I’m Serving Up Kitty Fettuccine And Synchronicities For My Birthday!

by Travis Mateer

Have I gone TOTALLY BATSHIT? No, synchronicities can make you FEEL crazy, but that doesn’t mean you ARE crazy, so instead of just babbling incoherently about what I’m experiencing, I try my best to put what I’m experiencing into a framework of language for others to examine.

Before I read about our County Commissioner, Dave Strohmaier, and the work of his GOLDEN SHOVEL to commemorate the construction of a Forrest Service Museum, I was already writing about a Forrest Service scandal involving the cousin of Ronald Reagan, Roy Reagan, for my Mr. Batshit series (as of yet unpublished). Here’s a little context on the scandal:

In December 1987, the director of Fire and Aviation Management for the USFS instructed Fred Fuchs, Deputy Director of Fire and Aviation, to request that the Department of Defense cooperate with civilian contractors in a plan to obtain surplus military transport aircraft stored at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, which could be converted to airtankers. Besides replacing the grounded C-119s, this program was intended to modernize the tanker fleet to all-turbine aircraft.

At the time, Roy D. Reagan, cousin of President Ronald Reagan, was a private aircraft broker representing Hemet Valley Flying Service, one of the Forest Service’s contractors, and an operator of C-119s. At a meeting on December 23, 1987, attended by both Fuchs and Reagan, the Air Force was presented with the idea of transferring retired U.S. Air Force C-130As to the National Museum of the United States Air Force, which would then exchange the C-130As with Hemet Valley’s grounded C-119s, since the latter aircraft could be considered “historic” aircraft. However, at a subsequent meeting with representatives of the Air Force Museum, Air Force officials reacted negatively to the idea of such an exchange.

Fuchs and Reagan then met with representatives of the General Services Administration (GSA) who suggested that the exchanges be conducted without going through the Air Force Museum, and instead have the Forest Service become directly involved. In this version of the plan, the Air Force would declare that the aircraft were “excess property” and transfer them to GSA, who could then legally make the planes available to other government agencies, but with the provision that any agencies receiving them would be required to retain ownership. This plan was agreed upon, and Fuchs was given responsibility for coordinating the exchange program for the Forest Service. He did not, however, discuss the plan with the Forest Service’s Office of General Counsel. The letter authorizing the program on behalf of the Forest Service stated that it complied with various provisions of the federal regulations, when in actuality it did not. In addition, Fuchs provided bills of sale to the contractors, transferring actual ownership of the planes to the companies, in violation of the applicable regulations, as well as the provisions laid down by the GSA. Further, Fuchs told his USFS superiors that the transfer of ownership had been approved by the GSA when in fact it had not. In the ensuing criminal trial, three Air Force generals testified that they were not aware that the government would be losing title to the aircraft; if they had, they said, they would not have approved the program

Will any of this be in the museum Jon Tester and Steve Daines helped find the MILLIONS of dollars in funding for? I doubt it, just like the role of smokejumpers and the CIA will probably not get major billing in this information display.

In 1960, while Daniels was a smokejumper, the CIA recruited him as a loadmaster or “kicker” for air operations based in Thailand. Kickers were often smokejumpers as they had familiarity with parachutes and jumping and surviving in rough terrain. Airplanes were loaded with cargo, flown into areas accessible only by air, and cargo was then “kicked” out the door and dropped or parachuted to locations on the ground. The CIA’s assistance to the Hmong who lived in the mountains of Laos was largely delivered by air. The Hmong forces supported the Royal Lao government against the communist Pathet Lao rebels and the North Vietnamese Army which supplied its troops in South Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

In 1960, Daniels enrolled as a student at the University of Montana. He divided time between classes and working as a kicker for CIA affiliates in Laos and other countries until 1965 when he was assigned duties as a CIA Junior Paramilitary Operations Officer (PMOO) in Laos among the Hmong. He graduated from college in 1969, and then was promoted to a full PMOO in Laos and the Chief of Station.

For those who like to go to the market and get fresh produce, you may notice that Hmong folks are well represented. That’s because of Hog Daniels and the CIA.

Daniels accompanied Vang Pao to the Bitterroot Valley near Missoula, Montana (Daniel’s home town) where he was resettled on a ranch purchased for him by the CIA. Daniels returned to Thailand to assist Hmong refugees crossing the Mekong River from Laos in large numbers. The CIA also provided funds to create a refugee camp for Hmong at Ban Vinai. The U.S. government was initially resistant to the resettlement of any Hmong refugees in the United States, although 130,000 Vietnamese had been evacuated from South Vietnam and resettled. U.S. officials doubted that the Hmong would be able to adapt to U.S. society and their role in the Vietnam War was little known. To Daniels and a few others, the U.S. government had an obligation to the Hmong, allies of the United States throughout the Vietnam War. Resistance to Hmong resettlement was overcome by the advocacy by refugee workers such as Daniels, Lionel Rosenblatt, Shepard Lowman, MacAlan Thompson, John Tucker, Pop Buell and many others.

Before I get to my song about Kitty Fettuccine I’ll make note of someone else born on September 19th, an actress by the name of Rosemary Harris. Because I allow name-echoes to help direct my attention, Rosemary’s name caught my attention for a number of reasons, so I took a look at her body of work wondering what I would find. What I found was Harris’ role as the voice of VALIS in the movie adapted from Philip K. Dick’s book, Radio Free Albemuth. To understand the significance of this, you’ll have to wait to read about it in issue of 5 of Mr. Batshit.

Publishing my Mr. Batshit series is going to take money, so if you’d like to help, then please consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). Any little bit helps.

Now, here’s a tune for you to enjoy on my b-day. If it triggers you, just remember it’s CONSTITUTION WEEK, so shut that virtue-signaling mouth of yours and try to appreciate what the first amendment means to a supposedly “free” society like ours.

Thanks for reading!