The Book of Honor (55 page)

Barbara Robbins, a twenty-one-year-old CIA secretary working under State Department cover, was the youngest Agency employee to be honored with a star. Killed by a car bomb at the U.S. embassy in Saigon on March 30, 1965, she was twenty-one. Though she was never involved in covert operations, her Agency affiliation remains veiled in secrecy and her death is marked by a nameless star.
(Courtesy of Ruth Robbins,
her mother)

Barbara Robbins as a Girl Scout in 1955. Convinced that if the Communists were not stopped in Southeast Asia they might well take over the world, she volunteered for duty in Vietnam as a CIA secretary.
(Courtesy of Ruth Robbins)

ABOVE: Portrait of Matthew Gannon (pictured in front row, flanked by sisters, to his right Cabrini, to his left Julie) and family taken in California circa 1967.
(Courtesy of Richard Gannon)

RIGHT: Matthew Gannon at sister Cabrini's wedding in California at the Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1987.
(Courtesy of Richard Gannon)

ABOVE: Matthew Gannon with his daughter, Maggie (in plaid jumper), and Molly, brother Richard Gannon's daughter. Taken in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1987, a year before Matthew's death.
(Courtesy of
Richard Gannon)

RIGHT: Richard Spicer in a casual moment in 1982. Two years later, on October 18, 1984, he was killed during a secret CIA mission to resupply Nicaragua's Contra rebels. The Agency still will not acknowledge he worked for them, and some in Spicer's family remain unconvinced he is actually dead.
(Courtesy of Carroll Spicer)

ABOVE: The grave of James E. Spessard in Williamsport, Maryland. Killed in Angola, Spessard was interred in the same cemetery where his widow, Debbie, works to this day.
(Courtesy of Debbie Pappas, his widow)

LEFT: An unidentified worker at the CIA chiseling into the wall at CIA headquarters a star to honor James E. Spessard, killed in Angola in 1989. After a decade, his death is still wrapped in secrecy and marked by a nameless star.
(Courtesy of Debbie Pappas)

LEFT: James Spessard on his wedding day in 1981 standing beside his father, Kevin Spessard.
(Courtesy of Debbie Pappas)

BELOW: Wedding photo of James and Debbie Spessard (1981) flanked by grandmothers.
(Courtesy of Debbie Pappas)

RIGHT: Pharies “Bud” Petty in a casual moment. A decorated Vietnam veteran, he never questioned military or CIA orders, though he expressed apprehension about the Angola mission that was later to claim his life in 1989. His death was surrounded by unanswered questions and his coffin is empty.
(Courtesy
of Losue Hagler, Petty's sister)

BELOW: The remains of the six CIA operatives killed in Angola in 1989 were quietly returned to Dover Air Force Base. The caskets were wrapped in cardboard containers bound by string and carrying the warning “Handle with Care.”
(Courtesy of Losue Hagler)