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Old Dallas Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center


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http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/fallout/dallaseoc.html

 

Civil Defense Museum - Virtual Shelter Tours
Old Dallas Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center

Shelter Tours Main Old Dallas EOC Main Front Entry/Dormitory Room Communications Room Operations Room/RADEF Ops
  Mayor's Office/Kitchen/Hallway Mechanical Room Air Filter System Rear/Outside Entry
 

This virtual tour of the old Dallas Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center (EOC) was originally posted on this site in 2001. I originally tried to arrange this section as a walk-through virtual tour using the icons and links at the bottom of each page but the individual page links at the top of the page are probably easier to use. Each page covers a section of the shelter with a clickable master floorplan at the bottom of this page which also links to each area of the shelter. I was able to visit this shelter again in 2003 while accompanying a reporter with the Dallas Morning News who wrote a a story for the paper about the shelter. During the 2003 visit I was able to get more photos of things I missed in 2001. In early 2010 I completely rebuilt this section by reprocessing all the images and adding a number of documents. In July of 2013 I was able to go through the place once again and get more photos plus some video.

New HeadlineNews Photo Of Rendering

This headline and rendering of the Dallas Health and Science Museum with the proposed "Civil Defense Command Post" was featured on the front page of the May 22,1959 issue of The Dallas Times Herald. This artist's rendering is interesting, I can't figure out what is going on in the underground room. It looks like a giant atom is being displayed on a huge oval viewing screen of some sort.

Front Of Old Science Museum, Fair Park, Dallas, Texas

Here is the old museum building where the shelter is located as it was in 2001. Formerly known as the Health and Science Museum, this building is was the secondary building to the Science Place at Fair Park in Dallas Texas. Last time I was there in 2013 the building was not in use. As of September 2017, when I am redoing this page, I don't know the condition of the building or the old EOC.

Article from March 17, 1960 Issue of The Dallas Morning News (click images to see larger)

3-17-1960 Dallas News Photo 3-17-1960 Dallas News Article
Shelter History

The old Dallas Civil Defense Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is located under the playground in front of the former Science Place Planetarium Building at Fair Park in Dallas Tx. This EOC was to function as a relocation shelter for Dallas govt. officials in the event of a nuclear attack. It was from this shelter that officials would have tried to coordinate recovery efforts involving community shelters, radiological monitors, police, fire, sanitation and other services.

Construction of the EOC lasted from 1960 to 1961 at a cost of $120,000. The City of Dallas paid $60,000 and the Federal govt. paid the additional $60,000. This shelter is a blast shelter in the true sense of the term. It is equipped with large concrete and steel blast doors which bolt shut when closed for sealing purposes. The exterior blast door is plainly visible next to the sidewalk on the southeast side of the building. The EOC also is equipped with air ventilators containing "anti-blast valves" which would close to prevent blast pressure from entering the shelter. The air circulation system was built with a separate air filtration room complete with a wall of air filters to remove fallout contaminants from the incoming air.

According to a March 27, 1962 Dallas Times Herald article the shelter was officially opened on April 1st, 1962 at 3pm. The shelter is now closed to any public access and was only used for storage purposes by the Science Place in 2001. When I was there in 2013 the shelter had been cleaned out and the former museum building was not in use. As of September 2017, when I am redoing this page, I don't know the condition of the building or the old EOC.

Statement Letter From Co. John W. Mayo May 24, 1961

may241961tn.jpg
May 24, 1961 PDF File
May 24, 1961 Image File

In March 2010 during a visit to the Dallas Municipal Archives I found this letter from the Dallas City-County Civil Defense and Disaster Commission thanking the various organizations involved in the construction of the Dallas Emergency Operations Center. The document is viewable in PDF or JPG image format. The copy is a little fuzzy but I think it's readable.


July 18, 2013 Video Walk-Through.

On July 18, 2013 The Friends of Fair Park group invited me to their annual meeting after which they were going to have their members walk through the old Dallas EOC. I was able to finally get a video walk-through of the shelter. I was a bit rushed because the camera only has 9.5 minutes of HD video capture available. The video is a bit shaky as well because I was holding the camera and a light to try to illuminate the darker areas. I hope the video shows the layout of the shelter well enough.

Huge Thanks to the Friends of Fair Park for the invitation and giving me the opportunity to do go back through the old place once again.
 

Dallas EOC Floorplan From Dallas Civil Defense Operations Plan September 1974

oldeocplantn.jpg

Click On The Plan To Go To The Page For That Area

Click Here To See A Larger Image Of The EOC Plan

A - Front Entry E - Operations Room I - Men's Restroom
B - Women's Restroom F - Radef Operations J - Mechanical Room
C - Communications Room G - Mayor's Office K - Air Filtering/Escape Hatch
D - Dormitory H - Kitchen L - Outside Entry

I would like to thank the people at the Science Place, (2001 and 2003) Perot Museum and The Friends of Fair Park (2013) for allowing us to take the photos of the shelter and The Dallas Public Library, Dallas history section for digging up the old newspaper articles. Newspaper articles and photos were reprinted with the permission of the Dallas Morning News.

Outside Entry Blast Door

Click Photos To See Larger.
 
Outside Entry Blast Door From Drive Outside Entry Blast Door From Above

The above two photos show the outside entry blast door. This door is next to the sidewalk on the south side of the building near the parking lot. I believe the post next to the door was to secure the door in the fully open position so that large items could be moved in and out of the shelter. That's just a guess though. A playground is enclosed in the walled in area behind the door. The shelter is the full size of the walled in area. The rear inside building entry is just to the right, out of the picture, in the above left photo.

Video of outside blast door closing. Spring/Summer 2009.

Thanks to Matt Garrett of Richardson Emergency Management for this video of the outside blast door closing in 2009. Matt said that this is the last time the door was operated. The Perot Museum guide tried to open it in July of 2013 but the breaker tripped after the hydraulic pump ran for a few minutes. We couldn't get the breaker reset. I believe something failed inside the 50+ year old breaker because we couldn't even get it to reengage.


Air Intake and Exhaust Anti-Blast Valves

Air Intake Anti-Blast Valve Air Exahust Anti-Blast Valve
 

The above left photo shows the intake air ventilator anti-blast valve. This view is looking toward the south corner of the playground area. The air intake valve is sitting on a rectangular concrete pad. The manhole cover between the concrete pad and the wall is the Escape Hatch. The ventilator concrete pad has the date "NOV 1961" written in one corner.

The above right photo shows the exhaust air anti-blast valve. This valve is in the bushes along the side of the building at the adjacent corner of the playground. The exhaust air blower located in the Men's Restroom feeds into this valve to the outside. I'm not exactly sure how the ducting goes from the exhaust blower to this valve. If I have a chance to go back and walk through the shelter again I'll try to figure it out.

Anti-Blast Valve Data Plate

abvlabel1tn.jpg

This is the date plate for the air intake anti-blast valve. The manufacturer on the plate is Arthur D. Little Inc. Cambridge Mass.

Some Interesting Information About The Anti-Blast Valves

I wondered about the city going "all-out" to have such serious hardware installed on this shelter. It turns out that the anti-blast valves in this shelter have a very interesting history which I discovered during a visit to the City Of Dallas Municipal Archives in March of 2010. The anti-blast valves were supplied to the city as surplus property to the city from the Nevada Test Site. They were made available to the city for only the cost of shipping them to Dallas. I located a letter in the construction records for this shelter which stated that the valves were available to the city as surplus because they had completed their testing at the Nevada proving area. It says everything in the letter except that these valves underwent actual nuclear blast tests but they very well may have. I don't see why they would have been "tested" at the Nevada proving area unless that was the case. See documents below for info.



Documents From The City Of Dallas Municipal Archives

march91961tn.jpg
March 9, 1961
june141961tn.jpg
June 14, 1961
hew135tn.jpg
Surplus Propery Application

Here are several documents I found in the City Of Dallas Municipal Archives concerning the anti-blast valves in the old Dallas EOC. I was really surprised when I came across these. Click on each thumbnail to see the Adobe PDF file of each document.

More intersting Anti-Blast Valve Info.

While searching for info on the NEAR receiver I came across the following in the Research Projects section on page 24 of the 1957 Federal Civil Defense Administration Annual Report which was published in 1958.

7. Anti-Blast Valve Closures,A. D. Little, Inc.-The development, design, and fabrication of prototypes of anti-blast closures for ventilation openings in protective structures. The prototype devices were shipped to the Nevada Test Site for testing.

No mention here either if the Anti-Blast Valves were actually tested in nuclear blast tests. I might try contacting the Nevada Test Site Museum and see what they have to say.


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Just think— they could command everything from that one location in case of nuclear attack. They had instant access to the White House, to the Pentagon, to nearby military bases, to even the city’s electrical grid & phone systems.

Amazing. And it was conveniently located. Just a few blocks from Dealey Plaza, although I think the railroad proximity was a bigger draw when determining location. 
I think it didn’t get a lot of publicity for a reason.


They could even connect with the Dallas PD. In fact, they could connect to pretty much anything from that command center. I mean, civil defense center. nobody had any reason to photograph it. Comings & goings would be undetected. It was underground.

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7 hours ago, Vince Palamara said:


They could even connect with the Dallas PD.

Vince,

 

image.thumb.png.f5d691ec06b4b7cf018e30f5b80ba82c.png

 

Notice the top right hand corner. Letter also by Boise Smith WRR transmitter building.

 

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qqt01

Texas State Guard. By William C. Wilkes and Mary M. Standifer

 

"In the 1950s the Signal Corps of the Texas State Guard Reserve Corps embraced 500 radio stations statewide. These provided valuable communications assistance to civil authorities and the Red Cross in times of natural disaster."


 

Statement by Colonel John W. Mayo, Chairman of City-County Civil Defense and Disaster Commission at the Dedication of the Emergency Operations Center at Fair Park.

http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/fallout/docs/may241961a.jpg

 

This Statement appeared on the  Civil Defense and Disaster Commission letter head co-signed by Boise Smith, WRR transmitter Building at Fair Park.

WRR was a city-owned radio station.

In the Batchelor's Exhibit CE5002 https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh19/pdf/WH19_Batchelor_Ex_5002.pdf ,

Boise Smith is listed as a Deputy Chief of Police (along with Lumpkin, Stevenson and Batchelor) and as the Director of the Civil Defense and Disaster Commission. As such, he reported directly to Curry.

 

See this statement by Mayo decrying the artists being displayed at the Art Museum

http://washingtonbabylon.com/bunker-command-center-jfk-assassination-merely-worlds-interesting-basement/

 

"In March of 1955, Col. John W. Mayo, commander of the Dallas Metropolitan Post No. 581 of the American Legion, sent a communication to the Trustees of the Art Museum decrying many of the Museum’s policies and saying that the Post objected ‘to the Museum patronizing and supporting artists … whose political beliefs are dedicated to destroying our way of life."

In this same website, it says, " An online exhibit by the Dallas City Hall provides the following historical summary of WRR, the station-of-choice for Dallas-Fort Worth highbrows since 1964, when it switched to an all classical format. Until the departments had their own internal support, WRR supplied and maintained all radio equipment for Police, Fire, Park and Recreation, Water, Public Works, and the former Health Department. At its peak it furnished dispatching services for Dallas County, Cockrell Hill Police Department, and private ambulance services (in the days before 911). WRR discontinued these adjunct services in 1969."

 

"In his book, Family of Secrets, veteran reporter Russ Baker notes:

In April 1, 1962, Dallas Civil Defense, with Crichton heading its intelligence component, opened an elaborate underground command post under the patio of the Dallas Health and Science Museum. Because it was intended for “continuity-of-government” operations during an attack, it was fully equipped with communications equipment.
With this shelter in operation on November 22, 1963, it was possible for someone based there to communicate with police and other emergency services. There is no indication that the Warren Commission or any other investigative body or even JFK assassination researchers looked into this facility or the police and Army Intelligence figures associated with it."

 

http://washingtonbabylon.com/bunker-command-center-jfk-assassination-merely-worlds-interesting-basement/

 

 

 

Facebook posting by an unknown author.

https://www.facebook.com/TexasStateGuard/posts/1576889535692221

 

Texas State Guard

September 27, 2017 ·

Title: “How about a little bit of HISTORY of the Texas State Guard?

 

With the advent of the Cold War, The Texas State Guard Reserve Corps (TSGRC) was given additional duties — those specific to statewide radio communications and civil defense. By 1951, the TSGRC had 50 fixed radio stations and over 100 automobiles throughout the state – almost all were funded at the personal expense of the operators and heavily used during many natural disasters. With the federalization of the Texas National Guard during the Berlin Crisis in 1961, 71 Texas National Guard Armories were left vacant and a great amount of state property unprotected. To address this, elements of the TSGRC were organized as Texas State Guard Security Units. These units were assigned to the 49th Armored Division and the 11014th Transportation Company, manning their respective armories until these units were returned to their state mission one year later.”


 

From Bill Kelly. JFK Countercoup blog July 22, 2012

http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2012/07/shenanigans-at-dallas-state-fairgrounds.html


 

On April 1, 1962, Dallas Civil Defense, with Crichton heading its intelligence component, opened an elaborate underground command post under the patio of the Dallas Health and Science Museum. Because it was intended for ‘continuity-of-government’ operations during an attack, it was fully equipped with communications equipment.

 

Stringfellow and Biggio were working the police radio at the Fairgrounds on 11/22/63

Army Apparently didn't tell Commission of Oswald's Alias”

Dallas Morning News March 19, 1978

in the Weisberg Collection

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/F%20Disk/FBI/FBI%20Records%20Release%2012-7-77%20News%20Accounts/Item%20069.pdf

 

However, (Bill) Biggio, who was directing police intelligence communications at the Fair Park office the day of the assassination...,” Former Dallas police Capt. W. P. Gannaway, who commanded the special service bureau in which Biggio worked, said if Army intelligence in San Antonio or Dallas "had any information pertaining to Oswald, we didn't know about it." “Don Stringfellow, a fellow police intelligence officer working with Biggio at the Fair Park office, was named as the source of information in a secret cable the night of Nov. 22 from Army intelligence in Texas to the U.S. Strike Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. The cable said that information "obtained from Oswald revealed that he had defected to Cuba in 1959 and is a card-carrying member of the Communist Party." THIS CABLE, containing false information, was sent to an Army-Air Force operation set up three years earlier to provide a quick-reacting strike force in case of enemy attack. “

 

Forum Members might also be interested in perusing the Minutes of the Dallas Park Board, e.g.

[Dallas Park Board Minutes, Book 7] Page: 677

https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth532599/m1/677/

 

Steve Thomas

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Vince - I have to ask whether you have biographical info on any of the DPD detectives mentioned herein, such as Stringfellow, Gannaway, Lumpkin, and whether you’ve turned up any corroboration for Jack Crichton’s oft quoted oral history in which he states that the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, which he commanded, had a hundred or so members, 40-50 of whom were DPD? Even though you don’t mention Westbrook, he has been likewise connected to the 488th. Steve Thomas, Bill Kelly and others have failed to figure out how the 488th fit into the Army chain of command. Steve thinks it might be part of the Texas State Reserve units. I think it is to the Army Chief of Staff Intelligence - ACSI - at the Pentagon. But no one seems to be able even to prove its existence.

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According to Google Books, vol 14 of Army Reserve magazine includes the following caption:

LEGION OF MERIT is presented to Colonel
Jack A. Crichton, CO, 488th MI Det 
(Strat), Dallas, Tex., by Colonel Robert D.
Offer, CO, VII Corps, Houston, Tex.,
upon Col. Crichton’s recent retirement.

See:

https://books.google.com/books?id=cW3UxFbBfScC&dq="legion+of+merit"+jack+crichton&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=jack+crichton

Edit:

Also, indicating that it is reproducing the following article:

Dallas Morning News, The (TX), 
December 15, 2007, Author: JOE 
SENNACHERIB, Page 13B;

the Find A Grave entry on “John Alston ‘Jack’ Crichton” states as follows:

In December 1967, he retired from the Army Reserve after serving for 30 years. He received the Legion of Merit for his service, which included organizing the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment reserve unit in 1956.

See:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/116536208/john-alston-crichton

Edited by Jim Hargrove
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5 hours ago, Jim Hargrove said:

According to Google Books, vol 14 of Army Reserve magazine includes the following caption:

LEGION OF MERIT is presented to Colonel
Jack A. Crichton, CO, 488th MI Det 
(Strat), Dallas, Tex., by Colonel Robert D.
Offer, CO, VII Corps, Houston, Tex.,
upon Col. Crichton’s recent retirement.

See:

https://books.google.com/books?id=cW3UxFbBfScC&dq="legion+of+merit"+jack+crichton&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=jack+crichton

Edit:

Also, indicating that it is reproducing the following article:

Dallas Morning News, The (TX), 
December 15, 2007, Author: JOE 
SENNACHERIB, Page 13B;

the Find A Grave entry on “John Alston ‘Jack’ Crichton” states as follows:

In December 1967, he retired from the Army Reserve after serving for 30 years. He received the Legion of Merit for his service, which included organizing the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment reserve unit in 1956.

See:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/116536208/john-alston-crichton

Jim,

 

Thanks for the input.

As far as the Army Reserve Magazine magazine article, I think it's the VIIIth Corps, not the VIIth.

See

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal from Lubbock, Texas · December 5, 1967 Page 16

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/6092576/

 

DALLAS (API — "Col. Jack A.:, Crichton.) commanding officer of the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, was awarded the Legion of Merit Monday night on' his retirement from the Army- Reserve after 30 years of service. The medal was presented in a ceremony by Col. Robert D. Of-; fer, (sic) commander of the VIII U.S. , Army Corps at Austin. An oil man and petroleum consultant, Crichton organized his Reserve unit in 1956 and has been its only commander. The award cited him for "exceptionally outstanding service" as commander and for the preparation of a series of military intelligence studies.

As far as Offer goes, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of a Colonel being the commanding officer of an army corps. Usually that goes to a major-general or something. I'm also having trouble locating information on Offer himself. There was a Robert D. Offer, Jr. who served in Vietnam, but, so far, I haven't found anything that connects a Robert D. Offer to Texas."

It's got to be something connected to the Reserves, rather than the Active Army.

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/512-viii-corps/

 

"The Eighth returned to the United States in August of 1945 after having fought in five campaigns and was inactivated on December 15th, 1945, at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma.

Post-World War II

Not long after deactivation, VIII Corps was once again slated for activation.

It was activated as part of the organized reserves. For almost the next twenty years, VIII Corps remained in the role of training soldiers for overseas deployment.

VIII Corps was deactivated in April 1, 1968."

 

Just for the heck of it, here's a brief mention in an April 9, 1964 Longview, TX News-Journal newspaper . At that point, Crichton was running unopposed as the Republican candidate for Governor in the 1964 election. (Sorry for the OCR rendering - it was hard to make out at times).

Longview News-Journal from Longview, Texas

April 9, 1964 page 5

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/186118616/


 

"Crichton Blasts 'Police Power Bill During Visit Gets Award attributed widely to the oil and gas publications. Gov. George C. Wallace's heavy vote in the Wisconsin primary Tuesday showed that the people in the North as well as FORT WORTH ...

 

Crichton of Dallas, unopposed candidate for governor, declared Shreveport. He is a committee chairman in the Dallas County Civil defense set up and holds - - publican leaders and others. Crichton said, ' He has been active in Republican circles in Dallas many years, and he occupies downtown offices as an Independent oil executive, and engineer.

 

Crichton was educated at Byrd High School, Shreveport, and was awarded various petroleum and engineering degrees from Wichita Institute of Technology and SMU. His career as a geologist and engineer was interrupted by World War II, in which he served as a field artillery intelligence officer and special agent of the OSS. Now with the rank of colonel, he is commanding officer of the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, U. S. Army Reserve."

 

Steve Thomas

 

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Jim - personally I don’t doubt the reality of the 488th. Steve Thomas and I have gone back and forth on this. He is unable to find references to the Detachment in any official files. It’s a mystery, as is the lack of any biographical info on members other than Crichton and Brandstetter.

 

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To Steve and Paul,

I’m shocked, SHOCKED that we can so easily assemble such disparate evidence both for and against the existence of the 488th MI Detachment headed by Col. Crichton. After all, what element of American history is clearer more than half a century after it unfolded than the assassination of JFK? 

Two explanations that occur to me are:

  1. Jack Crichton felt his resume was a bit thin and invented the 488th out of whole cloth and was able to plant a few factoids in the print media.
  2. The 488th MI Detachment was instrumental in killing JFK, or in overthrowing any number of foreign governments, or something else equally unpleasant, and therefore had to be erased from American history.

Is there an easier-to-believe explanation?

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So, is it 50 radio stations, or 500 radio stations?

Or, had the number grown by that much?


Facebook posting by an unknown author.

https://www.facebook.com/TexasStateGuard/posts/1576889535692221

 

Texas State Guard

September 27, 2017 ·

Title: “How about a little bit of HISTORY of the Texas State Guard?

 

With the advent of the Cold War, The Texas State Guard Reserve Corps (TSGRC) was given additional duties — those specific to statewide radio communications and civil defense. By 1951, the TSGRC had 50 fixed radio stations and over 100 automobiles throughout the state – almost all were funded at the personal expense of the operators and heavily used during many natural disasters.

 

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qqt01

Texas State Guard. By William C. Wilkes and Mary M. Standifer

 

"In the 1950s the Signal Corps of the Texas State Guard Reserve Corps embraced 500 radio stations statewide. These provided valuable communications assistance to civil authorities and the Red Cross in times of natural disaster."

 

Steve Thomas

 

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23 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

Jim,

 

As far as Offer goes, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of a Colonel being the commanding officer of an army corps. Usually that goes to a major-general or something.

Hood County News-Tablet from Granbury, Texas · Page 8

July 8, 1965

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/57597412/

 

Gets Texas National Guard Commission Gary T. Grogan of Rising Star, technician with the local Soil Conservation Service office, received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Texas N'ational Guard in ceremonies at the Municipal'. Auditorium in Austin Saturday evening, June 1). He was awarded his commission at the conclusion of a Texas Officer Candidate School which he attended at Camp Mabry, Texas. He was assigned to the 1st Bn,. 142nd Inf., Brown-wood, Texas, as battalion antitank platoon leader. Presentation of the diplomas was made by Maj. Gen. Thomas S. Bishop, Texas adjutant-general, Major. Gen: .. William. R. Calhoun commanding , general of the Eighth U.S. Army Corps, was the speaker for the evening.

 

So, in 1965 you've got a Major General commanding the Eight th  Army Corps, but in 1967 it's being commanded by a Colonel?

Something's not quite right here.

 

Steve Thomas

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12 minutes ago, Steve Thomas said:

So, in 1965 you've got a Major General commanding the Eight th  Army Corps, but in 1967 it's being commanded by a Colonel?

Something's not quite right here.

 

Steve Thomas

Dallas Morning News 11-16-1965

10 Dallas reserve Units Included In Inactivation

By Gene Ormsby

Fourteen Army Reserve units in Dallas, including 10 in the 90th Infantry Division, are scheduled to be inactivated immediately, Major Gen. William R. Calhoun commander of the Eighth U.S. Army Corps said Monday in Austin.

 

Steve Thomas

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2 hours ago, B. A. Copeland said:

Could any of this have anything to do with the WH communications 'black out' on that day?.....this is deeply fascinating and thanks VInce for it.

My pleasure! Could be. To say that next to no one knew about this would be an understatement.

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On ‎8‎/‎5‎/‎2018 at 4:56 AM, Paul Brancato said:

Vince - I have to ask whether you have biographical info on any of the DPD detectives mentioned herein, such as Stringfellow, Gannaway, Lumpkin, and whether you’ve turned up any corroboration for Jack Crichton’s oft quoted oral history in which he states that the 488th Military Intelligence Detachment, which he commanded, had a hundred or so members, 40-50 of whom were DPD? Even though you don’t mention Westbrook, he has been likewise connected to the 488th. Steve Thomas, Bill Kelly and others have failed to figure out how the 488th fit into the Army chain of command. Steve thinks it might be part of the Texas State Reserve units. I think it is to the Army Chief of Staff Intelligence - ACSI - at the Pentagon. But no one seems to be able even to prove its existence.

Hi, Paul---just seeing your comment now.

I know about Col. George Lumpkin, Lt. Col. George Whitmeyer, and Secret Service agent Winston Lawson and their Counter Intelligence background in the Army.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/156778130/george-laster-lumpkin

 

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