CIA

 As I was looking for steady employment after leaving White Oak, I came upon an ad in the newspaper from the Central Intelligence Agency.  They wanted interested people to come to a local hotel about possible employment.  Having worked for a week with them in Israel in 1973, and with the Dept. of Commerce in 1980, I thought I might have a chance.  It would require moving to the DC area which also enticed me, so I went.

 There was a woman handling the meeting who worked in Human Resources for the CIA.  She did not sugar-coat the work they were offering.  She said that she lived in West Virginia and drove into work in Washington every day.  She said it was important not to live near where you worked for fear that someone might follow you.  She also said that one would need to park far away from the Langley headquarters, and a bus would take you to work.  They were afraid of car bombs.  She was deadly serious.  She also told us that we couldn't tell anyone what we did.  We would have to make up a cover story that was a lie.  No family or friends could know. When asked what I wanted to do with the CIA, I said either analyst or courier.  I felt with my knowledge of several European and Middle East locations, I could easily do either one.  So, she gave me an application to take home and mail back in to them.  She said not to lie about anything on the application, because they would know.

 The application was 30 pages long.  It started at birth and went up to the present time.  They wanted to know who my friends were at my earliest memory; where did I live; friends from school and where they lived; any experience with drugs or alcohol; any political party affiliations; any subversive activities; and much more.  It was quite extensive.  It took me a week to fill out.  Much of it I didn't know, as this was many years before Google, so I couldn't find out where my early friends lived now.  When it got to the part about alcohol and drugs, I had to be honest, and I was.  I also shared my experiences in Israel with the CIA, and my anti-war activities.  

 I sent it back, and I waited.  A few weeks later, I got a letter back from them that said that I was not chosen for a position, because of some past experiences.  I wrote them back to ask them if it was because of the anti-war activities, as I would renounce all of that if it would help.  They wrote me back and thanked me for renouncing that stuff, but they said that the decision was also based on what happened in Israel in 1973.  They felt I could be blackmailed by a foreign power for what I did in the past.  They weren't kidding.  Much like they weren't kidding when they threatened to revoke our passports in Israel and send us home, if we did not comply to what they wanted us to do back then.  I kind of wanted to be a spy, but it was not to be.