Michael Eaker:
CLASS OF 1968
Lake View High SchoolClass of 1968
San angelo, TX
Tulane University - Graduate SchoolClass of 1974
New orleans, LA
Midwestern State UniversityClass of 1972
Wichita falls, TX
University of Central ArkansasClass of 1972
Conway, AR
North Little Rock High SchoolClass of 1968
North little rock, AR
Michael's Story
I am surprised anyone from Lake View would remember me as I was and still am a totally unremarkable person. My parents moved to North Little Rock Arkansas after my sophomore year 1966 and I graduated in 1968. I worked in the North Little Rock high school guidance office. From there I went to State College of Arkansas from which I graduated in 1972 with a major in History and Political Science with a minor of 54 hours in German because I took my junior year off and went to the University in Regensburg, Germany. . Then went to Tulane graduating in 1974 (basically was washed out with a Masters while attempting to get a PhD in German-I made the mistake of telling a professor German Concrete Poetry (Bim, Bam, Whammo) is garbage. His area? German concrete poetry, Applied to CIA which was the only place looking for the useless stuff I had studied in school and was initially offered a position in Vienna, Austria at a CIA front called FBIS, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, translating German stuff into English. After a week in training at CIA headquarters, I finally thought hey this doesn't look like it's got anything to do with translation. Upon enquiry, I found out I'd been recruited into their Case Officer training program to become a James Bond. After 3 years of training I graduated from their field intelligence officer class at Williamsburg, VA and was sent first to West Berlin as an "agent" (though agents are foreign nationals for the most part and those working for CIA are called Case Officers). I felt I didn't belong for the first 3 months in Berlin until "Kurt" not his real name, showed up and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt while I had my suspicions I was not competent for this work, I knew Kurt was not. And management proved I was right by assigning the competent officers in the base to shadow Kurt everyday to keep him out of trouble. I must have been competent in management's eyes because they repeatedly sent me with Kurt on assignments in East Berlin and there was not a doubt in my mind that the East Germans were competent and when they put people to surveiling me and Kurt in East Berlin I knew if he made just one big mistake there, the East Germans would have no problem killing us both. The East Germans were a no nonsense bunch and nonsense was about all Kurt was. So those trips to East Berlin with Kurt started me thinking, you know you'd be better off working alone. At least then if you get yourself killed, it's your own damn fault. So I started working towards working by myself and Kurt helped me do that. There was some high muckety muck from Washington passing through town and management decided the "young turks" in the base would take this guy out to dinner. There were 4 of us under 30 to go out with this guy. Of course one was Kurt. I arrived at the restaurant and Kurt was already sitting on the guys right. Muckety muck spoke no German so was at our mercy in the restaurant. Kurt on the guys right was in a fine place to get noticed, by Kurt's design surely and I, on the other hand, was in the cheap seats at the other end of the table from Kurt and MM. Kurt starts out in typical Kurt fashion by helping the guy order his drink, white wine Kurt orders him a Rose'. He drinks that looks at Kurt and says This Time I'd like a White Wine. Kurt orders him another Rose'. This goes on another 3 or 4 times before I pull the waiter aside after another Rose order and I order the guy a white wine, which he now gets for the first time that evening. During the dinner I notice Kurt is avidly talking to the guy monopolizing his time and I see a big booger hanging o...Expand for more
ut of Kurt's nose. I wait for the other two guys to tell Kurt until it finally dawn's on me They're not going to tell him. Have I mentioned Kurt is not well liked by his co-workers? All those days having to follow him around to keep him out of trouble has taken it's toll. But Kurt's not one to take a hint and the other two guys choose to let him continue embarrassing himself. I, on the other hand, cover my nose with one hand, get Kurt's attention, no mean feat in it's own right, and with my left behind the right providing nose cover, I point rapidly multiple times at my nose Kurt takes the hint and while he's cleaning his nose on the white napkin, the MM turns to me winks and asks have you given any thought to your next assignment. I hesitate but a second thinking any place without Kurt'll be fine but just say I'd like to stay where I can use my German. MM leaves, a week later Kurt's on a plane home, end of days in the barrel watching Kurt. He has several assignments, none of which are full length assignments but it's only after he receives his tenth anniversary pen that his employment is revoked. Not taken out and shot just fired, though there was probably no lack of volunteers to do the shooting. Lots of lessons in the Kurt story. For example stay out of the limelight if you can't order a white wine in a tongue you're supposed to know. If you're incompetent stay as far away from the limelight as you can get. COS Germany (Chief of Station) came to Berlin, offered me a job on his staff, which I turned down. Told him I wanted to work alone. He gave me a job in Munich, not alone in the office, but all travel alone. I spent 10 years there took up hiking in summer learned to ski winters, learned to sail and got a Captains license on the Chiemsee. Stayed in Munich off and on for 10 years. Returned to headquarters to a series of largely boring jobs. One I enjoyed was the deputy chief of the Counter Terrorism Center's translation unit where I met the most fascinating people of a lifetime. And holiday meals were the meals of a lifetime too. My last three years, I was the Grievance Officer for the overseas arm of CIA, the DDO. Which was something of a farce as I ostensibly worked for the Inspector General's Office but which in reality had no power whatsoever to force any real change. I did force through a couple changes which benefited individuals which felt good and was rewarding. I then worked for 9.75 years for Northrop Grumman but was cheated out of my retirement which NG had promised those who worked 10 years for the organization. They sold off the part of the company I was in which did away with that retirement. Now I live in the middle of no where in northern Virginia in the midst of civil and revolutionary war battlefields. And it's beautiful. Except when there's 3 feet of snow on the dirt road in front of my house. It doesn't take Covid 19 to keep me in my house. Snow usually does it for me. Jeff Foxworthy says you might be a redneck if the directions to your house include the words "turn off the paved road onto the dirt road". And here I am, on the dirt road with LOTS of memories, good and bad. As I age I find myself remembering Lake View more and more. When you get older your roots become increasingly important. Lake View is the last place I remember lots of people. And I regret I did not graduate with you all. It took me years to lose my Texas accent and was probably identified as a Texas cracker by CiA management until I reduced that accent though I never actively tried to lose it but being away from some place 50 or 55 years definitely has an impact on you.
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