Operation Washtub (United States)

Operation Washtub was a top secret joint operation between the United States Air Force, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Primarily lead by J Edgar Hoover then his protege Joseph Carroll (DIA),[1] the Operation was carried out during the Cold War with the primary goal of leaving Stay Behind Agents in the then Territory of Alaska for covert intelligence gathering, and a secondary goal of maintaining an evasion and escape facilities for captured friendly American Forces.[2] With the Soviet Union ultimately not invading the US through Alaska the program was active from 1950 and ended in 1959 when Alaska became a State.

Selection and training of agents

The agents chosen for this operation needed to live locally, be able to move around, not be obvious targets for Russian invaders, and could not be military personnel. The proposal specifically states that fishermen and bush pilots would make good candidates. The selection of agents from Eskimo and Aleut peoples was also avoided due to the government's lack of trust in them.[3] Locations for the agents were also important; some of the locations included Anchorage, Fairbanks, Palmer, Big Delta and Cordova.

The agents were trained separately from one another due to concerns of capture or corruption to ensure that no other agents would be compromised. In addition to this the agents' training included simple methods of coding, observation and communication, scouting and patrolling, airdrop and pick-up techniques, close combat, and Russian uniforms and equipment. In order to fulfill the primary objective of this operation - the covert collection of intelligence information in the Alaskan Territory - the agents were also interested in military information, and any intelligence that they deemed to be important. For coordination between the leaders of the operation and its agents there were Administrator Liaisons for the agents to contact. For this operation the agents were equipped with 30-06 rifles with a times 4 scope, a small calibre pistol with a maxim silencer, camera, climbing rope and various other things to keep the agents alive, all supplied by the government for the agents. The second part of the operation being a escape and evasion plan for downed American planes, this includes the supply caches that were available for all sections of the US military. During the operation the agents were paid an inactive fund of 3,000 dollars per year, which was said to be doubled once the invasion was to begin.

At the end of the operation there were a total of 89 agents presumably being placed in the various regions provided in the official document. Some of those agents being revealed as Dyton Abb Gillard,[4] Guy Raymond, Ira Weisner, and most notably Bob Reeve[5] an Alaskan bush pilot who was the founder of Reeve Airways. Ultimately the Operation ended due to the costs of maintaining the agents funds and the cost of supplying the caches in the unbearable weather. Deborah Kidwell,[6][7] an official military historian of the OSI, comments that the caches were turned into survival caches.

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gollark: Yes, it has 3.7 more palaiologistic incidents.
gollark: It was a clone of heav I created some time ago.
gollark: That's actually not heav.

References
  1. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/31/us-trained-alaskans-as-secret-stay-behind-agents.html
  2. http://www.governmentattic.org/12docs/FBI-USAF-AlaskastayBehindAgentProgram_1947-1954.pdf
  3. https://io9.gizmodo.com/declassified-documents-reveal-us-plan-for-alaska-during-1634021019
  4. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/31/us-trained-alaskans-as-secret-stay-behind-agents.html
  5. Robert Campbell Reeve
  6. https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-kidwell-b118a89b
  7. Kidwell. "Deborah".
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