Intelligence Star

The Intelligence Star is an award given by the Central Intelligence Agency for a "voluntary act or acts of courage performed under hazardous conditions or for outstanding achievements or services rendered with distinction under conditions of grave risk."  The award citation is from the Director of Central Intelligence and specifically cites actions of "extraordinary heroism". This is the second highest award for valor in the Central Intelligence Agency. It is analogous to the Silver Star, the U.S. military award for extraordinary heroism.

Recipients of the Intelligence Star
Only a few hundred persons have received this award during the entire history of the CIA. Many of them have been issued posthumously to the family. A majority of the officers that have received this rare award are from the CIA's famed Special Activities Division, which draws from the U.S. military's most elite units. These units include the United States Navy's SEALs, the United States Army's Delta Force, Special Forces (United States Army), Rangers, and the United States Marine Corps' Force Reconnaissance and United States Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command.

Douglas Seymour MacKiernan
In 1949, Douglas Seymour MacKiernan was a CIA officer in China before the take over of the Communist forces of Mao Zedong. MacKiernan volunteered to stay behind, as every other U.S. official fled the country, in order to provide the only intelligence available to the President of the United States on the communist takeover. He was eventually forced to flee on horse back over the Himalayas to India. He was armed with machine guns and had the support of a few local men employed by the CIA. The group survived off the land for several months while waiting for the opportunity to make the trek over the mountains to Tibet. Mackiernan was killed in a fire fight very close to the Tibetan town of Lhasa. However, his men made it with his reports and information. The North Koreans crossed the 38th parallel thirteen days later and the Korean War began. The intelligence that MacKiernan passed while he remained in China was paramount to the leaders of the United States in preparing for military action and understanding the Chinese involvement in the Korean War. MacKiernan was awarded the Intelligence Star for his heroic actions.

Black Shield Pilots/A-12 Spy Aircraft
On 26 June 1968, Vice Admiral Rufus L. Taylor, the Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, presented the Intelligence Star for valor to pilots Kenneth S. Collins, Ronald L. Layton, Francis J. Murray, Dennis B. Sullivan, and Mele Vojvodich for participation in Operation BLACK SHIELD. The posthumous award to pilot Jack W. Weeks was accepted by his widow. These individuals were part of the top secret joint US Air Force/CIA program to replace the U2 Spy plane. The A-12 flew three times higher and four times faster than the previous CIA U2 program. The project was called OXCART and is considered one of the greatest technical achievements in aviation history. These pilots undertook extraordinarily dangerous missions, both to test this aircraft and to conduct surveillance flights over the former Soviet Union.

Anthony Alexander Poshepny
Anthony Alexander Poshepny (September 18, 1924-July 27 2003), known as Tony Poe, was a legendary CIA Paramilitary Operations Officer in what is now called Special Activities Division. He trained the United States Secret Army in Laos during the Vietnam War. The Agency was impressed with Poshepny's ability to train paramilitary forces all over the world and awarded him the Intelligence Star in 1959 for his heroic and legenday actions leading these forces in combat. He was assigned with J. Vinton Lawrence to train Hmong hill tribes in Laos to fight North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces. In Laos, Poshepny gained the respect of the Hmong forces with his actions in combat and his victories on the field of battlefield. He and his Hmong fighters collected the ears of dead enemy soldiers, and, on at least one occasion, he mailed a bag of ears to the US embassy in Vientiane to prove his body counts. He also dropped severed heads onto enemy locations twice in a grisly form of PSYOPS. Poe trained, equiped and led his forces into battle and is considered one of the most effective guerilla commanders in history. He was wounded several times by shrapnel, but refused to leave his troops to be evacuated. Over several years, Poshepny grew disillusioned with the US government's management of the war. The CIA extracted him from Laos in 1970 and reassigned him to Thailand until his retirement in 1974. He received another Intelligence Star in 1975 for an undisclosed operation. Several press stories have suggested that Poshepny was the model for Colonel Walter Kurtz in the film Apocalypse Now. Poe became a leading advocate to bring the Hmong soldiers that fought for the CIA to the United States and is still revered among the tribes in Laos.

Felix Ismael Rodriguez
Felix Rodriguez was a Paramilitary Operations Officer from Special Activities Division. He was born in Cuba in 1941. Rodriguez was infiltrated into Cuba before the invasion at the Bay of Pigs, he led a CIA/SAD team into Bolivia that captured Che Guevara, he served in Vietnam and received the Intelligence Star and the Silver Star for his actions in combat as part of a joint CIA/US Military unit called MAC-V SOG and the Phoenix Program. He was also a recipient of nine Crosses for Gallantry from the South Vietnamese government. In addition, Rodriguez was involved in the SAD paramilitary program in Nicaragua which was considered tactically very successful, but politically very controversial. This program eventually became part of the Iran Contra Affair. Rodriguez testified in this matter as a witness only.

Grayston L. Lynch
Grayston Lynch (14 June, 1923-10 August, 2008) was one of the CIA Paramilitary Operations Officers who commanded the Cuban rebel army during the Bay of Pigs Invasion.. He was the first to land on the beach and fired the initial shots of the battle. He is revered among Cuban Americans for his heroics during the failed invasion, which included several voluntary rescue missions to save stranded members of Brigade 2506. The other CIA Paramilitary Officer was William "Rip" Robertson. Lynch had an extraordinary history of valor in service to his country. He was wounded at Normandy, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and Heartbreak Ridge in Korea; served with the Special Forces in Laos; and received three Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars and one Bronze Star with a "V" for valor. He was selected from the elite to become a Paramilitary Operations Officer in the CIA's famed Special Activities Division in 1960. For his extraordinary heroism at the Bay of Pigs, Lynch was awarded the Intelligence Star, the "CIA's most coveted award". In the six years after the Bay of Pigs, he ran commando raids into Cuba. Lynch retired from the CIA in 1971. He wrote a book, "Decision for Disaster: Betrayal at the Bay of Pigs", based on his experience leading the Brigade 2506.

Howard Hart
Howard Hart had a Ph.D. in Asian politics and spoke both the Hindi and Urdu languages. He was recruited and joined the CIA in 1965. He spent two years at Camp Peary in Virginia, attending "the standard two-year course for...aspiring case officers" and then reported to the Directorate of Operations (now called the National Clandestine Service). In 1978, Hunt began working the streets of Tehran. His reports that, contrary to over 15 years of CIA estimates, the Shah's rule was far from stable or secure was suppressed by more senior personnel within the CIA. He was captured a few days after the Shah's fall by an armed group of supporters of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and escaped summary execution by appealing to speak to a mullah, who agreed that the Koran did not sanction such punishment. Tim Weiner, 2007. Legacy of ashes pp368-369.

Hunt worked as the CIA Chief of Station in Islamabad, Pakistan from May 1981 until 1984. He jump-started the CIA efforts to equip the Afghan resistance with weapons and supplies to allow them to mount an effective campaign during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Hart said, "I was the first chief of station ever sent abroad with this wonderful order: 'Go kill Soviet soldiers’. Imagine! I loved it.” Hart's background as a Paramilitary Operations Officer made him a perfect candidate to be the field general for the covert war in Afghanistan.  He was known to lead these efforts from the front lines of Afghanistan. For his heroic actions in leading the resistance to the Soviet occupation, he received the CIA's rare and coveted Intelligence Star.

William Francis Buckley
William Francis Buckley (May 30 1928 - June 3 1985) was an United States Army Special Forces officer and a Paramilitary Operations Officer in the Special Activities Division of the CIA. He died on or about June 3, 1985 after being held captive by members of Hezbollah. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and is commemorated with a star on the Wall of Honor at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. On October 4, 1985, Islamic Jihad Organization announced that it had executed William Buckley. . However, Buckley's remains were not recovered until 1991, when his remains were found in a plastic sack on the side of the road on route to the Beirut airport. He had been severely tortured. His body was returned to the United States on December 28, 1991.

A public memorial service was held with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on May 13, 1988, just short of three years after his presumed death date. At the service, attended by more than 100 colleagues and friends, CIA Director William H. Webster eulogized Buckley, saying, "Bill's success in collecting information in situations of incredible danger was exceptional, even remarkable." He is buried in Section 59, Lot 346 of Arlington National Cemetery. Among Colonel Buckley's Army awards are the Silver Star, Soldier's Medal, Bronze Star Medal with a Valor device, two Purple Hearts, Meritorious Service Medal (United States), Combat Infantryman Badge, and the Parachutist Badge (United States). He also received the Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Vietnam Gallantry Cross from the Army of the Republic. Among his CIA awards are the Intelligence Star, the Exceptional Service Medallion and the Distinguished Intelligence Cross.

Antonio J. Mendez
On 12 March 1980, President Jimmy Carter and the Director of Central Intelligence Admiral Stansfield Turner presented Antonio J. Mendez (also known as Tony Mendez) with the CIA's Intelligence Star for his heroic actions in the "Canadian caper," a covert operation in Iran. Mendez was a technical operations officer in the CIA. This position is similar to the job of the fictional character called "Q" in the James Bond series of books and movies. Mendez's primarily skill was creating disguises and exfiltrating assets out of hostile areas. It was because of this skill that his nation called upon him to carry out a mission of highest national priority in 1979. It was at this time that Iranian student militants took 52 Americans hostage in the US Embassy in Tehran. Six U.S. embassy employees managed to escape and hide out at the homes of Canadian diplomats living in the city.

Using a Canadian alias and passport, Mendez created a fake movie production company called Studio Six. He made up a movie poster for a fictitious film, and even took out ads in Hollywood trade papers, announcing the production. Then he flew to Iran with six fake Canadian passports and a risky plan. Keeping in mind the the potential worst case scenario -- should everybody be caught, ''"obviously it would go badly for us". '' Mendez disguised the American diplomats as Canadian filmmakers looking to make a movie in Iran. He then exfiled all the Americans, as Canadians, safely back to the United States. Mendez has since retired and now is a very successful artist.

Thomas Willard Ray
In the late 1990s, Captain Thomas Willard Ray and his co-pilot, Leo Baker, were posthumously awarded the Intelligence Star for their actions in the Bay of Pigs Invasion leading to their capture and execution. The US trained Cuban Brigade 2506 invaded Cuba on April 17, 1961. Captain Willard Ray, an Air Force pilot detailed to the CIA, and his co-pilot Leo Baker were at the air base of the Brigade in Nicaragua. The pilots returning from Cuba brought news that the soldiers of the Brigade were running out of ammunition. Each minute that went by, they were losing positions they had gained the first day when they had supplies. The air battle was not much different. The Air Force pilots of the Brigade with their slow B-26 were not a match for the T-33 Jets of the Communist government.

Captain Thomas Ray had been designated by the CIA to train and supervise the Air Force of the Brigade in Central America, they did not have to participate in combat operations. At first the Cuban exile pilots did the flying. The pilots returning from operations kept saying that without air support from jet fighters the Brigade would be destroyed. The B-26-s, the only airplanes of the Brigade, had been modified to be able to fly the long run from Nicaragua to Cuba. The tail machine guns had been removed to accommodate more fuel tanks. The Cuban pilots immediately noticed this and attacked the airplanes from behind. There had been an air raid on April 15 before the invasion to destroy the Communist Air Force. The White House canceled a second air raid against Cuba’s airfields on April 16. Captain Ray and Baker were aware of his responsibility with his mission and the Brigade. Disregarding the warnings of the Cuban exile pilots of the danger, he took a B-26 and flew to Bay of Pigs, Cuba. The Communists shot down the B-26 that Ray and Baker on April 19, 1961 north of Larga beach an area they controlled.

The daughter of Captain Ray was a minor in 1961. After 18 years she found out that the Cuban's had frozen and preserved her father's body. With the help of a few Congress persons, she was able to bring her father’s body back to the United States so he could rest in peace. The other American born pilots that were shot down while fighting over Bay of Pigs were Wade Carrol Gray and Riley W Shamberger.

Larry Freedman
On 23 December 1992, CIA Paramilitary Officer Larry Freedman was the first casualty of the conflict in Somalia. Freedman was a former Army Delta Force operator and Special Forces soldier. Freedman served in Vietnam for two years and earned two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart and then served in every conflict that America was involved in both officially and unofficially. Freedman was born into a devoutly Jewish home and nicknamed himself "SuperJew," a nickname also used by his colleagues in Delta Force. His sister even made him a Superman-like cape with the Hebrew letter for "S" that he wore at parties. He was deliberately over-the-top. A notorious flirt that tested all who came in contact with him, taking their measure and weeding out the squeamish.

He was only 5-foot-9, but armored with muscle from years of pumping iron, running five miles a day and keeping his survival skills sharp. When he wasn't on a mission he was often cruising down the highway on his Harley Davidson FXRT, 1340 cc, the fringe of his black leather jacket and chaps flying. To the outside world he might well have been mistaken for an aging truant, but many who got close enough to know him saw him as a man consumed by the military's ideals of duty and honor.

Freedman was killed while conducting special reconnaissance in advance of the entry of U.S. military forces into Somalia. His mission was completely voluntary, as it required entry into a very hostile area without any support. His actions provided US forces with crucial intelligence in order to plan their eventual amphibious landing. Freedman was awarded the Intelligence Star on 5 January 1993 for is heroic actions. Brigadier General Richard Potter gave the eulogy at Fort Bragg's John F. Kennedy Chapel and cited a passage from Isaiah:

I heard the Lord say "Who shall I send and who will go for us? I answered, "Here I am, send me."

Greg V.
On October 9, of 2001 Hamid Karzai entered Afghanistan and linked up with his supporters to seize the town of Tarin Kowt. Taliban forces launched a counterattack against Karzai's lightly armed forces and he were forced to withdrawal. On November 3, Karzai contacted a member of the CIA's paramilitary unit identified only as "Greg V." who immediately acted by linking up he and Karzai with his joint CIA/US Army Special Forces/JSOC team. From there, they made a nighttime insertion back into Tarin Kowt. Karzai then went from village to village seeking support to fight against the Taliban. On November 17, a large battle ensued. Several of Karzai's new recruits fled, but Greg V. took command and ran between defensive positions shouting, ''"If necessary, die like men!".  The line held and as the Directer of the CIA George Tenet said in his book Center of the Storm, "It was a seminal moment. Had Karzai position been overrun, as appeared likely for much of Novermber 17, the entire future of the Pashtun rebellion in the south could have ended."''  At the Center of the Storm: My Life at the CIA, George Tenet, Harper Collins, 2007, page 219-225

Later on December 5, Karzai was leading his resistance force against the Taliban at Khandahar, their capitol and one of their last remaining strongholds. Greg V. was the lead paramilitary advisor to Karzai in this battle when, as a result of a mistake in calculating an air strike, a bomb was dropped on their position. Greg V. threw his body on Karzai and saved his life. The same day Khandahar fell and Karzai was named the interim Prime Minister.

Mr. Tenet wrote, "The routing of the Taliban and al-Qa'ida from Afghanistan in a matter of weeks was accomplished by 110 CIA officers, 316 Special Forces soldiers and score of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) raiders creating havoc behind enemy lines-a band of brothers with the support of U.S. airpower, following a CIA plan, that has to rank as one of the great successes in Agency history."    Several Intelligence Stars were awarded for these activities, presumably "Greg V." was one of those.

Mike Spann
On 31 May 2002, the Intelligence Star was awarded to Johnny Micheal "Mike" Spann after he was killed in combat in November 2001 in Afghanistan. Spann, a Paramilitary Operations Officer in the CIA's Special Activities Division, was the first American killed during combat in the Global War on Terror. Spann was also awarded the Exceptional Service Medallion. Spann was killed during a riot at the Qala-i-Jangi compound in Mazari Sharif in northern Afghanistan. In the same day, he and another CIA officer were at a military garrison named Qali Jangi near Mazari Sharif and questioned John Walker Lindh. As shown on British Television (Channel 4 news), Spann asked "are you a member of the IRA?" (This question was asked because Lindh was told to claim he was Irish to "avoid problems.") At his memorial at the Arlington National Cemetery they stated that he "fought with his AK-47]] until it ran out of ammunition, then drew his pistol and emptied it, before turning to hand to hand combat which saw him shot".  According to members of a German television crew who were later trapped in the fort with the other CIA officer named "Dave", Spann asked the prisoners who they were and why they joined the Taliban. They massed around him. "Why are you here?" Spann asked one. "To kill you," came the reply as the man lunged at Spann's neck. Mike Spann’s family visited the fortress after his murder. Afghan doctors on site at the time of the riot gave the Spann family the following account. They said they "thought Mike might run and retreat, but he held his position and fought using his AK rifle until out of ammo, and then drew and began firing his pistol,” Spann’s father said. While watching Mike fight they were able to jump up and run to safety. They said the only reason that they and several others were able to live was because Mike stood his position and fought off the prisoners while enabling them the time to run to safety. The doctors stated that as they fled toward a safe haven, they saw Mike run out of ammo and then witnessed him fighting hand to hand until he was overcome by the numerous al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners.

Although Spann had served in the United States Marine Corps for ten years, he was no longer in the military at the time of his death. However, because the Intelligence Star is considered the equivalent of the US Military's Silver Star and recognized as equivalent by President George W. Bush, Spann was approved for burial in Arlington National Cemetery.

Operation Hotel California
Special Activities Division (SAD) Paramilitary teams were the first U.S. forces to enter Iraq in 2002 prior to the US Invasion. Once on the ground, they prepared the battle space for the subsequent arrival of U.S. Military forces. SAD teams then combined with US Army Special Forces to organize the Kurdish Peshmerga for the subsequent US led invasion. This joint team (called the Northern Iraq Liaison Element (NILE)) combined to defeat Ansar al-Islam, an ally of Al Qaeda, in a battle in the North East corner of Iraq. This battle was for control of an entire territory that was occupied by Ansar al-Islam and was executed prior to the invasion in March of 2003. It was carried out by Paramilitary Operations Officers from SAD and the Army's 10th Special Forces Group. This battle has not been fully covered by the international media, but was a significant defeat of a key terrorist organization. It resulted in the deaths of a substantial number of terrorists and the uncovering of a Chemical weapons facility at Sargat. These terrorists would have been in the subsequent insurgency had they not been eliminated during this battle. Sargat was the only facility of its type discovered in the Iraq war.

SAD teams also conducted high risk special reconnaissance missions behind enemy lines to identify senior leadership targets. These missions led to the initial strikes against Saddam Hussein and his key Generals. Although the initial strike against Saddam was unsuccessful in killing the dictator, it was successful in effectively ending his ability to command and control his forces. Other strikes against key Generals were successful and significantly degraded the command's ability to react to, and manuever against the US led invasion force. SAD operations officers were also successful in convincing key Iraqi Army officers into surrendering their units once the fighting started.

NATO member Turkey refused to allow the US Army's 4th Infantry Division entry into Northern Iraq. As a result, these SAD and Army Special forces joint teams and the Kurdish Pershmerga were the entire Northern invasion force against Saddam. Their efforts kept the 5th Corps of Saddam's Army in place rather than moving to contest the US led coalition force coming from the south. The efforts of the SAD Paramilitary Officers and 10th Special Forces Group with the Kurds likely saved the lives of many US and coalition forces during and after the invasion. As described by Mike Tucker and Charles Faddis in their book entitled, "Operation Hotel California: The Clandestine War Inside Iraq", four of these CIA officers were awarded the Intelligence Star for their heroic actions.

CIA Memorial Wall
The CIA Memorial Wall is located at the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia. It honors CIA employees who died in the line of duty. As of June 2 2008, there were 89 stars carved into the marble wall, each one representing an officer that gave his or her life for their country. Many officers memorialized on this wall also received the Intelligence Star for their valor in a dangerous situation. A black book, called the "Book of Honor," lays beneath the stars and is encased in a inch-thick plate of glass." Inside this book are stars, arranged by year of death, and lists the names of 56 employees who died in CIA service alongside them. The other 33 names remain secret, even in death. In 1997, there were 70 stars, 29 of which had names. There was 83 stars in 2004.

An example of the individuals remembered on this Memorial Wall includes Christopher Mueller and William "Chief" Carlson, both Former Paramilitary Operations Officers. On 21 May 2004, these Officer's Star were dedicated at a memorial ceremony. "The bravery of these two men cannot be overstated," Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet told a gathering of several hundred Agency employees and family members of those killed in the line of duty. "Chris and Chief put the lives of others ahead of their own. That is heroism defined." Mueller, a former US Navy SEAL and Carlson, a former Army Special Forces soldier, Delta Force operator, and member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, died while tracking high level terrorists near Shkin, Afghanistan, on October 25, 2003. Both officers saved the lives of others, including Afghan soldiers, during the ambush.