Commandant Letter of Commendation

An IIR is a INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION REPORT and they were very detailed.  I couldn't use them at first due to there classified nature.  But, I wrote a detailed report which I used at Federal Trial later.

I did try to carry out the delivery of the 8 tons of hashish.  My master plan was to arrest everyone possible.  This Letter doesn't say it but the NINA I caught fire.  The smoke stack of the ocean going 120 foot tug was on fire.  It was a significant fire with flames over 100 feet tall, like a roman candle.  If the fire had spread to the engine room we were lost.  The DEA Agent, who I asked for because we needed a Greek interpreter to monitor radio check ins, was ready to abandon ship.  We were over 1000 miles off shore.  I stopped him, I was in charge.

Later at the Federal Trial of these eight or so Greeks I testified.  There was also three Tanzanians, which is a small country on the East Coast of Africa.  The Tanzanians were held in secret as the tug was loaded with drugs in Lebanon.  They didn't know about the drugs, so said the MASTER when he decided to cooperate.  I interviewed each one of them at sea and concluded it was true, they didn't know.  I made this fact known in open Federal Court and the Federal Judge was quick to dismiss the charges on the Tanzanians.  Everyone else got 28 years, no parole, no reduction in sentence at all.  Full 28 years.

The Letter does say it but the weather was real tough, the entire time.  Getting on the tug from a small boat at sea was literally death defying.  The ride on the tug was bad, 1000's of miles bad (a week of bad).