JOHN PETERSON

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06903494
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: July 11, 2023
• Document Release Date: February 15, 2022
• Case Number: F-2015-02404

Approved for Release: 2022/01/13 C06903494
SW6T
John Peterson
(3 July 1945� 19 October 1972)
(Insert photo: John Peterson)
Directorate of Plans (now the Directorate of Operations)
Operations Officer
GS-09
41erJohn Peterson was killed in Laos on 19 October 1972 when the helicopter in which he was a passenger
was shot down. It crashed and burned after being hit by North Vietnamese Army (NVA) ground fire.
pfJohn Peterson was born in 1945 in Germany after his family fled Latvia, just as that small Baltic country
was being overrun by Soviet forces. In 1950, under the US displaced persons program, John and his family
immigrated to America. They arrived by ship in New York harbor, and John later emotionally recalled seeing
the Statue of Liberty for the first time. Getting off the ship posed problems, since John had contracted
measles during the long trip. Under US immigration laws and regulations, this contagious ailment normally
would have meant automatic quarantine for John. But the ship's doctor, whom the family had befriended,
managed to clear the five-year-old and his parents for entry into the country. Ultimately, with help from a
local church, they settled in Boston, later moving to the small town of Bellingham, Massachusetts.
#(14 Once the family was settled John taught himself English by listening to records and radio programs. He
adapted quickly and became thoroughly "Americanized." As a youngster, John worked as a newspaper
carrier in Bellingham and received a number of honors for his reliability and excellence in that job. He joined
the Boy Scouts, and worked his way up to the top rank of Eagle Scout. In high school John was an honor
student and an athlete, participating in cross-country track. After high school graduation in 1963, he
attended Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. He majored in physics, where he had the opportunity to
be taught by some of the notable physicists at Bell Labs nearby. John somehow managed t e time to
participate in his favorite activity, the Rugby Club. While at Drew he also met his future wife, ohn
graduated from Drew with a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics in 1967.
felekrAfter graduation, John's dream was to become a writer. He was accepted by several journalism
graduate schools, including the prestigious Columbia University School of Journalism in New York.
However, with the war in Viet Nam in full swing, he felt compelled to serve his adopted country, and he
enlisted in the US Army. He entered the military in September 1967 at Fort Dix, New Jersey. He first
attended Officer Training School at Fort Benning, Georgia, but soon discovered he wanted to be in Special
Forces, which was at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. There he completed training in late 1968, and then
volunteered for assignment to Vietnam. He served in Kontum and Pleiku, until his discharge as a Green
Beret sergeant in the fall of 1969. During his Army tour, John met several CIA officers and learned about
the Agency's growing role in the war effort in Southeast Asia.
,(2iNewly married, John joined the Agency in June 1970 as a contract officer with the Special Operations
Division in the Directorate for Plans (now the Directorate of Operations). In short order he completed the
Junior Officer Training Course, jump school, and the Basic Operations Course. Trained in CIAaperations,
hardened by military experience in Viet Nam, and anxious to return to Indochina, John and were sent
to Pakse, Laos in June 1971. She worked as a contract clerk typist at the CIA unit, and he served as a
paramilitary operations officer working with a 1,300-man multi-battalion Group Mobile (GM) of armed Lao
irregulars. Their primary objective was to defend southern Laos and to interdict supplies and troop
movements along the Ho Chi Ming trail. John's duties were advising the field commanders and managing
the deployment of the GM, to include outfitting, paying, training and inserting irregular troops into the areas
of operation. As a skilled and imaginative operations officer, he developed new techniques for motivating
his often reluctant troops, as well as teaching them innovative tactical concepts. John was both popular and
effective. His native name was TAMAK.
p�rJohn Peterson, in short, was fully engaged in Agency operations to counter the most extensive offensive
yet undertaken in Laos by the NVA and the Vietcong. By fall 1972, Agency officers in Laos were advising
and supporting nearly 40,000 irregular troops in operations that tied down elements of at least four NVA
divisions, preventing them from joining the war against the South Vietnamese government and its US allies.
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Approved for Release: 2022/01/13 C06903494
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(S) In order to effectively insert his troops into conflict, John often was present at the infil sites. Although
accompanying the troops as they landed at the HLZ was admittedly risky, he was committed to lead by
example and to ensure that all went as well as he had planned. Infils were usually made in helicopters.
Because of the constantly changing military situation in Laos, the rugged terrain, and the difficult-to-discern
demarcation line between friendly and enemy-held territory, John and his co-workers were often flying over
enemy territory. These flights were always dangerous.
(S) It was on just such a flight, on 19 October 1972, during a troop infil operation, that John Peterson was
killed when his helicopter, rising above the tree line, was struck by enemy ground fire near Saravane, Laos.
From approximately 100 feet the helicopter crashed and caught fire. John Peterson was fatally wounded in
the accident. Because of extremely rough terrain and the high concentration of enemy troops in the area,
his GM troops carried John's body through the jungle for two days before they could find a safe HLZ where
John's colleagues could land and retrieve his remains. He was 27 years old when he was killed.
(S) John WE
survived by
humously awarded the Agency's Intelligence Star for his courage and sacrifice. He was
his wife.1
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Approved for Release: 2022/01/13 C06903494