“No, they came from Naples. I bought them when I was in the navy.” “A long time ago, huh, Burt? Where are all your degrees? Somebody with your background should have a wall full.”
“Well, over there is one from George Washington University, and next to it, a picture of me giving a paper at the medical school at UCSF. Those are the only academic things I feel are important.”
Brannen looked at these, then saw a picture on Turner’s worktable next to his desk. “Is that your wife and Helen?”
The picture was of two very attractive women, one older, the other younger, holding skis near a ski lift.
Turner replied, “Yes, taken about ten years ago at Diamond Peak over at Incline. We skied there once in a while.”
Brannen turned and walked over to the wall by the doorway and studied a letter in a thin black-and-gold frame. The letterhead announced,
The Secretary of the Navy
In the upper left-hand corner was a flag with four stars, one at each corner,
and a furled anchor all on a field of blue—the logo of the secretary of the navy.
Brannen read,
The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting this letter to
LIEUTENANT BURT TURNER,
UNITED STATES NAVY RESERVE
FOR services as set forth in the following
CITATION:
“For heroic conduct while serving at an undisclosed location in the month of November 1960.
As Officer in Charge of Special Weapons/Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team Number ONE,
Lieutenant Burt Turner (then Lieutenant Junior Grade) displayed exceptional courage and
initiative while participating in an operation of a classified nature, involving great
risk of injury to both himself and the members of his team. By his outstanding leadership and
professional skill, he contributed materially to the success of an extremely hazardous assignment.
His conduct throughout was in keeping with the highest traditions of the
United States Naval Service.”
Brannen continued,
Signed, for the President, by the Secretary of the Navy,
Thomas Gates
“It would appear this was for a covert operation so highly classified a medal could not be awarded without compromising what the operation entailed.”
Turner, pulling a second chair to the worktable, replied, “It’s something like that.” Then he added, “Stephen, let’s talk.”
Brannen put his briefcase on the worktable, and they sat down.
“What the hell do you want from me, Stephen?”
Brannen opened the briefcase and took out three official-looking papers and handed them to Turner.
Turner saw the first was a copy of a letter from the archives at Los Alamos to Stephen Brannen, asking him to contact Dr. Burt Turner after arriving at Lake Tahoe for the Hazardous Materials Transport Officers Conference.
The letter went on,
Dr. Turner should be advised that he is the only source of extremely important information, which would be helpful in allowing the library archives of Los Alamos National Laboratory to complete its files on a classified operation in which Dr. Turner was involved while serving in the U.S. Navy at the Naval Air Station at Port Lyautey and attached to the Naval Ordnance Facility. You are directed to ask Dr. Turner if he would come to a meeting at Los Alamos National Laboratory to help clarify certain aspects of the operational reports on file in the library archives.
He noted that copies went to the United States Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency.
The second and third letters were responses from the Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency. They asked to be informed if Turner agreed to the request for his cooperation. If he did agree, the two agencies wished to be present and to later speak with Turner, separately, regarding particular issues germane to their agencies’ interests and requested that Los Alamos provide a secure conference room for separate interviews. When he had finished reading the letters, he laid them down, turned away, and looked out the window. The moon was partially obscured from time to time by clouds moving in from the west. He remembered hearing the weather report this morning saying there was a 40 percent chance of snow down to six thousand feet by midnight. He thought, It seems too early for this sort of thing.
Brannen, clearing his throat, asked, “Is there something you have read that you don’t understand?”
There was no answer.
Brannen again asked, “Burt, is there something you have read that you don’t understand?” The question broke through Turner’s preoccupation with the moon and forthcoming weather.
Turner turned back to the table and said, “I’m sorry, Stephen, I was thinking about something else.” He looked at Brannen and said, “I understand the interest in filling in the gaps at the archives, but why are CIA and State interested in interviewing me?” Brannen replied, “Shortly after the exchange of these letters, there was a meeting at Los Alamos. There was a representative from CIA, another from State, and one from Los Alamos. I was there as nonparticipant. From what I heard, CIA was interested in a series of terrorist activities involving groups in Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco that led to the operation, or incident, you became involved with. Additionally, there are at least two of these terrorists who were part of a splinter group in the Front de Libération Nationale, the FLN, who the CIA feels cut their teeth in that operation.
The two were teenagers at the time, not necessarily a unique age group in some terrorist activities.
“The Israelis say these two have continued to be active through the years and have survived to be senior players in the Al-Qaeda organization. CIA also suggested that you were involved in a covert operation called Scorpion Fish.
Scorpion Fish, we understand, was intended to find out if the Russians were supplying weapons to the FLN by way of fishing boats along the Atlantic coast of Morocco. And it seems that somewhere along the line, you and your team did some work with the Foreign Legion.”
“Look, I don’t know if I can help you with what you are saying. It was a long time ago.”