I'm swamped this weekend but wanted to take 2 min to say something about this story we broke about a CIA covert operation in the Pacific that led to four Maritime Branch employees being lost at sea. (thread) https://news.yahoo.com/the-cia-sent-a-team-of-four-operators-on-a-spy-mission-targeting-china-none-came-back-090041816.html

My entry to this story was quite unexpected. I received a call out of the blue from a good friend who is a retired Green Beret and runs a charity helping out veterans. Super good guy. Calls me up one afternoon and says he had a family member there telling him a sea story.

Said his son died on some kind of classified operation in the Pacific Ocean, but would not say much more. My buddy thinks if anyone knows what the story is here it must be me (sorry to disappoint) but now I'm interested. All I got is the deceased sailor's name.

So I start digging. What struck me was that I could not find details on the three who supposedly died. It was almost as if we were not supposed to know that they even existed. Kind of a creepy feeling.

Eventually, I got to a maritime company that they worked for. I've decided not to name that company because it became clear it is a CIA cut out for Mar Branch, and they have done nothing illegal or immoral. It would be a massive pain in the ass to close that company if exposed.

I struggled to put all the pieces together, and I'm not going to detail how I did that because others could replicate it, but suffice to say it required a lot of digging around documentation and finding slip ups combined with finding the correct sources who served in the CIA.

Just want to say that I'm glad we could honor Michael Perich, Stephen Stanek, Daniel Meeks, and Jamie McCormick. They're America's secret heroes, and although their families would not talk to me (NDAs I imagine) I hope they can proudly say their loved ones served our country.

Before I sign off on this, one anecdote not in the story. When the families of the deceased were brought to CIA headquarters, after meeting with reps from the 7th floor they walked passed the agency's gift shop. They asked if they could go in and get something.

The Agency folks with them were hesitant. All of this was supposed to be kept super secret, but here were family members with sons and father's who are now anonymous stars on the wall. It was hard to say no. They came out with CIA sweatshirts and other paraphernalia.

Now that they knew their loved ones died serving their country on a secret mission, they were proud of them. That has to be a tough pill to swallow.