Why Tradecraft Should Only Be used in the National Defense

My Top Secret security clearance ended in 1989 when my nine years of service in the Navy JAG Corps ended by Honorable Retirement.

Tradecraft is lethal. One lie leads to another. In the end reality is replaced by unreality. There’s no life left in your life. Or any you left in your life. There’s your legend (cover). It’s like “The Americans” or “The Prisoner”.

Tradecraft is self-erasure.

The defense of this nation requires exactly that of some people some times. On those occasions, tradecraft is still lethal, but it is morally acceptable. Pour la Patrie.

Stars on the wall tell the take. Each one with no name. Or, if you like, the same name. Pour Le Merite — the Blue Max, except they are silver and not blue. They know who they were. That’s what matters. God sorts them out. He loves USA, so He loves them.

My dad was a spy. My mom was a spy. Dad for France. Mom for USA. They met and married on the battlefield — Grasse 1946. I was born 1947. Born by accident, but living on purpose. Ancient purpose, my roots are in Nathan Hale — his small corner garden at Langley.

If you are in one of our service academies may God bless you and keep you. Please know that my counsel here is sincere. To serve the nation may require your erasure. You know. Nothing else matters.