Jake Easterline Obit

[William Kelly]

Many Thanks to Don Bohning for this obit and Robert Howard for unearthing it.

CIA figure for Bay of Pigs invasion dies

BY DON BOHNINGdbohning@herald.com

Jacob Donald ``Jake'' Esterline, a veteran of U.S. intelligence services and the CIA'S project director for the ill-fated 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, has died at age 79.

Death came quickly at midday Saturday as he collapsed of an apparent heart attack while riding in a car with his son-in-law near his home in Hendersonville, N.C.Esterline, who spent 27 years with the Central Intelligence Agency and its World War II forerunner, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), was a significant participant in the making of contemporary history.

In addition to his role in the Bay of Pigs, he commanded a battalion of Burmese guerrillas in a jungle war against the Japanese; was chief guerrilla warfare trainer at The Farm, a once-clandestine training school for CIA recruits at Williamsburg, Va.; headed the CIA's Washington task force in the 1954 overthrow of Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz; served as CIA station chief in Guatemala, Venezuela, Panama and Miami during the height of the Cold War and as deputy chief of the agency's Western Hemisphere division.

CUBAN AFFAIRS

Apart from the Bay of Pigs, it was as chief of the CIA's Miami office from 1968 to 1972, that involved him most directly in Cuban affairs.His task in Miami was to quietly complete the phase out of the unsuccessful post-Bay of Pigs secret war against Fidel Castro – started by the Kennedy administration and known in its initial stages as Operation Mongoose -- without creating a scandal that might embarrass Washington.

That meant disposing of ships and boats, terminating leases on safe houses, marinas, boat yards, relocating the CIA's Miami offices and the most difficult task -- laying off the several hundred Cubans still directly on the payroll.

''I felt a sense of obligation to the Cubans after the failure of the Bay of Pigs,'' he said, explaining in a 1995 interview why he volunteered for the Miami assignment. ``If it was going to be done, I wanted to see it done right.''

I thought, `Really, my heart will always be with these people, these Cuban exiles in all these years, starting with the Bay of Pigs, and I don't want to see them cast in the cold.' ''

For better or worse, however, his role in the Bay of Pigs remains the event for which he will be most remembered and one that haunted him for the remainder of his life.

FULL-SCALE INVASION

He had been recalled from Venezuela in early 1960 to undertake the project, which initially was envisioned as a guerrilla incursion at Trinidad, on Cuba's south coast. It eventually evolved into a full-scale invasion at the Bay of Pigs, an isolated swamp area 80 miles to the west. Both he and Marine Col. Jack Hawkins, his paramilitary counterpart in planning the invasion, became increasingly doubtful of its chance for success.

On an April Sunday, a week before the invasion, Esterline and Hawkins went to the home of Richard Bissell, the agency's director of clandestine services who was in overall charge of the operation, andtold him they were quitting. After a heated discussion, Bissell talked them out of quitting by appealing to their loyalty and warning that their resignations wouldn't stop the invasion.

''We made a bad mistake by not sticking to our guns and staying resigned,'' he said in the 1995 interview. The invasion failed, with both Esterline and Hawkins convinced the change in landing sites had much to do with its failure, along with President Kennedy's reduction in the air cover that had been promised for the invaders.

SOUGHT SUPPORT

Hawkins, in a telephone interview Sunday, recalled that Esterline, in his capacity as the invasion task force chief ``had struggled continually to persuade political authorities to provide all the support and protection necessary for a small force of Cuban exiles to be landed on the Cuban coast. ''Failing this,'' said Hawkins, ``he warned his superior at the CIA that the landing could not succeed with the restrictions imposed by the president. He recommended cancellation, but his advice was not heeded.

The result was a military, political and diplomatic disaster at the Bay of Pigs.'' Hawkins praised Esterline as a man ``whose dedication and abilities were recognized at the CIA throughout his long career'' and who ``devoted his life to the defense of the United States.''

''Jake was a great leader,'' said Sam Halpern, a retired CIA colleague and contemporary of Esterline. ``He believed in what he was doing and he saw trouble ahead at the Bay of Pigs and tried to stop the operation to no avail.''

''I had the privilege and honor of serving under him during the U.S. intelligence community's secret war against Castro communism,'' said Carlos Obregon, a Cuban-American businessman in Miami. ``He shared with hundreds of us exile Cubans a love and passion for our cause.''

Born in Lewistown, western rural Pennsylvania on April 26, 1920, Esterline attended Temple University in Philadelphia for three years then enrolled in Officer Candidate School where he was when World War II war broke out.

FOUGHT JAPANESE

He was recruited into the OSS, winding up as the commander of a Burmese guerrilla battalion fighting the Japanese, and was awarded a Bronze Star for his service.

He returned to Pennsylvania after the war, finishing an accounting degree at Temple. Ordered back to active duty in 1951 when the Korean War broke out, he took up a standing offer to join the CIA.

Survivors include Mildred, his wife of 53 years; two sons, Jacob Alan Esterline of Austin, Texas; and John Esterline of Peachtree City, Ga; and a daughter Ann Hutcheson of Flat Rock, N.C. Memorial services are pending at the Shuler and Luck Funeral Home, Hendersonville, N.C. The family asks that donations be sent to the Four Seasons Hospice, P.O. Box 2395, Hendersonville, NC 28793.

Edited September 3, 2007 by William Kelly

[Tim Gratz]

BK, as a journalist you should know that one of the essential "Ws" for a story is when.

This is old news.

Esterline died in 1999.

I do not think that is clear from reading the post.

Edited September 3, 2007 by Tim Gratz

[William Kelly]

BK, as a journalist you should know that one of the essential "Ws" for a story is when.

This is old news.

Esterline died in 1999.

I do not think that is clear from reading the post.

Excuse me Tim,

I did forget to put in the date.

Do you have an exact date for his death?

It may be old news to you Florida boys but I find it fascinating that Jake Easterline was the guy they had dissassemble JM/WAVE.

From what we've got on Gordon Campbell, it seems the CIA was issuing death notices to JM/WAVE employees as part of their serverance package.

"Apart from the Bay of Pigs, it was as chief of the CIA's Miami office from 1968 to 1972, that involved him most directly in Cuban affairs.His task in Miami was to quietly complete the phase out of the unsuccessful post-Bay of Pigs secret war against Fidel Castro – started by the Kennedy administration and known in its initial stages as Operation Mongoose -- without creating a scandal that might embarrass Washington. That meant disposing of ships and boats, terminating leases on safe houses, marinas, boat yards, relocating the CIA's Miami offices and the most difficult task -- laying off the several hundred Cubans still directly on the payroll."

When Gordon Campbell gave Bradley E. Ayers his final orders to break up the commando training bases, over steak dinner at the Black Forge Restaurant in Miami, then it must have been Jake Easterline who gave Gordon Campbell his orders.

But if Campbell had died in 1962, I guess he must have had a stand in.

BK

[Tim Gratz]

Per the obit and two minutes' research, he died on Saturday, October 16, 1999. The obit was in the Monday Miami Herald.

Bill, by the way, thanks, I am forever grateful when someone calls me a "boy" but I am always upset when I do not have to show ID to get a senior citizen discount (and that is now the rule rather than the exception!).

Query: do you consider DB a CIA "asset" and do you contest the death of Jake Esterline?

Edited September 3, 2007 by Tim Gratz

[John Simkin]

Tim is correct to say that Jake Esterline left us in 1999. You can find the biography of Easterline and Bohning's article here:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKesterline.htm

If you do a search at Google for Esterline you will find my page at number one out of 792 pages. Clearly, the CIA are not protecting Esterline.

[Tim Gratz]

I am quite certain Gerry told me that Veciana saw LHO in Dallas with Esterline, not Phillips.

[Don Roberdeau]

Good Day All.... JACOB DONALD "Jake" EASTERLINE was a.k.a. "Jake Engler" during the BOP "project."

Best Regards in Research,

Don

Don Roberdeau

U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker

Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly

ROSEMARY WILLIS 2nd Headsnap; Westward, Ultrafast, & Directly Towards the "Grassy Knoll"

Dealey Plaza Professionally-surveyed Map Detailing Victims locations, Witnesses, Photographers, Suspected trajectories, Evidentiary artifacts, etc

4 Principles

T ogether

E veryone

A chieves

M ore

For the United States

"Drehm seemed to think the shots came from in FRONT OF or BESIDE the president."

(my EMPHASIS)

----CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack witness, quoted only minutes after the attack, and while he was still standing within Dealey Plaza (11-22-63 "Dallas Times Herald," appeared only in the fifth & final daily edition, which mis-spelled his name)

[William Kelly]

Here's an interesting transcript of an interview with Jake Easterline re: Bay of Pigs, with some interesting personal observations about the people who contributed to it.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/bayofpigs/est...]

BK

Good Day All.... JACOB DONALD "Jake" EASTERLINE was a.k.a. "Jake Engler" during the BOP "project."

Best Regards in Research,

Don

Don Roberdeau

U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker

Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly

ROSEMARY WILLIS 2nd Headsnap; Westward, Ultrafast, & Directly Towards the "Grassy Knoll"

Dealey Plaza Professionally-surveyed Map Detailing Victims locations, Witnesses, Photographers, Suspected trajectories, Evidentiary artifacts, etc

4 Principles

T ogether

E veryone

A chieves

M ore

For the United States

"Drehm seemed to think the shots came from in FRONT OF or BESIDE the president."

(my EMPHASIS)

----CHARLES F. BREHM, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, & very close Dealey Plaza attack witness, quoted only minutes after the attack, and while he was still standing within Dealey Plaza (11-22-63 "Dallas Times Herald," appeared only in the fifth & final daily edition, which mis-spelled his name)