Artifacts from the Central Intelligence Agency Museum

Dru Blair, Mixed Media on Illustration Board, 2010, Donated Courtesy of Alan Seigrist. November 1950 marked the entry of Chinese Communist military forces into the Korean War. The Truman Administration tasked CIA to conduct covert-action programs on the Chinese mainland. One particularly sensitive and dangerous one involved CIA’s Civil Air Transport (CAT) flying agent-exfiltration missions in which low-altitude, slow-moving planes hoisted agents from the ground. The painting depicts an ill-fated flight on November 29, 1952 when Norman A. Schwartz and C flew such a mission into Manchuria, unaware that Chinese Communist units had been tipped off about the flight and were waiting in ambush. Their plane was shot down, and they were killed. Their two crewmen, John T. Downey and Richard G. Fecteau, however, were not seriously hurt. They were convicted of espionage and imprisoned. Fecteau was eventually released nearly a year shy of his 20-year sentence, and Downey was released after serving just over 20 years of his life sentence. (Photo by Central Intelligence Agency)
Artifacts from the Central Intelligence Agency Museum
   
  Military Woman Gallery

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