Singlaub still kicking, still sharp
Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, (U.S. Army, retired), has quite the resume. Born in 1921, he graduated from UCLA in the ROTC program during WWII and chose infantry as a young 2nd LT, but soon found himself as part of a 3-man Jedburgh Team of the OSS, dropping behind Nazi lines in occupied France where he worked with local Resistance groups and waited for the Allies to land. From there he found himself in Manchuria, Korea, Vietnam, and so forth. In 1977, while Chief of Staff of the U.S. forces in the ROK, he was relieved by Jimmy Carter after he publicly criticized the Commander-in-Chief.
In the 1980s, retired from the Army and not-officially a member of the Intelligence Community anymore, he was the fixer and organizer that helped funnel training, money and equipment to the Contras in Nicaragua (this included recruiting non-agency assets like Robert K Brown and his Soldier of Fortune magazine crew as trainers, as detailed in Brown’s excellent memoir).
Well, at 93-years young, the General is still making public appearances to veterans groups and others and he is still pretty sharp
“You can’t fly a satellite or a drone over the enemy position and find out what’s in their minds, what they are planning,” Singlaub said. “It’s just impossible. You have to have human intelligence, and the way you have human intelligence is to seduce some of the enemy to give their secrets to us. We need to have a clandestine service.”