GROUP OF SPIES HOLDS MEETING AT HYATT REGENCY, BUT IT'S NO SECRET

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000200700025-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: August 21, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000200700025-5
??EARED
ON PAGE_a
BALTIMORE SUN
21 August 1983
Group of spies holds meeting at
Hyatt Regency, but it's no'- secret
1y Kathy Lally
.The man in the blue and brown
plaid jacket smiled enigmatically.
We can't tell you a thing," he said
in a low voice. "It's all classified." - -
Z-ZZFben he slipped away. into the
5wd without giving his name.
-s- The annual reunion of the National
-runter Intelligence Corps Associa-
-.Dn was in full swing-at the Hyatt Re-
gency of Baltimore yesterday, and if
you were wondering who that man
was peering out from behind the pot-
iAed palm, well, he was probably one
of the retired spies.-
"Spies!" laughed Dave McCarthy,
.a retired Chicago insurance and com-
modities broker. "We couldn't find a
'bottle of Old Forester in a telephone
booth."
That set off a round of guffaws
and more jokes among the cluster of
four men reminiscing in the lobby of
the Hyatt.
!'We're on our way to the hospital-
ity suite," Mr. McCarthy said. "That's
where we tell the lies."
Most of the 200 men attending the
convention, which began Thursday
night and ends today, served in World
War II. They started out as Army cor-
porals and worked their way up in the
intelligence unit.
There are about 500 members in
the NCICA. The last war any of them
served in was the Korean conflict.
But their stories had few cloaks
and daggers. Most of their memories
were of shipping out, or of a few wild
nights in Baltimore while undergoing
training at Fort Holabird, or of first
sighting a Pacific Island, or of trying
to find a good beer.
Still, they spent the war in some Pa., who recalled his first action, on
danger, sometimes slipping behind -June 11, 1944.
enemy lines, but most often at the "It was a beautiful sunny day on
very front of the lines with the troops, an island in New Guinea," he said.
hoping to find stragglers or docu- "There was a little beach -with moun-
meats or records, anything that could .tains - behind. A priest was saying
be analyzed to : reveal something Mass on the bow of the -ship. I
about enemy plans or movements. thought, `This is paradise:' -w.
"I went to India," said Lyle Beau- Soon he found himself racing
champ, a retired U.S.F.&G. claims in- ashore in the tropical beat, looking
vestigator from Towson. "As the for documents and counting and
troops went out, we took over the searching dead Japanese.-. -
towns and organized the government. " "We had to get this information
It was very important to get all the and preserve it for analysis," be said.
documents, the police records, every- "We couldn't let the souvenir hunters
thing we could." ,9
Set it.
"It was the high
Point of his life, Across the lobby sat Bob Eba
ugh,
though it seemed like a tragedy at the who moved from Westminster to
time," interjected Mr. Beauchamp's Florida last year. He retired Srom the
wife, Millie, U.S. government in 1973. After some
Mr. Beauchamp said the local prodding ("You'll never..get him to
NCICA group has been meeting in stop once he starts," laughed Bill
Baltimore since 1946 and usually gets Hoffman of Texas), Mr. Ebaugh
together about five times a year. This agreed to tell his war story.-., -
is the fifth time the national conven- That was the time he impersonat-
tion has been held here. ed President Franklin D. Roosevelt in
"We're interested in the security Tehran, -
of the country even though we're not ' "It was at the Tehran Conference
young, enough to work for Uncle
Sam," he said. "We tell stories, one
thing leads to another, but we're still-
interested in hearing about national
security."
Many of the men left the military
after the war but stuck to work that
had an investigative bent. .
Emmerich Beck, now 77, returned
to New York City to a Pinkerton de-
tective job. He was in Italy and Aus-
tria during the war.
"We were against their spies, their
saboteurs," he said. "We were all
looking for Hitler."
Mr. Beck became warden of a
prison in Austria, where he interro-
gated prisoners.
"Anyone captured would have to
come by my little desk," be said.
His fondest memory of the war
was appropriating the Gray Bear Ho-
tel in Innsbruck for troop sleeping
quarters. "That was the hotel where
mmydmother spent her honeymoon," he
sai.
Mr. Beck and Mr. McCarthy were
joined by Frank Brown, a 68-year-old
retired salesman from West Chester,
in 1943," Mr. Ebaugh said. "Churchill,
Stalin and Roosevelt were meeting at
the Russian Embassy."
The Russians reported that Ger-
man paratroops had landed in Iran,
planning to assassinate Roosevelt and
the other leaders. The leaders were
sequestered, except that Mr. Roose-
velt had to drive from the embassy to
a nearby American base before leav.
ing the country.
"You're going to be the clay pi.
geon," was what they . told Mr.
Ebaugh. "You will ride in his car."
They took out the ',bullet-proof.
glass from the car and put it in the a
car Roosevelt actually took, Mr.
Ebaugh said. Mr. Ebaugh,? unprotect-
ed, climbed into the car wearing
Roosevelt's cape, pince nez and hat.
("We had the same size head.")
"And what else?" a fellow conven-
tioneer prompted.
"Oh, I had my own cigarette hold-
er," Mr. Eba ugh said. y
"I waved to the crowd, and the;
waved to me," Mr. Ebaugh said. "I
had quite an uneventful ride, but I
was ready to hit the floor as soon as
the shooting started."
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/21 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000200700025-5