Stephan Weiss [The 112th M/I Group]

[Larry Hancock]

Steve, not totally sure about Texas but out here on the frontier...grin...generally the Funeral home prepares the obituary with input from the family and then distributes it to newspapers, there may be a longer version and a shorter but in may cases they do show up as duplicates in multiple papers and other media.

[Steve Thomas]

55 minutes ago, Larry Hancock said:

Steve, not totally sure about Texas but out here on the frontier...grin...generally the Funeral home prepares the obituary with input from the family and then distributes it to newspapers, there may be a longer version and a shorter but in may cases they do show up as duplicates in multiple papers and other media.

Larry,

 

Thanks, but the articles I cited were from 1964, when Crichton was running for Governor.

[Paul Brancato]

15 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

B.A.,

 

The one thing I would caution about is that these newspapers are reading like a press release from somebody.

For instance:

Longview Texas. April 9, 1964:

" Now with the rank of colonel, he is commanding officer of the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, U. S. Army Reserve."

Bryan, Texas. October 15, 1964:

(Crichton) “is now Colonel and commanding officer 488th Military Intelligence Department, US Army Reserve”.

The articles are six months apart, yet the wording is almost exactly the same. Are they coming from the same source?

 

Steve Thomas

Steve - no doubt you are right. The source is the same. It happens all the time. I would guess it’s from Crichton or his campaign manager. That doesn’t make it false. 

I think the question is where is the detail? Why is membership hidden? Why can’t we locate direct references in military files? During the course of this search, into which you have put considerable effort (as have I) you (we) have come up with multiple references, including one from Greg Parker (or his website), Brandstetter’s books, press releases. If you doubt it’s existence because of what we haven’t found, how do you explain Brandstetter? His books date from 35-40 years later. 

Edited March 20, 2019 by Paul Brancato

[Larry Hancock]

Aha, sorry I missed that Steve....as Paul said, then its probably from his campaign....which obviously means it would focus on material that he felt his voters would find persuasive...and understandable.

[Steve Thomas]

8 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

Steve - no doubt you are right. The source is the same. It happens all the time. I would guess it’s from Crichton or his campaign manager. That doesn’t make it false. 

I think the question is where is the detail? Why is membership hidden? Why can’t we locate direct references in military files? During the course of this search, into which you have put considerable effort (as have I) you (we) have come up with multiple references, including one from Greg Parker (or his website), Brandstetter’s books, press releases. If you doubt it’s existence because of what we haven’t found, how do you explain Brandstetter? His books date from 35-40 years later. 

Paul,

 

It might not make it false, but the flip side is that the truth of the 488th existence cannot be proven just because Crichton said so.

http://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.com/2014/03/acsi-assistant-chief-of-staff-for.html

“Brandy served the 1959 session of his annual active duty at the Pentagon in the Office of the Army Chief of Staff, Intelligence (ACSI), working under his first ACSI “Big Brother,” Colonel Bob Roth, in the Collection Division….This duty marked his change from Mobilization Reserve to a career over the next eighteen years of working directly for ACSI, sometimes on active duty, and at other times, after retirement, on a strictly unpaid and voluntary basis.

Over that time, the officer to whom he reported at ACSI would change almost every two years. In the ACSI office, continuity was provided by Mrs. Dorothe K. Matlack, a long-time civil servant and chief of the Exploitation Section of the Assistant Chief of Staff-Intelligence (ACSI-CX). Dorothe (pronounced Dorothy) personally knew Brandy and other officers who worked to supply a continuing stream of good quality “humanit,” or human intelligence. Brandy could continue the work of “eyes and ears” that he had begun under Ridgway, knowing that his “Big Brother” in Washington, whoever he would be over time, would receive his reports and that they would at least be considered and reviewed properly. Brandy’s standard operating procedure was to contact only one officer, his “Big Brother” from ACSI, thus protecting himself from possible exposure…”

The author of this Countercoup web site really ought to do a better job citing his sources, and giving credit where credit is due.

“Meanwhile, he kept in touch with Colonel William Rose at the Pentagon office of the Assistant Chief of Staff-Intelligence. Rose arranged for Brandy to be assigned for training on weekend duties to the 488th Strategic Intelligence Team in Dallas. He contributed to a study of the capability of the Soviet oil fields, working with oil and mining engineer Colonel Jack Crichton, MI and U.S. Army, ret., who was later to explore the oil and gas reserves in the former Soviet Union during the 1990s….”

 

Brandy, Our Man in Acapulco, 1999. p. 158:

https://books.google.com/books?id=QLdqgDsVio4C&pg=PA158&lpg=PA158&dq=%22Assistant+Chief+of+Staff+Intelligence%22+Rose&source=bl&ots=_PHl-3whdc&sig=ACfU3U1NwgRrYsqjepWNuegmhCGoRLP3IQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjJrtWDmZDhAhWm2YMKHQ9NBTAQ6AEwAnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Assistant%20Chief%20of%20Staff%20Intelligence%22%20Rose&f=false

So, was the 488^th a Military Intelligence Detachment, or a Strategic Intelligence Team?

 

There is no such thing as a “Strategic Intelligence Team”; at least so far as I have ever seen.

I had no idea that this book cost so much.

Brandy, Our Man in Acapulco. Used copies run from $700 to over $1,300.00 on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1574410695/ref=sr_1_1_olp?keywords=9781574410693&linkCode=qs&qid=1553067737&s=books&sr=1-1

 

My impression is that the Assistant Chief of Staff's office was passing the buck in order to get rid of him. Brandstetter contacted Rose for a job, and Rose told him to call Matlock.

Matlock told him to call Sam Kail, and Kail suggested he call Crichton.

 

“humanint”? “Big Brother”? “Contacting only one officer to protect himself from possible exposure”?

With no paper trail to back it up? To me, that's no better than just plain gossip.

As I've said to you before:

1. I've never seen a single piece of paper, of any kind, with the 488th's name on it; and,

2. I've never read someone ever claiming to belong to it.

Until that happens, I will remain skeptical.

 

Steve Thomas

 

[Paul Brancato]

Steve - I bought Our Man a month ago on Amazon for under $30. Wonder what happened? The later book Portrait .... is co-written autobiography. In both cases the source is most likely Brandstetter himself, 40 years later. I suppose no one told him not to mention it, so he did. 

I think what you’re looking at with the 488th is far more insidious than it just being something Crichton imagined. 

[David Josephs]

6 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

Brandy, Our Man in Acapulco. Used copies run from $700 to over $1,300.00 on Amazon

https://untpress.unt.edu/catalog/3143

Brandy, Our Man in Acapulco: The Life and Times of Colonel Frank M. Brandstetter

 

Carlisle, Rodney P., Monetta, Dominic J.

Hardcover Price: $29.95 

Buy

 
Hardcover ISBN-13: 9781574410693
Hardcover ISBN-10: 1574410695
Physical Description: 6 x 9 464 pp. 50 b&w photos 
Publication Date: December 1999 

 

Annotation:

Hotelier, corporate executive, and U. S. Army intelligence officer, Frank M. Brandstetter played an active role in some of the dramatic episodes of the twentieth century. Born in Transylvania in 1912, Brandy came to the U.S. at the age of sixteen and worked at immigrant factory jobs until he stumbled into the restaurant and hotel business. Throughout the Depression years, he slowly worked his way up through the ranks until his enlistment in the army in 1940. Whether foiling a mass breakout plot by German POWs in England during the Second World War, leading a small party on a dangerous mission behind German lines to deliver a surrender demand from General Matthew Ridgway to Field Marshall Walther Model, parachuting into battle on D-Day, or confronting an angry Cuban mob intent on destroying the Havana Hilton, Brandstetter evoked the highest commendations from witnesses and supervisors. Ridgway himself praised Brandstetter as a "man of unimpeachable integrity, and personal physical and moral courage to the highest degree." These qualities Brandstetter took to the business world, turning a few undeveloped casitas in Acapulco into Las Brisas, the top resort in the world in 1972. This is the story of a man of action, a great patriot who dedicated his life to the service of his country.

About Author:

RODNEY P. CARLISLE is professor of history at Rutgers University and a senior associate of History Associates, Inc. He is the author of several books of military and technological history. He and his wife live in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

DOMINIC J. MONETTA is the founder and President of Resource Alternatives, Inc., a Washington, D. C.-based firm. He holds degrees from Manhattan College, George Washington University and a doctorate from the University of Southern California. He and his wife live in Washington, D.C.

[David Josephs]

It does appear that the first 160 pages or so are here...  just to get started...

https://books.google.com/books?id=QLdqgDsVio4C&pg=PA116&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

[B. A. Copeland]

On 3/19/2019 at 1:55 AM, Steve Thomas said:

B.A.,

 

The one thing I would caution about is that these newspapers are reading like a press release from somebody.

For instance:

Longview Texas. April 9, 1964:

" Now with the rank of colonel, he is commanding officer of the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, U. S. Army Reserve."

Bryan, Texas. October 15, 1964:

(Crichton) “is now Colonel and commanding officer 488th Military Intelligence Department, US Army Reserve”.

The articles are six months apart, yet the wording is almost exactly the same. Are they coming from the same source?

 

Steve Thomas

Thanks for the advice Steve. I tend to be extra cautious of generally most (if not all) newspaper articles. Its really can sometimes be a wilderness of mirrors (or just typical journalistic practice) especially when considering sources. Much appreciated.

Edited March 21, 2019 by B. A. Copeland