Defense Department (DOD) Records Related to the Assassination of JFK

Department of Defense Records Related to the Assassination of President Kennedy
October 26, 1995

Pre-assassination Records

1. Any DOD documentation or information pertaining to Lee Harvey Oswald including the original copy of his USMC Service Record and USMC Medical Record, his defection to USSR, possible damage-assessment studies or damage-control action taken following his defection to USSR, surveillance or contact with him following his return to the United States in 1962.

(There are reports that a U.S. military intelligence agency conducted a net damage assessment survey at MACS El Toro in Santa Ana, CA in late 1959 or early 1960, following Oswald's defection to the Soviet Union. It would have been reasonable for the U.S. government to have investigated Oswald upon his return to the U.S. in 1962, since the Navy and Marine Corps were aware that he had offered to turn over military secrets to the USSR when he defected in October, 1959.....

page 2.

4. Any available MOUs or MOAs defining command responsibilities and lines of authority, responsibility and accountability when individuals of the Central Intelligence Agency serve under "military cover," i=.e., are employed and operate for the CIA while wearing the uniform of one of the armed services. (Applicable period of interest here is 1956-1964).

(CIA officers, acting under military cover, were engaged in anti-Castro activities during the relevant period.)

5. Full and complete rosters of DOD attendees (both active duty military and civilian) who received Russian language training at or from the U.S. Army's School of Languages in Monterey, CA (now known as the Defense Language Institute) during the years 1957-1959, inclusive.

(The Warren Commission General Counsel stated, in a January, 1964 Executive Session, the Commission should learn what Oswald studied while at the Monterey School of Languages.)...

page 3

8. Any DOD-sponsored or DOD-directed training or "running" of anti-Castro Cuban emigree groups or individuals in the United States from 1960-64.
(CIA-run anti-Castro groups operated out of the U.S. during the 1960-64 period. Evidence suggests that some of the groups had affiliations with military intelligence, specifically Army G-2)...

page 4

(The existing, edited tapes and transcripts are unclear and confusing)

12. Any available audio recordings of Dallas motorcycle radio transmissions recorded by active duty military personnel working for WHCA. (Note: existing documents suggest that motorcade radio communications were monitored inside SAM 26000 on the ground at Love Field, and at the White House Situation room, "real time." Army Signal Corps personnel working for WHCA were responsible for relaying this information to the White House.)

(One Secret Service agent in the motorcade was speaking on an open radio channel while some of the shots occurred in Dallas. The recordings might reveal whether other federal agents in other automobiles in the motorcade made pertinent, contemporaneous observations about the number and direction of shots.)

13. Any available records related to U.S. Army (or Air Force) helicopters that may have arrived at or departed Andrews AFB on November 22, 1963,including type of helo, landing/takeoff time, origin, and destination.

(Existing records, such as the Air Force One tapes mentioned in item #11 above, suggest confusion over whether the President's body was to be autopsied at Walter Reed or Bethesda, and whether it was to be transported via helicopter or automobile. On the ground, witnesses, contemporary audio and video recordings, and a television network log all verify that a military helicopter (described by one source as "Army") landed close to Air Force One at Andrews immediately after its arrival, and then took off within two minutes. Any records which could identify the origin and destination of this helicopter flight might resolve some of the controversy surrounding the President's autopsy.)
_________________________________

One had 3 of these channels in "full time use" during the entire 2 hour and 17 minute flight back to Washington from Dallas, the original, unedited tapes could potentially be anywhere from 7-9 hours of conversation. (However, the edited LBJ library variant is only about 2 hours long.) Because military personnel on active duty made the recordings for WHCA, it may be possible that a military organization retained the originals, or a copy of the unedited originals.

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14. Personnel files and/or military intelligence files on the following military intelligence personnel:

Name/Rank - Identifying Information

Lt. Col. George L. Whitmeyer, 2 U.S. Army Intelligence, Commander of
Dallas Army Intelligence Reserve Unit
(Dallas Sub-Section Commander)

Present in the motorcade pilot car on Nov. 22, 1963
along with Deputy Dallas Police Chief George Lumpkin.

Spec-5 James W. Powell, Army
Intelligence Special Agent,
Member of the 112th MIG

Present in Dealey Plaza, took
photograph of TSBD,
and participated in search of
the railroad yards and TSBD. Powell's
statements to the FBI and USSS
suggest that he wrote a report on
his activities for his Army
Intelligence C.O. and also turned
his film into the Army.

Col. Jack Alston Crichton, U.S.
Army Reserve Intelligence Officer

Arranged for Marina Oswald's first
Russian Interpreter Nov. 22, 1963.

Col. William C. Bishop, U.S. Army CIC

Claims to have been assigned to the
Trade Mart speech site as Presidential
protection, until he left his post (upon
hearing the President had been
shot) to go to Parkland Hospital. 3
_______________________

2. Alternative spellings of the last name are Whitmayer, and Wiedemeyer....

3. Additionally, many Dallas police officers had Army Intelligence Reserve affiliations, including Detective John P. Adamcik and Captain W. P Gannaway. Lieutenant Jack Revill drove from Dealey Plaza to the police station with a member of Army Intelligence, and FBI agent Hosty ate lunch with a member of Army Intelligence, both on November 22, 1963.

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Post-assassination records.

15. Any military records from either Bethesda NMC or Walter Reed MC, concerning the movement of the deceased President's body and/or security arrangements revolving around the transportation of President's body from Andrews AFB to either Bethesda or Walter Reed (separate from the official autopsy records already turned over by the Navy), such as duty logs from both hospitals, and any memos or reports written about security arrangements or transportation arrangements for the President's body on the evening of November 22, 1963.....

20. All documents identifying the location of all members of the JCS (Joint Chiefs of Staff) from 21-23NOV 1963. (Historical context of the assassination, per 36 C.F.R. & 1400)

21. Any after-action reports or investigations conducted subsequent to November

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22,1963 pertaining to a "code book" reportedly missing from SAM 86972 (Pacific Cabinet plane) on the day of the assassination. (Records on this subject are not detailed, and it is unclear whether the code book was simply a WHCA book of Secret Service-assigned code names, or ctypto, or something else.)

(Clarification of which code book was missing, if any, would assist in resolving various speculations made regarding the significance of this event.)

22. Any military investigation of the assassination, or of Lee Harvey Oswald, following the assassination. 4.

(Any such investigation, particularly by the Marine Corps or Navy, into the circumstances of Oswald's military career, or the circumstances of his defection, would be normal, and in fact, expected. The fact that any such investigations have been repeatedly denied by the Navy and Marine Corps is inconsistent with the recollections of witnesses who claim to have been present either during the transportation of the inspection teams, or to have seen the resulting report(s), or both.)....
________________________

4. The HSCA investigated, but could not resolve, allegations from multiple parties that a military aircraft flew military personnel from MCAS Kaneohe (in Hawaii) to Japan on December 7, 1963 (C-54, tail number 50855), and that one later leg of the investigation was a flight from California to Dallas on a KC-130 in late December, 1963. One witness saw a written report after the Japan investigation marked 'For Marine Corps Eyes Only."

Rear Admiral Rufus Taylor ONI Records Missing?

The Rufus Taylor Records Gone Missing?

“In its Final Declaration of Compliance, ONI stated that it conducted an extensive review of ONI records held at Federal Records Centers throughout the country. ONI did not identify any additional assassination records. ONI was unable to find any relevant files for the Director of ONI from 1959 to 1964.” - Final Report ARRB


The Office of Naval Intelligence maintains that the records of its former director Rufus Taylor and his predecessor are missing. They just don’t know where they are or even if they still exist.

From another agency, the ARRB obtained an unsigned affidavit Taylor wrote professing that the ONI did not utilize Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of the President, as an agent or asset, and there is record of Taylor himself ordering a record “to be prepared” as requested.

For some reason it is hard for me to fathom the idea that the Office of Naval Intelligence – the oldest, smallest and most powerful of all US government intelligence agencies, somehow lost the entire office files of their director from 1959-1964, including those of Taylor, who served as director of ONI from June 1963 to May 1966.

If this were a poker game and I could call them on it I would, but in further developing Peter Dale Scott’s “negative template” approach, so I though it appropriate to take a closer look at Admiral Rufus Taylor, and what role he played in the proceedings.

It turns out that rear Admiral Rufus Taylor USN was the first intelligence specialist to hold the position of Director of Naval Intelligence. June 1963. - 1)

In his honor the Rufus Taylor Awards are presented annually at the Navy Marine Corps Intelligence Training Center (NMITC), Dam Neck, Virginia and at the Fleet Intelligence Training Center (FITC) San Diego, California 2)

Then Taylor turns up, even after retirement, trying to suppress Victor Marchetti’s book"The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence. This is from Victor Marchetti concerning Taylor’s efforts to stop publication:

MARCHETTI: What I learned in my dealings with Congressmen, in the CIA and after leaving, was that the men who wanted to change the situation didn't have the power, while those who had the power didn't want any change. With Congress a hopeless case, and the White House already in the know and well satisfied to let the CIA continue to operate in secrecy, I decided to talk to the press. I gave my first interview to U.S. News and World Report, and that started the ball rolling. Soon I was in touch with publishers in New York, talking about doing a book.

I soon got a telephone call from Admiral Rufus Taylor, who had been my boss in the agency, but by that time had retired. He told me to meet him at a motel in the Virginia suburbs, across the Potomac from Washington. My suspicions aroused by the remoteness of the room from the office, I was greeted by Admiral Taylor, who had thoughtfully brought along a large supply of liquor: a bottle of scotch, a bottle of bourbon, a bottle of vodka, a bottle of gin ... "I couldn't remember what you liked," he told me, "so I brought one of everything."

I began to make noise: flushing the toilet, washing my hands, turning on the television. Admiral Taylor was right behind me, turning everything off. I kept making noise, jingling the ice in my glass and so on, until the admiral sat down. There was a table with a lamp on it between the admiral's chair and the one which he now told me to sit down on. He looked at me with a little twinkle in his eye: the lamp was bugged, of course.

We talked, and Admiral Taylor told me the CIA was worried about what I might write in my book. He proposed a deal: I was to give no more interviews, write no more articles, and to stay away from Capitol Hill. I could write my book, and then let him and other retired senior officers look it over, and they would advise me and the agency. After that the CIA and I could resolve our differences. I told him, "Fair enough." We had a drink on it, and went out to dinner. That was our deal

What I didn't know was that a few nights later John Erlichman and Richard Nixon would be sitting in the White House discussing my book. There is a tape of their discussion, "President Nixon, John Ehrlichman, 45 minutes, subject Victor Marchetti," which is still sealed: I can't get it Ehrlichman told me through contacts that if I listened to the tape I would learn exactly what happened to me and why.

Whatever the details of their conversation were, the president of the United States had decided I should not publish my book. I was to be the first writer in American history to be served with an official censorship order served by a court of the United States, because President Nixon did not want to be embarrassed, nor did he want the CIA to be investigated and reformed: that would have hampered his ability to use it for his own purposes. A few days later, on April 18, 1972, I received a federal injunction restraining me from revealing any "intelligence information." After more than a year of court battles, CIA and the Cult of Intelligence was published. The courts allowed the CIA to censor it in advance, and as a result the book appeared with more than a hundred holes for CIA-ordered deletions. Later editions show previously deleted words and lines, which the court ordered the CIA to restore in boldface or italics. The book is therefore difficult to read, indeed something of a curiosity piece. And of course all the information which was ordered cut out ended up leaking to the public anyway.

All this was done to help the CIA suppress and distort history, and to enable presidents to do the same. Presidents like Harry Truman, who claimed falsely that "I never had any thought when I set up the CIA that it would be injected into peacetime cloak-and-dagger operations," but who willingly employed the agency to carry out clandestine espionage and covert intervention in the affairs of other countries. Or Dwight Eisenhower, who denied that we were attempting to overthrow Sukarno in Indonesia, when we were, and was embarrassed when he tried to deny the CIA's U-2 over flights and was shown up by Khruschev at Paris in 1960. John F. Kennedy, as everyone knows by now, employed the CIA in several attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro. We used everyone from Mafia hoods to Castro's mistress, Marita Lorenz (who was supposed to poison the dictator with pills concealed in her cold cream -- the pills melted). I have no doubt that if we could have killed Castro, the U.S. would have gone in.

There was a fairly widespread belief that one reason Kennedy was assassinated was because he was going to get us out of Vietnam. Don't you believe it He was the CIA's kind of president, rough, tough, and gung-ho. Under Kennedy we became involved in Vietnam in a serious way, not so much militarily as through covert action. It is a fact that the United States engineered the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem, South Vietnam's premier, and Ngo Dinh Nhu, his powerful brother. A cable was sent out to the ambassador which said, "If Lou Conein goofs up [Lucien Conein was a key CIA operative in Saigon], it's his responsibility." So when E. Howard Hunt faked these memos and cables when he was working for the "plumbers" on behalf of President Nixon (and against the Democrats), he knew what he was doing. That was his defense, that he wasn't really forging or inventing anything. "Stuff like that really existed, but I couldn't find it," he said. Of course Hunt couldn't find it by that time the original documents were gone. But Hunt knew what he was doing.

President Nixon's obsession with secrecy led to the end of his presidency, of course. As indicated earlier, Nixon was determined to suppress my book. On several occasions after his resignation, Nixon has been asked what he meant when he said that the CIA would help him cover up the Watergate tapes, because "they owed him one." He has responded, "I was talking about Marchetti," in other words the efforts (still secret) to prevent The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence from being published. END Marchetti on Taylor. 3)

TAYLOR also had strong feelings about the attack on the USS LIBERTY: Taylor “was one of many lifelong military professionals who maintained (and so documented when he wrote it to HELMS) that the 07 JUN67, murderous 25-minute act-of-war attack by Israel on the U.S.S. Liberty ship was a deliberate attack (inflicting 34 dead and 172 wounded American servicemen from a crew of 294), and that the U.S. government covered-up, and continues to cover-up, that fact. (Due to continuing pressure by the pro-Israel lobby within the United States, this attack remains the only serious naval incident that has never been thoroughly investigated by Congress; to this day, no surviving crew member has been permitted to officially and publicly testify about the attack).” 4)

TAYLOR & the FOUNDING of Navy TASK FORCE 157. According to Paul H. Nitze, "Instructions for the coordination and control of the Navy's clandestine intelligence collection program," (December 7, 1965. Top Secret, 5 pp.), Taylor established Task Force 157, which Ed Wilson exposed to Bobby Inman, who immediately shut down.

The U.S. Navy had conducted clandestine human intelligence operations during the 1930s and World War II. By the mid-1960s the Navy, however, was largely out of the clandestine HUMINT business. Then, in 1965, Admiral Rufus Taylor asked Thomas Duval and Thomas Saunders to set up a Navy HUMINT program. Despite some concern by senior Navy officers about the "flap potential," their proposal was approved - resulting in this memorandum from Secretary of the Navy Paul Nitze. The memorandum provides a rationale for the creation of a new HUMINT organzation, relevant definitions, and establishes the responsibilities of senior officials. With regard to security, the memo mandates that very existence of the program be classified Secret…..Nitze's memo would lead to the establishment, in 1966, of the Naval Field Operations Support Group (NFOSG) to conduct clandestine HUMINT operations. It would soon be given an alternative designation - Task Force 157 - by which it would become more commonly known. 5)

Ed Wilson said he was responsible for the physical security of U2 bases in Japan when Oswald was there, and brokered a deal to sell Gadhafi tons of plastic explosives, some of which were probably used in the Lockerbee and German disco attacks. Wilson lived in Libya for years and was snookered back to USA by the same Federal prosecutor who handled the Leiteler assassination case (Gene Proper). Wilson was released from federal prison when it was shown that Wilson was still working for the CIA.

Of Rufus TAYLOR researcher MAE BRUSSELL said, “When Richard Helms, former CIA chief, was questioned about Oswald's Navy Intelligence work, he said, ‘Why ask me? Call Navy Intelligence.’”

Mae Brussell: “And he threw out the name Rufus Taylor. And he mentioned that Taylor just died last week. He was a very important witness who died a week before Helms was to testify. Rufus Taylor, Annapolis graduate, studied in Japan from 1938 to 1941, was a native of St. Louise, Missouri, and was with General Macarthur after the war in Japan. Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence for the entire Pacific fleet, he was in Japan from 1941 to 1959 and in Navy Intelligence at the time that Lee Oswald was over there in 1959 in the Philippines, at the Atsugi Air bases and was involved with the U2. Oswald served in the Marines with top secret security clearance at the time that Rufus was Pacific Intelligence Chief. Oswald went to the Soviet Union and Rufus went to Washington, D.C. Oswald said, "I'm going to give away radar secrets." Rufus then became the Director for Foreign Intelligence in the Soviet Union. Rufus was the Director of Navy Intelligence in 1963 up until the time Kennedy was killed - from 1963 to 1966. During 1967 through 1969, Rufus became the Deputy Director of the CIA--the number two post under Helms.”6)

Department of the Navy
Office of Naval Intelligence

2 Oct 97

From: Commander, Office of Naval Intelligence
To: Chief of Naval Operations

Ref: (a) CNO (NO9BL) e-mail of 8 Sept. 97

1. Per reference (a), the following responses are provided:

Question 1: Review Board request for records identified in the office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) regional office located in Dallas, TX, in 1963.

Answer: The ONI office located in Dallas, TX, in 1963 was associated with the Naval Criminal Investigation Service, then a component command of ONI. Those records, if any, are now under their control and are not within ONI record group 289 at the Washington National Records Center (WNRC).

Question 2: Review Board request for any information from Naval Attaches assigned to Moscow or Mexico City.

Answer: No records regarding Naval Attaches assigned to Moscow or Mexico City during this period were found within ONI records at the WNRC.

Question 3: Review Board request that ONI confirm whether the files for the Assistant Chief of Naval Operations (Intelligence) had been located and whether the files of the Director of Naval Intelligence in 1959 had been identified and reviewed.

Answer: ONI has completely surveyed all of its documents within record group 289. While correspondence originated by commands subordinate to ONI remain stored pending disposition determination, no records specifically from the Director of Naval Intelligence were identified. The possibility that those records were accessioned to the National Archives or were filed in another record group cannot be discounted. Most likely, record group 38 under OPNAV control may contain responsive records.

BK Notes; Just knowing the basic history of ONI, their mission, and how its very purpose is to make and preserve records – I just don’t believe they lose anything by accident, especially when it comes to the records of their director.

1) History of ONI – Dorwart, Jeffery.
2) Navy Marine Intelligence Training Center – Fleet Intelligence TC
3) Victor Marchetti – Re: CIA & Cult of Intelligence
4) Taylor & Liberty – Official Coverup
5) Taylor & Task Force 157 – Separate and independent HUMIT intelligence network based at ports throughout the world.
6) Mae Brussell on Taylor – World Watchers International (WWI)

Nov. 7, 1995 Memo for Secretaries of the Military

November 7, 1995

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARIES OF THE MILITARY DEPARTMENTS
DIRECTOR, DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

SUBJECT: Request for Records Related to the Kennedy Assassination

Attached is a request from the Assassinations Records Review Board (Board), established by Congress to collect records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Last week, representatives of the Board's staff met with representatives of your component, my office and other affected offices to discus the scope of the Board's task and what they seek from the Defense Department. As a result of that meeting, the Board has presented us with the attached list of records requested.

I request that you review this list and identify the numbered paragraphs which request records in the custody of your component. Then, you should survey your record holdings for those that may contain records responsive to the numbered items in the request you identified as relevant to your organization....

When you have completed this process, please respond with the following information:

(1) A list of the numbered items which request records in the custody of your organization;

(2) A description of record holdings which may contain responsive records, including reference to the numbered items each holding may contain;...

Your organization has identified a point of contact to the Board, and your contact attended the meeting which preceded this request...

Please respond no later than 14 November to the Office of the Deputy General Counsel....

Judith A. Miller sig

November 9, 1995

MEMORANDUM FOR THE CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS, COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS, DIRECTOR, NAVAL CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE SERVICE, DIRECTOR, NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER.

Sub: REQUEST FOR RECORDS RELATED TO THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION....

Enclosed (1) is a letter with attachments from the Department of Defense General counsel, which forwarded a request from the Assassinations Records Review Board (Board). Congress has established the Board to collect records related to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Enclosure (1) requires the Department of the Navy (DON) to report back immediately with specific information. LTCOL John E. Sparks, USMC, is the DON point of contact for his matter. Please respond with the requested information to LTCOL Sparks by 1200, 14, November 1995. I am aware that this is an extremely short suspense but please note that I am not requesting that you complete a records search. I am requesting that you start your search and provide your best estimate of the resources needed to complete the search as outlined by enclosure (1). If you have any questions you should contact LTCOL Sparkes or LT Tom Gonzalez.....

Leigh A. Bradley Acting General Counsel Sig

Subj: ASSASSINATION RECORDS REVIEW BOARD GUIDELINES FOR COMPLIANCE WITH THE JFK ASSASSINATIONS RECORDS COLLECTION ACT.

1. Guidelines for reviewing records. The Assassination Records Review Board has issued these guidelines for certifying the Department of the Navy's compliance with the JFK Records Collection Act for their final report to Congress.

a. All Kennedy assassination related records maintained by the DON are to be identified and processed for inclusion in the JFK Records Collection at the National Archives....

2. Scope of the materials concerned. Relevant documents are those related to the assassination of President Kennedy. This includes any documents related to the assassination, investigation or inquiry into the assassination, and Lee Harvey Oswald....

a. Documents concerning Oswald's military service with the Marines, including his work at the Atsugi Naval Air Station in Japan

b. Any investigation or intelligence related to Oswald's defection to the Soviet Union in 1959, his residence there, and his return to the United States in 1962.

c. Documents concerning Oswald's undesirable discharge from the service in 1960....

g. Any documents that relate to the allegation that Lee Harvey Oswald was connected in any way with a military intelligence entity or any other United States intelligence entity.

h. Information on Operation Mongoose or any other plan or action to destabilize Cuba in the 1960-64 time frame....

i. Any operational records documenting changes in alert status for Navy or Marine Corps units during the period November 8, 1963 through November 30, 1963, particularly with respect to any potential military action toward Cuba....

3. Range of the records to be reviewed.....

Review Board has requested review of the following specific record categories for related documents or information.

a. Records of the Commandant of the Marine Corps for the period 1957 to 1064, including any chronological, subject, work, of "soft" files....

c. Cuban or Fidel Castro intelligence material from 1962-64 that may related to the assassination or discuss potential Cuban complicity in the assassination.

General Counsel of the Navy Memo 2/25/97

MEMORANDUM FOR THE CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS
COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS...

Subj: DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY COMPLIANCE WITH THE JFK ASSASSINATIONS RECORDS COLLECTION ACT, 44 U.S.C. & 2107...

Encl: (1) Guidelines for Reviewing Records (2) List of Archived Records to be Reviewed
(3) Sample Certification Statement

The Assassinations Records Review Board has requested a complete and specific accounting of the Department of the Navy (DON) efforts to locate and release assassination related records....If any assassination related records are known to have been destroyed, a specific explanation of the circumstances surrounding the destruction of such records must be provided...

...An indexed list of items identified in this search should be forwarded to the Administrative Office of the Navy General Counsel, Pentagon room 5D830. Please provide a written reply no later than April 30, 1997 including the name and phone number of the individual responsible for conducting the search. Negative responses are required.

Any questions concerning this search should be directed to LT Chris Tynes, USN...
Steven S. Honigman

Subj: ASSASSINATION RECORDS REVIEW BOARD GUIDELINES FOR COMPLIANCE WITH THE JFK ASSASSINATIONS RECORDS COLLECTION ACT

1. Guidelines for reviewing records. The Assassination Records Review Board has issued these guideline for certifying the Department of the Navy's compliance with the JFK Records Collection Act for their final report to Congress.

a. All Kennedy assassination records maintained by the DON are to be identified and processed for inclusion in the JFK Records Collection at the National Archives....

e. Any related records which have been destroyed must be fully explained. Including a specific explanation of the circumstances surrounding the destruction of such records.

2. Scope of the materials concerned. Relevant documents are those related to the assassination of President Kennedy...

c. Documents concerning Oswald's undesirable discharge from the service in 1960.

d. Any correspondence regarding Oswald's discharge appeals to the Secretary of the Navy in 1961, 1962 and 1963.

e. Any investigative effort regarding the assassination conducted by the Navy and Marine Corps.

f. Any correspondence to or relating to the Warren Commission, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) or the Church Committee.

g. Any documents that relate to, the allegation that Lee Harvey Oswald was connected in any way with a military intelligence entity or any other United States intelligence entity.

h. Information on Operation Mongoose or any other plan or action to destabilize Cuba in the 1960-64 time frame period...

k. Communications between the Navy and the State Department, CIA,....

3. Range of the records to be reviewed. Records to be searched include those transferred to a Federal Records Center pursuant to SECNAVINST 5212.5c for retention. The Assassination Records...

Review Board has requested review of the following specific record categories for related documents or information:

a Records of the Commandant of the Marine Corps for the period 1957 to 1964, including the chronological, subject, work, or "soft" files.

b. All communications to and from the Secretary of the Navy, Chief of Naval Operations, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps, on the day and week after the assassination.

c. Cuban or Fidel Castro intelligence material from 1962-1964 that may relate to the assassination or discuss potential Cuban complicity in the assassination....

i. Records of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), and any related offices, for the period 1957064, including records of the Director for the Office of Naval Intelligence (OP-921E), the District Intelligence Office for the Ninth Naval District (Chicago, Illinois), and the District Intelligence Office for the.....

ONI - ARRB Separate JFK Act Compliance Certifications

23 April 97

From: Director, Office of Naval Intelligence
To: Chief of Naval Operations (NO9BL)

Subj: DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY COMPLIANCE WITH THE JFK
ASSASSINATIONS RECORDS COLLECTION ACT, 44 U.S.C. 2107....

22 April 1997
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

Subj: OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE COMPLIANCE WITH THE JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATIONS RECORDS COLLECTION ACT 44 U.S.C. 2107

Ref: (a)REDACTED....

REDACTED: (a) CNO ltr Ser NO9BL/7U506568 of 28 Feb 97

1. Executive Summary: ....A total of [one hundred twenty-three (123) cubic feet of material, approximately 307,500 classified pages, were reviewed at the Washington National Records Center located in Suitland, MD.] Of that volume, less than [one cubic foot of files] was identified....

[written on the side: 123 boxes - rather than 123 cubic feet and 1 box of relevant records rather than one cubic foot of files.]

Descriptive Name: Commander, Office of Naval Intelligence

Descriptive Type: letter via fax and mail

Subject: Establishment of a Separate ONI Compliancae Official

Attachments:

Blind Copy: Gunn, Haron, Herd, Horne, Goslee, Compliance Notebook, Olson

Carbon Copy: LtCOl. M.E.Finnie, USMC (Navy OGC); Stewart F. Aly (DOD Associate Deputy General Counsel)

References: g:\gunn\corresp\onicomp.c.23

Document Number: 4.45.3 (ONI), 9.39

Date Completed: 3/23/98 12:00:00 AM

Address: RADM Lowell E. Jacoby, USN
Commander, Office of Naval Intelligence
4251 Suitland Road, Washington DC 20395-5270

Typest: JOLSON

Author: DHorne/JGunn

Re: Office of Naval Intelligence Compliance with the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act, 44 U.S.C.&2107

Dear Admiral Jacoby,

The JFK Records Collection Act ("JFK Act"), enacted into law on October 26, 1992, provided for the establishment of a Review Board to ensure that both Congress, as well as the Executive Branch agencies of the Federal Government, conducted diligent searches for records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, conducted declassification review standards unique to the JFK Act, and placed those records into the JFK Records Collection in the National Archives....

Lt. Col. Finnie (of Navy OGC), through his diligent efforts, has substantially satisfied most of the Review Board's requests for searches and we have been pleased with his performance. However, in hindsight, it appears it may have been wiser for us to

establish a separate compliance program with ONI, such as we did with the Defense Intelligence Agnecy.....

Accordingly I am writing to request that you formally designate an ONI Agency Compliance Official for JFK Act matters....

Sincerely,

T. Jeremy Gunn
Executive Director

Declassification Review and Processing of ONI Assassination Records

Postponements Under the JFK Act

Whenever an agency wishes, in the terms of the JFK Act, to "postpone" (i.e., redact) information, it must submit those proposed postponements to the Review Board, which then makes a "formal determination" on the release of the information....

- ONI must create a Record Identification Forum (RIF) for each document it reviews, using the DOS software and numbering disks created at NARA and previously provided by the ARRB.

- ONI should forward to the Review Board (with RIFs attached), upon completion of its declassification review,....

Paul H Doolittle, July 4, 1997

...I personally vouch for the completeness and thoroughness of the records review by the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) at the Los Angeles Federal Records Center, Laguna Niguel, California....No related material concerning the assassination was identified during the search. Specifically, no records of the head of ONI for the period 1957-1964,...no Cuban or Fidel Castro intelligence material from 1962-64 that may relate to the assassination or discuss potential Cuban complicity in the assassination was identified. No documents that related to the defections of military personnel to Communist Bloc countries from 1959 through 1962 were identified. No records identifying a debrief of Lee Harvey Oswald's defection were discovered. - PHD sig

Florence T. Pike - August 22, 1997

All of the documents and material responsive to the request for all records pertinent to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy were assembled and submitted either personally or under my general supervision and control....No related material concerning the assassination was identified during the search. Specifically, no records of the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence for the period 1957 - 1964,...No records of Lee Harvey Oswald or of his service at NAS Atsugi was identified. No documents that related to defections of military personnel to Communist Bloc countries from 1959 through 1962 was identified. - FTP sig.

LCDR R.D. BASTIEN May 18, 1998

This is the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) Final Statement of Compliance with respect to the JFK Assassinations Records Collection Act of 1992 (JFK ACT), 44 U.S.C. 2107, as requested in your letter of April 24, 1998.

As the Designated Compliance Offical for ONI, I certify that all ONI Directories were tasked to search for any information or documents relating to the JFK assassination...I have no knowledge of any JFK assassinatio-related records which may have been destroyed by this command.

...this completes our internal search requirements. However, under the Executive Order 12958 declassification mandate, we remain committed to searching the approximately 25,000 archival boxes at the Washington National Records Center and Naval Historical Center which have identified in RG 289 as having possible ONI equities...

AGENCY COMPLIANCE OFFICIAL CERTIFICATION

I certify that all Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) Directories were tasked for search of any information or documents relating to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. On May 3, 1998, Record Identification Forms were created for approximately .8 cubic feet of records on military defectors. These responsive records were obtained from the permanent documents location at the Washington National Records Center and will be submitted to the Assassination Records Review Board (Review Board) on May 21, 1998. This submission completes our internal search requirements. Including the 21, 1998 records, all known responsive items under the control of ONI have been assembled and submitted to the Review Board.

...All persons who searched for and assembled the same were instructed to comply with the verbal and written guidance regarding this effort and have represented that they did so. The search of the Washington National Records Center and Naval Historical Center remain incomplete. However, under the Executive Order 12958 declassification mandate, ONI remains committed to searching approximately 25,000 archival boxes at those centers which have been identified in RG 289 as having possible ONI equities. The archival boxes will be searched for the related subject material using the guidelines of the JFK Act. Based on these assertions, I am informed and believe that the documents and material preceding this certification comprises all of the known responsive documents located at ONI or under our control.

I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief. - R. D. Bastien Sig ONI Compliance Official, May 18, 1998

ONI - ARRB Documents Re: Pike

MEMORANDUM FOR THE J.F.KENNEDY ASSASSINATIONS RECORDS COLLECTION REVIEW BOARD

From: LCDR FLorance T. Pike
Sub: HOTLINE CALL AND IG INVESTIGATION; J.F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATIONS RECORDS COLLECTION REQUIREMENTS

1. Purpose: On Monday, 27 October 1997,...(Command IG) and his assistant....informed me that a hotline call was placed with the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) alleging in part that offical travel I conducted in July and August of this year was fraudulent...

2. Background: I was assigned by the Command (ONI-OCB3) via its Reserve Directorate (ONI-R) as action officer to identify and search all records pertaining to the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act, 44 U.S.G.C. Sec 2107 (reference d). As directed by the General Counsel of the Navy....

[Note: "The purpose of the Hotline Program is to identify and eliminate fraud, waste, and inefficiencies in the operation of the Navy."]

3. On-site visits. After properly submitting travel requests via the chain of command and after their approval, LCDRs Paul H. Doolittle and F. Terri Pike surveyed record centers in the Pacific Southwest (Laguna Niguel), Pacific Northwest (Seatle) and Northeast (Boston) in July and August, to date, no additional records have been located..."

3. As you know, it was my responsibility to identify all records required under 44 U.S.C. 2107. I felt a personal commitment to ensure this effort was conducted "with vigor" and as thoroughly as possible...."

1. Executive Summary. This statement serves three purposes....(1)In response to questions raised by ONI-IG....,(2)It serves as a notice as to the facts and circumstances surrounding the hotline call itself...(3) Finally, it outlines my course of action to date in dealing with the pattern of increasingly adverse actions taken against me since I first reported mismanagement, abuse of authority, and discriminatory practices under the cognizance of the Reserve Directorate at the Command (ONI-R)....

iii. Kennedy Assassination. As part of the reviews of at least three independent commissions, the ONI has been asked to forward documents covering a broad scope of issues related to the death of President John F. Kennedy. To date, under my methodology 19 separate files have been identified. This project is not complete. ONI has not identified where all its records are stored and under what record groups. Nor has ONI explained the destruction of records which should have been maintained during this period.

d. Following his removal, CAPT Pelaez continued to communicate with and attempted to direct the team members assigned to College Park - despite repeated direction from the JAG that he was no longer required. As provided in a written statement to the IG. LCDR Glass reported that CAPT Pelaez threatened to have me explain any travel I have conducted with this project. A hotline call regarding my travel and attendance soon followed.

e. Prior to the hotline call, the analysis I performed and my leadership were regarded as outstanding, providing a level of insight heretofore unseen within the DON...

5. Actions to date.
a. In its questioning to date, the ONI IG has narrowly focused on my travel requirements and has declared that the taskings of the EO and the Kennedy review did not include the requirement for searchers for all records regardless of physical location, just those available locally....

The Railroading of LCDR Terri Pike

The Railroading of LCDR Florence “Terri” Pike USN Over Release of ONI Assassination Records.

The package came in the mail from an anonymous source. It contained copies of official Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) and JFK Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) documents concerning the Review Board’s request for ONI records related to the assassination of President Kennedy that were ordered released by the JFK Act of 1992.

The documents refer to official requests for records made by the ARRB and the response of the ONI, specifically ONI records officer Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) Florence “Terri” Pike, USNR, who was assigned to respond to the ARRB requests for ONI records.

The first dozen or so pages in the packet are a series of documents from the ARRB requesting specific records that have a direct bearing on the assassination of the President,

The list of Certain Archive Records To Be Retrieved By the Navy and Reviewed For Assassination Records included all relevant US Marine Corps and US Navy records, specifically “a) the relevant records of the Commandant of the Marine Corp. for the period 1957 to 1964, including any chronological, subject, work or ‘soft’ files. b.) All communications to and from the Secretary of the Navy, Chief of Naval Operations, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps, on the day and week of the assassination. c) Cuban or Fidel Castro intelligence material from 1962-64 that may relate to the assassination or discuss Cuban complicity in the assassination. d) Documents that relate to any mail cover or mail surveillance program or operations in the 1959-62 time period...e) documents and files that relate to the defections of military personnel to Communist Bloc countries from 1959 through 1962. f) Records of the Secretary of the Navy, Assistant Secretaries of the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations, and the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence for the period 1957 to 1964,...l. Records of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), and any related offices, for the period 1957-64, including records of the Director for the Office of Naval Intelligence (OP-921E), the District Intelligence Office for the Ninth Naval District (Chicago, Illinois), and the District Intelligence Office for the Eighth Naval District (New Orleans, Louisiana) for any communications regarding Oswald’s defection to the Soviet Union. Any records indicating ONI maintained an office in Dallas in 1962-63,…Records of Oswald’s two operational units,...Any records relating to any investigation of Oswald that may have been conducted in Dec. 1963…any audio tapes...the unedited audiotapes (and transcripts, if available) of all radio transmissions to and from Air Force One (26000), the Pacific Cabinet plane (SAM 86972), Andrews AFB, and various State, military and White House officials in Washington that were recorded on November 22, 1963, particularly by uniformed military personnel at Andrews AFB who were working for the White House Communications Agency……records related to helicopters used at Bethesda,...Request DOD records, LHO, USMC, SS & DOD for president’s visits to Florida and Texas, the use of military cover for CIA, the Russian language rosters for Monterey, CA., Defense Language School, the surveillance in Mexico of Cuba, USSR embassies, 61-64, DOD counter-intel-in Mex., Cuba., Cuban émigré groups in USA, surveillance of dissidents in USA, contingency plans Cuba, records of the Day of Assassination: November 22, 1963...”

Well, you get the idea. They were pretty thorough and very specific. While the ARRB was itself not conducting an investigation, they were certainly asking for the assassination related records that a good investigator would have asked for, just to get started.

After these requests were officially made on November 14, 1995, the Director of ONI responded on Nov. 27 by letter stating that “the Office of Naval Intelligence holds no records responsive to the tasking of 14 Nov..,” but that didn’t satisfy the ARRB. Then months went by without a response and eventually some ONI records officers were assigned the task of responding to the ARRB requests, including LCDR Florence “Terri” Pike and LCDR Paul Doolittle.

A March 3, 1997 – A ARRB staff memo notes that “LCDR Pike is our main point of contact in the ONI records review. She works for the Information Management Department,” and a Meeting Report on the Disposition of ONI, NCIS Records, by Christopher Barger/ARRB staff reports that they “met with the ONI team responsible for heading the search for records under the JFK Act. This team is directed by Lieut. Cmdr. Terri Pike; LCDR Doolittle works in the ONI FOIA office; Pike reports to Capt. Peiaec; LCDR Bastien is the JAG.”

“For reason not entirely clear to either the ONI team or ARRB,” Barger notes, “the tasking for this project only trickled down to them on Friday, March 7, 1997. They were a little confused as to why they were only being tasked with this now, but expressed a willingness to do everything they possibly could to achieve the objectives of the Act.” Among other topics discussed, “...(Tim) Wray provided extract from HSCA Staff Report regarding alleged Marine Corps CID post-assassination investigation into activities of Lee Harvey Oswald, and asked for any advice or assistance they might be able to provide regarding where such records might presently be stored, if they exist. Best recommendation: personal papers of the Marine Corps Commandant, Marine Corps CID records. Subject investigation, if authentic, may have been handled outside normal investigative channels.”

“...LCDR Pike identifies ONI action taken and intended searchers. Intended searches would begin at Suitland at the Federal Records Center, but would later include district offices within CONUS."

“Pike then presented us a small written briefing package detailing what they had identified that they are required to do and the process they will use to go about the review. She noted that their first priority was to identify the records collections they need to search, then determining the physical location of the records. Most of these will be at Suitland, she said, but there will be others located in district offices round the country in locations like Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, New Orleans, St. Louis and Boston. They have also identified a need to determine standard subject identification codes which should cause a document to be searched, and she concluded by detailing the records disposition procedures within ONI.”

“Despite the fact that they had only learned of this tasking on Friday, they had located and designated approximately 125 cubic feet of documents that directly relate to subjects we mentioned in our letter to the Navy. These will be reviewed page by page. She anticipated being able to complete the review by the stated deadline set by the Navy and ARRB of April 30, 1997.”

“In addition, she said that ONI had identified about 950 cubic feet, or approximately 2.4 million pages of records which might be related to the topics we were interested in, but that we had not specifically mentioned...LCDR Pike stressed that she, and ONI, understood that all information, even negative result, is important to our process, and that they will be providing reports on everything they search, whether relevant documents are found within or not. Pike provided us with a ‘flow chart’ documenting the normal records disposition process within ONI, explaining what each step of the process is and where documents go during each phase of the process. The final page of her briefing package was a sample of the ‘clue sheets’ being provided to each reviewer for the April 30 documents. Approximately two dozen subject headings are listed along with ‘clues’ or keywords for each subject and a time window for each subject...”

In summary, the ARRB meeting report notes, “In closing, it should be reported that this team and LCDR Pike in particular, are very impressive, they appear very much to have their act together on this project. They provided details and planning we have rarely seen from other agencies, yet they have had this project assigned to them for less than a week. They were extremely helpful, and have taken an aggressive and proactive approach to complying with the JFK Act. We can expect more impressive work from this team.”

Christopher Barger/ARRB reported in a memo that, “I telephoned Terri Pike (and) explained that...we were doing what we could call some “stock taking,” that is, trying to determine what has been done and what is outstanding from each agency that we are working with. In that light, I asked her if she could give me a brief status report on what they have done so far. She said that they have completed their review of about 40 cu. ft. of the 127 cu. ft. ONI has committed to having reviewed for us by the April 30 deadline. She also said that they have found one box based on our SF 135 requests. This box has to do with defections, both Cuban and Soviet; they plan on turning this box over to us ‘in Toto.’ She said that most of the records in that box are CIA originated or have CIA equities, so they will need to be coordinated with CIA. She ended the call by telling me that if we want to come out there at any point and personally review any of their work, we are welcome.”

Then ARRB staffers meet with LCDR Pike and LCDR Doolittle of ONI. LCDR Pike stated that review of the first 123 cubic feet of ONI records had been completed, and that as a result .8 cubic feet of records (18 district files) on defectors had been identified as responsive to the CNO tasking; these records were presented to ARRB staffers at the meeting for cursory review. Completion of declassification review and delivery of the original records to the ARRB was tentatively promised within 2 – 4 weeks. LCDR Pike also mentioned that approx. 950 cubic feet of additional records had been identified which –might- be responsive to the topics the ARRB was interested in, and said that review of this material would take approximately 6 months. (ARRB Meeting Report memorializes the result of this meeting.)

The ARRB meeting report said that, “Pike explained that most of the relevant records they found were discovered ‘by accident;’ that is to say, they were misfiled in boxes outside where they should have been. This is important for two reasons. 1) If they had been filed where they ‘should’ have been, they would have been routinely destroyed by this point, and 2) as they continue their review of the approximately 900 cu feet of records they have self-identified, they expect they might well continue to discover records of interest to us...LCDR Pike further stated that ONI remained responsible for searching an additional 950 cubic feet of records located in Suitland, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco, and stated those searches were scheduled for completion during fiscal year 97..."

LCDR Pike Faxed the ARRB; indicating that she had finished a declassification review of the.8 cubic feet of defector records, and had prepared a page-by-page index of same. She indicated that transmittal of these documents would occur in the near future.

That appears to be the beginning of the end of such cooperation and the end of LCDR Terri Pike, as there are two different copies of this meeting report in two different typefaces, one with the first sentence of the fourth paragraph highlighted by two circles on one and completely redacted in the other. The line redacted reads: “There are a total of 18 folders of material which ONI has determined should go into the JFK collection and have earmarked for delivery to us...” Another redacted paragraph follows: “Pike said that ONI is going through review of all records covered by the EO; in most cases, they have been willing to release in full about 96% of the documents. She said that for the other 4% they expected that the Board has the power to overrule them anyway, but they had to at least make the request. [Ed. Note: this implies that they might perhaps be resigned to ‘losing’ some of the information they want to protect and would not appeal a Board decision to release some of this information.].”

The redacted paragraph reads: “Pike concluded her report by suggesting that we might find more of the records we suggested we wanted in BG38 the records of the CNO. She said that currently ONI is currently organizing a review team...to look through this group...however, ARRB staff may also wish to personally review these records for relevant material. She suggested that changes in alert status, etc. might also be found in CNO records...”

It appears that the main point of contention between Lt. Commander Pike and the rest of the brass at ONI is the disposition of ONI records outside of the main records storage center at Suitland.

Then the Review Board came up with some additional leads from former servicemen who had handled assassination records and they requested them. ARRB staffer Doug Horne noted in a memo that, “Terri Pike called to say she had received my voice mail inquiring about an NIS-ONI post-defection investigation of Oswald at El Toro in 1959 or 1960, would do immediate checking, and would try to fax us results of her search sometime on Thursday of this week.”

A Chronology of Key Events in ARRB-ONI Interface notes that on “...ARRB staffer Doug Horne called Terri Pike and requested that ONI look for ‘119 Reports’ covering an alleged ONI investigation of Lee Harvey Oswald’s October, 1959 defection to the Soviet Union. LCDR Pike accepted the tasking, but ARRB never received any feedback on its results.”

One of the key liaisons between the ARRB and ONI, at least in the eyes of the Review Board staff, had simply disappeared.

A Memo Terri Pike sent to ARRB Military unit member Doug Horne amplified the situation when she wrote to them that, “...I was relieved from the leadership position on this project in late August (1997) by the ONI Reserve Directorate Head....As you know, it was my responsibility to identify all records required under 44 U.S.C. 2107. I felt a personal commitment to ensure this effort was conducted ‘with vigor’ and as thoroughly as possible...”

Another memo from Pike dated 10 Nov. 97 notes that, “In its questioning to date, the ONI IG has narrowly focused on my travel requirements and has declared that the taskings of...The Kennedy review did not include the requirement for searches for all records regardless of physical location, just those available locally.”

She was charged with “fraudulent” official travel because her “tasking did not say to search regional record centers.” She was accused of work and travel “fraud” in regards to the travel from DC to the remote ONI records storage centers, obviously a trumped up charge, and one designed to make sure that everyone else in a similar position didn’t take the same initiatives she did. In a memo Pike wrote that, “We fundamentally disagree on the project requirements. I maintain that under all taskings, the ONI is required to identify and dispose...ALL of its records, not just those of the former Naval Intelligence Command stored in Suitland.”

One hand written ARRB note, probably written by Ex. Dir. T. J. Gunn reads: “Terry Pike – She had been accused of travel work fraud, she suggested that she had found some things – Navy records...she retained a lawyer.” The documents note that the lawyer’s name is David Sheldon, who is with the firm of Feldman, Tucker, Leifer, Fidell & Bank, Military Practice Group.

Then Terri Pike reached out to Doug Horne asking him to, “Please contact me as soon as possible so that I may informally speak to you about the attached memo. Am I correct that the requirement is to search all sites for responsive records? I am losing a lot of sleep defending the position that we are supposed to ‘do the right thing,’ not necessarily the easiest. Thanks, Terri Pike.”

At that point Pike notes that after she was relieved from leadership position on this project by the ONI Reserve Directorate Head, the project was moved by the Chief of Staff (Capt. Joan Darah) from the Reserve Directorate to the Staff Judge Advocate, and her associate, LCDR Doolittle, was recalled to active duty and transferred to San Diego. The new point of contact was the FOIA office Staff Judge Advocate (ONI-OCB) LCDR. R. Bastien.

An ARRB staffer who dealt with Bastien said he, “...was a real bastard, the nastiest individual I encountered within the military structure. He seemed actively opposed to what we were doing at the ARRB...He was a Navy legal officer, a military attorney, acting as the pit bull guard dog protecting the ONI family jewels.”

T. Jeremy Gunn, the senior counsel for the ARRB who became Executive Director, took a personal interest in the Pike case, and his notes indicates that he wanted to know, “When was she transferred? Who were her superiors? How long after she discovered this info was (she) terminated? What were the reasons given for her termination?” On Dec. 3, 1997, Gunn sent a fax to Pike’s attorney David Sheldon, asking to speak to Pike to learn of, “any discussions she had with ONI officials regarding the content and disposition of records for which she was searching and…any information she might have regarding the location of ONI records and of ONI record-keeping policies.”

In a letter to Pike’s attorney, David P. Sheldon, Esq. Feldesman, Tucker, Leiffer, Fidell & Bank, 2001 I Street, N.W. Suite 330, Washington D.C., T. Jeremy Gunn Ex. Dir. ARRB wrote:

Dear Mr. Sheldon, I would like to thank you for returning my call and for your willingness to consider our request. As I mentioned, we would like to speak, on an informal basis, with your client, LCDR Terri Pike. We anticipate that the discussion would likely take no more than one to one and one half hours. There are two principle issues that we would like to discuss: first, any records she located or pursued that were relevant to the assassination or to requests made by the ARRB,; second, any discussions she had with ONI officials regarding the content and disposition of the records for which she was searching; and third, any information she might have regarding the location of ONI records and of ONI record-keeping policies. We do not anticipate any need to discuss issues other than these with LCDR Pike, although you or she may know of other issues that might be of interest to us. The two people from our office who would meet with her are Doug Horne, Chief Analyst for Military Records (who Ms. Pike knows) and Kim Heard, a Senior Attorney...”

An ONI document says directly that the department “...strongly objects to Pike’s cooperation in investigation being conducted by Mr. Jeremy Gunn of ARRB. ONI is unaware of any unauthorized investigation regarding this issue. If Mr. Gunn wishes to conduct an investigation or inquiry, such an effort should be coordinated through the Office of Naval Intelligence. Your objections are noted.”

There is no indication that Gunn got any of his questions answered, but there was a hearing and LCDR Kenneth B. Brown, JSGC, requested Doug Horne testify as a defense witness, but he was unable to attend on that date. Horne doesn't recall whether he had a real conflict of interest that day or if he was ordered not to get involved.

There is also mention of some issues being, “sufficiently addressed by Psychiatric Dept. of Walter Reed,” though no mention of what was addressed. We can easily imagine however, that Pike’s sanity was questioned and tested.

An Article 32 hearing was held in the courtroom located at Building 200, Washington Navy Yard, 2nd floor on Monday, 16, March, 1998. LCDR. Stephen Jamrozy, JAGC, USN was the Investigating Officer.

[Article 32 a) No charge or specification may be referred to a general court-martial for trial until a through and impartial investigation of all the matters set forth therein has been made. This investigation shall include inquiry as to the truth of the matter set forth in the charges, consideration of the form of charges, and recommendation as to the disposition which should be made of the case in the interest of justice and discipline. (b) The accused shall be advised of the charges against him and of his right to be represented at that investigation as provided in section 838 of this title (article 38) and in regulations prescribed under that section...] [http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/ucmj/blart-32.htm]

One member of the ARRB staff met with Pike and her counsel, and part of the meeting was with the attorney alone, at his request, when he said that she had received psychiatric testing and, "Her attorney was somewhat disloyal, speaking of her diagnosis as 'bipolar' as if she were somewhat unstable or unreliable, (though) she seemed completely lucid and under control when I spoke with her at this meeting.”

[Note: “bipolar” simply means that you experience greater mood swings than other people. (This can sometimes lead to impulsive behavior. Different types of people exhibit different impulsive behavior. It varies with the individual. Manic behavior---working extremely hard for long periods of time, at a high level of energy, without rest---can also typify bipolar behavior, in between periods of lethargy and depression.) Many talented artists---writers and actors---and politicians are bipolar. Some examples are Joshua Logan, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Theodore Roosevelt. So the stigma is generally unwarranted.]

The assistant legal counsel to the ARRB, Kim Herd, who was brought in at the end to help wrap up loose ends before the Review Board's deadline terminated, called LCDR K.B. Brown of Dept. of Navy Trial Service Officer regarding Terri Pike’s Article 32 hearing. “According to Brown, David Sheldon (Pike’s attorney) wants to get the Government privilege lifted in order to discuss SCI and Top Secret Materials. Sheldon told Brown that he had just met with the Review Board. Brown was under the impression that the Review Board staff had told Mr. Sheldon something that now was causing him to make this stink about the classified documents. According to Brown, Sheldon stated that the prosecutors needed to make this stuff go away because he was planning on dragging it all out and it would hit the newspapers, etc. Sheldon stated that there was some feeling that ONI was trying to shuffle some of the JFK stuff to the side.”

“Brown wanted to know what we told Terri Pike. I stated that we had been interested in learning what she had done with regard to the JFK project. I stated that Pike was the one who had done most of the talking. Brown then said that he wanted to know what we had learned from Pike. I told Brown that I would get back to him.” Kim Herd then reported that, “I called LCDR Brown back after having spoken with Jeremy Gunn. Brown wanted to know about our conversation with Terri Pike. I told him that we had spoken with her about her search efforts pursuant to the JFK Act. I suggested that he review that material. I also talked with Brown about the discovery requirements in an Article 32 hearing, and he stated that the defense would have to provide information about any witness they were calling – ie. What they would testify about, etc.”

Although Doug Horne, author of Inside the ARRB, mentions his dealings with Terri Pike in some of his ARRB meeting memos and was requested to attend a hearing as a defense witness on her behalf, he does not mention LCDR Terri Pike or the conflicts over the ONI records in his book(s). Nor does he recall the circumstances of the dispute or why he could not attend and testify at the Pike hearing.

Horne’s boss Jeremy Gunn on the other hand, launched an investigation into the Pike Affair, and should remember what happened, what became of her and why the record abruptly stops without a determination as to what became of her and the ONI records the ARRB originally requested.

After leaving the ARRB under a cloud two months before it was finished with its work, Gunn began working for the ACLU.

From the perspective of a JFK Assassination researcher, I don’t know Terri Pike, but just from reading these records she’s a hero of mine. And I want to know more, especially what became of her after she was railroaded by the military brass for doing her job. She should get a medal for what she did.

From a review of the documents, it is clear that Pike was removed from her job, reprimanded, demoted, and wrongly disciplined under trumped up charges. Her career was effectively ended because she took the initiative to retrieve and catalogue ONI records pursuant to the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Act.

Another researcher who read the documents independently concluded, “She was disciplined and (probably) kicked out of the Navy solely because she traveled to ONI document storage holding locations and retrieved records, rather than just rely on records at her location in DC. She seems to be a genuine American hero, trying to do the right thing and getting guillotined for it. This is a shocking case that exhibits the level of abuse that can occur in ONI when that office wants to stonewall and hide records. It is also instructive to see the massive quantities of records that were destroyed prematurely and improperly, according to the records.”

Final Report of the ARRB:

Chapter 8 Compliance with the JFK Act by Government Offices

14. Department of the Navy

1. The Review Board considered records of the Department of the Navy essential in view of Lee Harvey Oswald's tenure with the Marines, which is administratively a part of Navy. Under the JFK Act, the Navy identified and placed into the JFK Collection at NARA certain core files relating to Lee Harvey Oswald(1) the personnel and medical Marine Corps files for Oswald and (2) Office of Naval Intelligence records on Oswald.
2. After passage of the JFK Act, the Navy's Criminal Investigative Service transferred, in 1994, the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) records that had been maintained on Lee Harvey Oswald.6 In 1995, the General Counsel of the Navy directed that a further review of the Navy's files be undertaken pursuant to the JFK Act. This directive went to the Chief of Naval Operations, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and the Naval Historical Center. The Navy identified no additional assassination records.
3. In early 1997, after the Navy consulted with Review Board staff regarding categories of potentially relevant records, the General Counsel's office issued another search directive to the Chief of Naval Operations, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, the Judge Advocate General of the Navy, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Secretary of the Navy's Administrative Division, and other components within the Navy. The Review Board asked the Navy to search for files of high-level officials of the Marine Corps, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and the Navy during the years 1959 through 1964.
4. The Navy conducted an extensive review of files, including a review of files from the Secretary of the Navy's Administrative Office, the Chief of Naval Operations, and the Marine Corps. The Navy located miscellaneous documents relating to the Warren Commission and HSCA from files of the Administrative Office for the Secretary of the Navy as a result of this search. Among the records found was an unsigned copy of an affidavit by the Director of ONI, prepared at the time of the Warren Commission, stating that Lee Harvey Oswald was not used as an agent or informant by ONI. The Navy confirmed that it had not, however, located the 1959-1964 files for the Director of ONI.
5. The Department of the Navy submitted its Final Declaration of Compliance dated December 3, 1997.

a. Office of Naval Intelligence.

6. The Review Board pursued the matter of ONI records separately. Accordingly, the Board requested that ONI submit its own certification of its compliance with the JFK Act. In its Final Declaration of Compliance, ONI stated that it conducted an extensive review of ONI records held at Federal Records Centers throughout the country. ONI did not identify any additional assassination records. ONI was unable to find any relevant files for the Director of ONI from 1959 to 1964. ONI also acknowledged that there were additional ONI records that were not reviewed for assassination records, but that these records would be reviewed under Executive Order 12958 requiring declassification of government records.

7. The Office of Naval Intelligence submitted its Final Declaration of Compliance dated May 18, 1998.

8. 5. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI)

9. The Review Board requested that the Navy and ONI search for the records of Director of Naval Intelligence Rear Admiral Rufus Taylor. The Review Board acquired a copy of an unsigned September 21, 1964, affidavit regarding Oswald that Taylor appears to have executed and forwarded to Secretary of Defense McNamara. The affidavit states that that ONI never utilized Lee Harvey Oswald as an agent or an informant. ONI did not locate any files belonging to (Rufus) Taylor (Director of Naval Intelligence at the time of the assassination).

BK Note: For some reason it is hard to believe that the ONI could not locate any of the records, files or documents of its former director, other than an unsigned statement saying that the accused assassin of the President was never utilized as an agent or an informant.