Edwin Walker: Early Military Intelligence Assignment?

[Jim Root]

For a little over two months in 1934, three years after he graduated from West Point, the future Maj. General Walker would be sent to the small Army garrison on Governors Island.  The Cullum Record of Edwin Walker shows that he was xxxigned to Governors Island on DS (Detached Service) which is a reference to work outside of your normal duty (In Walkers case as an Artillery Officer).  During this time "...soldiers on Governors Island were showing signs of lethargy produced by the smoking of mariajuana (sp),"."An investigation started by the Army Intelligence Division disclosed that marijuana cigarettes wee being smuggled to the island and widely used there.  The police were notified." 

After the police were notified they did their own investigation which led to two raids and several arrests being made.  The bust which resulted led to the discovery of a field of marijuana estimated at a half ton which would result in "the finished product ... worth about $50,000 at the reported price of $60 a pound.  It is believe to be the largest quantity ever found in this latitude".(References and quotes from the Shaffer Library of Drug Policy).

Is it possible Walker was doing undercover work for Military Intelligence during this early period in his career?

Shortly after this DS xxxignment Walker would be given another DS xxxignment....it was at this second xxxignment that I first ran across the name John Hurt in association with Edwin Walker.

Jim Root

Edited April 24, 2018 by Jim Root
spellin error

[Tom Hume]

Fascinating, Jim. Please tell us about the Walker/John Hurt association. 
 

[Jason Ward]

8 hours ago, Jim Root said:

two months in 1934, 

I appreciate very much your pursuit of deep background instead of merely reading a dozen conspiracy books and regurgitating here.  It would be illuminating if someone could trace a repeating pattern or thread in Walker's career that leads him to a role in the assassination story.  

 I've only been looking at Walker for about 6-8 months, but to me his career seems standard for a West Point graduate and an enthusiastic soldier.....until....about the mid 1950s when McCarthyism is fashionable and equality for African Americans begins making fragile progress.  It seems to me he goes off the rails at this point.   Although jailing him for mental evaluation was a vile abuse of power by the Kennedys, I nevertheless sense a growing paranoia and move towards irrational thought.   Maybe he was military intelligence and volunteered for the LSD trials?   kidding...

Jason

[Jim Root]

Jason

My research suggests that Walker "goes off the rails" at exactly the same time Oswald begins his attempts to return to the USA from the Soviet Union. Until that time, Maj. General Walker was a highly respected military officer that ran the Greek desk during the Greek Civil War, was put in command during the First Straits of Taiwan Crisis, was sent to Little Rock, Arkansas during the integration of schools there, he led the transfer of POW's at the end of the Korean conflict, played a role in the Army Missile Program, etc. During WWII he led a combat mission that captured the most sophisticated Japanese Radar System (at the time), led arguably the most unique joint Canadian/American combat organization of the War, took the surrender of German troops in Norway (and repatriated Soviet troops to Russia), was in charge of the transfer of the confiscated Holocaust loot found at Merkers Mine near the end of the war and would command a combined specially trained unit that many future CIA agents would come from.

Walker was no ordinary soldier.....

Jim Root

[Jim Root]

Tom I have the information that you want at a different location but it centers around the first training of military personnel to intercept encrypted radio intelligence. This early training was conducted by William Friedman's group of Crytologist (a John Hurt was an original member of Friedman's team) at Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey. I believe I was the first researcher to identify a John Hurt who played an important part in the organization that became the National Security Agency.

Hope to provide you with additional information in the next week.

Jim Root

[Michael Clark]

On 10/26/2004 at 11:15 AM, Jim Root said:

First time poster so I apologize in advance for any redundant coments I may offer. Just for some backround on William Colby that I found interesting:

During WWII he volunteered for the 99th Battalion (seperate), a special unit of Norwegian speaking Americans. They were to participate in "Operation Plough" (sabotage actions in Norway). About 100 members of this unit would join the OSS including Major Colby.

As the War in Europe ended Colby was involved in OSS "Operation Rype" in the Trondelag area of Norway near the border with Sweden. His original unit (99th Battalion) was sent to Norway to deal with the repatriation of 375,000 Germans and the return of German held POW's to the Soviet Union.

The interesting tidbit: When Colby came in from the cold (literally) he would have been welcomed by members of his former unit. By this time the 99th had been merged into the 474th Infantry Regiment commanded by Col. Edwin Anderson Walker. Would this be the only time their paths would cross?

Jim, did you find any Interesting connections between William Colby and Wallker?

As an aside, Shanet Clark posted a (now broken) link to a Frank Olson site that has some interesting information. Here is the restored link and Shanet's post.

https://frankolsonproject.org/

On 10/29/2004 at 2:38 AM, Shanet Clark said:

John, Tim, James and other members:

I Just Found a huge web site dedicated to Colby, The MK/ULTRA and various

CIA excesses. It was put together by the son of Frank Olson, who died

from the MK/ULTRA experiments. It contains the article "The man who knew too much" and many of Colby's actual CIA files, and much more:

(the 1953 CIA assassination handbook is particularly rich):

http://www.frankolsonproject.org/Contents.html

Shanet

I didn't find the "1953 CIA assassination handbook" mentioned by Shanet, on the Frank Olson site. This may be it... https://ia801408.us.archive.org/35/items/CIAAStudyOfAssassination1953/CIA - A Study of Assassination (1953).pdf

 

 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2018 by Michael Clark

[Mervyn Hagger]

9 hours ago, Michael Clark said:

Jim, did you find any Interesting connections between William Colby and Wallker?

As an aside, Shanet Clark posted a (now broken) link to a Frank Olson site that has some interesting information. Here is the restored link and Shanet's post.

https://frankolsonproject.org/

I didn't find the "1953 CIA assassination handbook" mentioned by Shanet, on the Frank Olson site. This may be it... https://ia801408.us.archive.org/35/items/CIAAStudyOfAssassination1953/CIA - A Study of Assassination (1953).pdf

 

 

 

 

Back in 2012, while still working down the road from the grave of LHO, I co-wrote an article ( http://foundthreads.com/12.html ) for an academic journal. It was about Haiti and a man from Eastland, Texas named Donald Pierson. I had known of Don since the Sixties when he created a offshore clone of Gordon McLendon's  KLIF in Dallas ("Big D"), which he named "Big L" - or Radio London. This 50kW station was on a former US minesweeper anchored within reach of London and before it was closed down under a new British censorship law, it had a British and European audience of over 12 million listeners. This sponsored commercial station was represented by Eugene Bernald - the same man who General Walker blamed for his downfall. In his accusation of Bernald, Walker tied Bernald to CIA.

While working in the publishing business with Don Pierson in Texas during the Eighties, Don gave me his files of legal and financial papers relating to his offshore enterprises in the UK. He had followed Radio London with Radio England and Britain Radio, two more 50kW stations on board one ship which had a mortgage held by a bank in the building from which Manuel Artime Buesa had operated during a period when Bobby Kennedy was involved with a secret ship project of his own. That project included the vessel that became Pierson's radio ship.

I doubt that many people on this Forum who drop the name of Bill Colby ever met him. I did, in Texas. He was there to work on the Haiti project described in that article located at http://foundthreads.com/12.html - so I began to take an interest in Mr. Colby. My interest coincided with an interview I conducted with Don Pierson when I innocently asked him about his involvement with offshore broadcasting to Britain. My questions led to his behind-the-scenes entanglement with John Tower. Just to refresh: Tower was the partner of Frank Church who conducted the interview of Bill Colby leading to that famous photo-op in which they handle a very controversial gun supplied to them by Colby. As a result of my question, Don went ballistic and told me that if I ever brought that kind of question again, it would be the end of our friendship.

Don is now deceased, but my research is very much alive and it has revealed that Tower should have recused himself from the Church Committee due to his conflict of interest, because his personal pilot and manager was the person who was responsible for Don's twin broadcasting ship. Then there is the issue of who made these offshore stations commercially viable? The answer being that the bulk of the money came via Eugene Bernald who Walker tied to CIA Radio Swan and Radio Elizabethville in Katanga, and Bernald's source of sponsorship was the same source that sponsored Don's stations off the UK.

However, when investigations are undertaken into Don's Haiti business, well his paths cross with Murchison and George Sergius de Mohrenschildt and yet those cross-connections have never been investigated. Far from resolving the Haitian entanglement, Colby seems to have shut down further enquiries. Colby then went on a speaking tour, and that included the venue of Bernald's biggest sponsor, after which, one fine day, Colby decided to enjoy a day of fishing on the lake "in his backyard' (so to speak), and he drowned.

 

 

Edited April 26, 2018 by Mervyn Hagger
punctuation

[Mervyn Hagger]

One of Bernald's biggest clients was Herbert W. Armstrong who later founded the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation. Note the directors on the left of this CIA redacted letter to George Bush ... https://archive.org/stream/CIA-RDP79M00467A002700040015-3#page/n1/mode/2up/search/"STANLEY+R+RADER"

 

 

Edited April 27, 2018 by Mervyn Hagger

[Paul Brancato]

7 hours ago, Mervyn Hagger said:

One of Bernald's biggest clients was Herbert W. Armstrong who later founded the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation. Note the directors on the left of this CIA redacted letter to George Bush ... https://archive.org/stream/CIA-RDP79M00467A002700040015-3#page/n1/mode/2up/search/"STANLEY+R+RADER"

 

 

Any idea why so many of the names on the left are from the classical music world?

[Mervyn Hagger]

1 hour ago, Paul Brancato said:

Any idea why so many of the names on the left are from the classical music world?

Maybe this will explain it ... 

http://www.herbert-armstrong.org/Ambassador College/AMBASSADOR FOUNDATION.pdf

http://www.herbert-armstrong.org/Ambassador College/Ambassador For World Peace.pdf

 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2018 by Mervyn Hagger

[Jim Root]

Tom

Between July 2, 1935 and Aug. 21, 1935 (Walker became a First Lt. on Aug. 1, 1935) Walker was on Detached Service at Ft. Monnouth, New Jersey.

[Tom Hume]

 

1 hour ago, Jim Root said:

Tom

Between July 2, 1935 and Aug. 21, 1935 (Walker became a First Lt. on Aug. 1, 1935) Walker was on Detached Service at Ft. Monnouth, New Jersey.

Thanks Jim, and during that period at Ft. Monmouth, a young Lt. Walker’s path might have crossed with the mysterious genius Cryptographer, John Hurt. As you discovered, John Hurt was an original member of William Friedman’s group of Cryptologists at Ft. Monmouth that eventually evolved into the NSA. 

Edited April 30, 2018 by Tom Hume

[Jim Root]

William Friedman's original team. John Hurt is third from left on the top row.

 

 

Edited April 30, 2018 by Jim Root
word change

[Paul Trejo]

On 4/25/2018 at 3:34 PM, Jim Root said:

Jason

My research suggests that Walker "goes off the rails" at exactly the same time Oswald begins his attempts to return to the USA from the Soviet Union. Until that time, Maj. General Walker was a highly respected military officer that ran the Greek desk during the Greek Civil War, was put in command during the First Straits of Taiwan Crisis, was sent to Little Rock, Arkansas during the integration of schools there, he led the transfer of POW's at the end of the Korean conflict, played a role in the Army Missile Program, etc. During WWII he led a combat mission that captured the most sophisticated Japanese Radar System (at the time), led arguably the most unique joint Canadian/American combat organization of the War, took the surrender of German troops in Norway (and repatriated Soviet troops to Russia), was in charge of the transfer of the confiscated Holocaust loot found at Merkers Mine near the end of the war and would command a combined specially trained unit that many future CIA agents would come from.

Walker was no ordinary soldier.....

Jim Root

Jim,

This is terrific information.  It should lay to rest any idea that General Walker was just an old nut in Dallas in 1963.  Actually, Walker was only in his mid-50's.

The typical CIA-did-it CT tries to minimize the role that Walker might have played in Dallas.  Some, like Larry, even deny that he would be useful as a Dallas coordinator, and prefer to name the pimp, Jack Ruby, in that role!

Though General Walker was no intellectual like General MacArthur, he was as shrewd as a jungle tiger, even at 55.

All best,

--Paul

Edited April 30, 2018 by Paul Trejo

[Mervyn Hagger]

On ‎4‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 9:34 PM, Jim Root said:

Jason

My research suggests that Walker "goes off the rails" at exactly the same time Oswald begins his attempts to return to the USA from the Soviet Union. Until that time, Maj. General Walker was a highly respected military officer that ran the Greek desk during the Greek Civil War, was put in command during the First Straits of Taiwan Crisis, was sent to Little Rock, Arkansas during the integration of schools there, he led the transfer of POW's at the end of the Korean conflict, played a role in the Army Missile Program, etc. During WWII he led a combat mission that captured the most sophisticated Japanese Radar System (at the time), led arguably the most unique joint Canadian/American combat organization of the War, took the surrender of German troops in Norway (and repatriated Soviet troops to Russia), was in charge of the transfer of the confiscated Holocaust loot found at Merkers Mine near the end of the war and would command a combined specially trained unit that many future CIA agents would come from.

Walker was no ordinary soldier.....

Jim Root

Therefore what Walker says about his reason for being in Dallas is important. He blames Eugene Bernald, (of Russian extraction!) who Walker ties to CIA!

Edited May 13, 2018 by Mervyn Hagger
added his Russian origins and CIA ties