept a photo of her at his bedside for the rest of his life. Nehru was reportedly subject to being periodically “smitten” despite, in the case of Mrs. Kennedy, their 40-year age difference.
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