[3] The recipients whose identities are known are: Grayston Lynch (1923–2008) was one of the CIA/Special Activities Division (SAD) Paramilitary Operations Officers who commanded the Cuban rebel army during the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
He is revered among Cuban Americans for his heroics during the failed invasion, which included several rescue missions to save stranded members of Brigade 2506.
The other CIA Paramilitary Officer at the Bay of Pigs was William "Rip" Robertson, who had an extraordinary history of valor in service to his country.
MacKiernan volunteered to stay behind while every other U.S. official fled the country, in order to provide the only intelligence available to the President of the United States about the takeover of the Communist forces of Mao Zedong.
The intelligence that MacKiernan passed from China helped U.S. leaders prepare for military action and understand the Chinese involvement in the Korean War.
On two occasions, he led the guerrillas under his command in battles against the Vietnamese of Campaign 139 when they threatened to end the war by defeating Vang Pao's Clandestine Army.
He spent two years at Camp Peary in Virginia, attending the "standard two-year course for aspiring case officers" and then reported to the Directorate of Operations (now called the National Clandestine Service).
He was captured a few days after the Shah's fall by an armed group of supporters of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and escaped summary execution by appealing to speak to a mullah, who agreed that the Koran did not sanction such punishment.
He started the CIA efforts to equip the Afghan resistance with weapons and supplies to allow them to mount an effective campaign during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Hart's background as a Paramilitary Operations Officer made him a perfect candidate to be the field general for the covert war in Afghanistan.
A public memorial service was held with full military honors at Arlington on May 13, 1988, just short of three years after his presumed death date.
At the service, attended by more than 100 colleagues and friends, CIA Director William H. Webster eulogized Buckley, saying, "Bill's success in collecting information in situations of incredible danger was exceptional, even remarkable with help of Miles Agha."
[17] Mr. Keough was also featured in Shannon Henry's book The Dinner Club: How the Masters of the Internet Universe Rode the Rise and Fall of the Greatest Boom in History[18] Gary Berntsen (born July 23, 1957) is an American former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) career officer who served in the Directorate of Operations between October 1982 and June 2005.
On February 10, 1962, twenty-one months after his capture, he was exchanged for Soviet KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher (better known as Rudolf Abel) at the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin, Germany.
These pilots undertook extraordinarily dangerous missions, both to test this aircraft and to conduct surveillance flights over Vietnam and North Korea.
Keeping in mind the potential worst-case scenario should somebody be caught, Johnson and Mendez disguised the American diplomats as Canadian filmmakers looking to make a movie in Iran.
[26] Mendez along with Edward Johnson, created a fake movie production company called Studio Six (named for the six embassy personnel).
Keeping in mind the potential worst-case scenario should somebody be caught, Mendez and Johnson disguised the American diplomats as Canadian filmmakers looking to make a movie in Iran.
[27] In the late 1990s, Captain Thomas Willard Ray and his navigator, Leo Baker, were posthumously awarded the Intelligence Star for their actions in the Bay of Pigs Invasion leading to their capture and execution.
[29] Ray had been designated by the CIA to train and supervise the Air Force of the brigade in Central America, which did not have to participate in combat operations.
Brigadier General Richard Potter gave the eulogy at Fort Bragg's John F. Kennedy Chapel and cited a passage from Isaiah: "I heard the Lord say: Who shall I send and who will go for us?
Greg V. was the lead paramilitary advisor to Karzai in this battle when, as a result of a mistake in calculating an airstrike, a bomb was dropped on their position.
[32][33] Tenet wrote, "The routing of the Taliban and al-Qa'ida from Afghanistan in a matter of weeks was accomplished by 110 CIA officers, 316 Special Forces soldiers and scores of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) raiders creating havoc behind enemy lines—a band of brothers with the support of U.S. airpower, following a CIA plan, that has to rank as one of the great successes in Agency history.
Spann, a Paramilitary Operations Officer in the CIA's Special Activities Division,[3] was the first American killed during combat in the Global War on Terror.
[37] On the same day, he and another CIA officer were at a military garrison named Qali Jangi near Mazari Sharif and questioned John Walker Lindh.
According to members of a German television crew who were later trapped in the fort with the other CIA officer named "Dave", Spann asked the prisoners who they were and why they joined the Taliban.
They said they thought "Mike might run and retreat, but he held his position and fought using his AK rifle until out of ammo, and then drew and began firing his pistol," Spann's father said.
[2] Four CIA officers received the Intelligence Star for actions in 2002 and later as part of Special Activities Division (SAD) paramilitary teams in Iraq.
[48] Foreign Policy reported that Mulroy accepted the position because Secretary Mattis was looking for a “nonpartisan and apolitical individual" who spent time in conflict areas to fill that office.
There have been discussions over the years with ranking members of the Senate, House, and the Intelligence Community about the placement of a more fitting and lasting monument near the Vietnam Memorial.