Luke Rolfes: Writer and retired professor Dr. James B. Wells is out with a memoir from Milspeak Books called Because: A CIA Coverup & A Son’s Odyssey to Find the Father He Never Knew. We first encountered James’ work in the Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors series, and we are excited to talk to him today about his book-length project and decades-long research. Thanks for taking some time with us today, James! This book is a massive research exploration into the death of your father. Your father was a veteran of both World War II and Vietnam, and he was working in Vietnam as a civilian Public Safety Advisor at the time of his death. Do you remember a specific moment when you decided to undertake this project?
James B. Wells: Luke, first of all I want to thank you and the Laurel Review Interview Series for your willingness to allow my father and I to share our story. As you and the readers will discover by the end of this interview, it’s critically important for my father and I to share it.
Shortly after discovering, 26 years after his death, approximately 400 of my father's letters written to my mother, I first thought about simply publishing them since they were so interesting and revealing of his personality and character. Since he was killed when I was nine years old and away from home on his first-year-long tour in Vietnam when I was six and seven, I didn't know the man, so of course, like any son, I was drawn to the letters. While reading the letters, I learned that for most of his adult life, my father was a very moral, righteous, and religious man, obsessed with the truth, and very critical of those who did not perform their roles as they should. It was then that I started to think that perhaps his words and actions might have threatened his physical safety in Vietnam, as it previously did, as revealed in his letters when he reported two fellow soldiers, both friends, selling contraband to prisoners when he was a 21-year-old provost sergeant at the Nuremberg War Crimes in the late 1940s. In 2013, I began taking writing classes at the Carnegie Center for Literacy in Lexington, Kentucky, to write a book about the letters and their influence on me. At that time, I had not been to the archives yet to corroborate what my father had been writing about, so the first chapters I wrote coincided with what the government told us about his death; that he had been the only passenger on an Air America plane that was shot down by small arms fire as it was landing at a small airstrip about 22 miles north of Saigon. I remember telling my instructor in my writing class one day that I had decided at the last minute to accompany my wife on her annual trip to DC, where she met with Kentucky's congressional representatives, as part of her job. Since the National Archives was in nearby College Park, Maryland, I thought it might be interesting to see if there was any information about him in the archived files there. On that very first trip, while looking at declassified top secret, secret, and confidential files, I discovered evidence that directly contradicted what we were told about his death. That was perhaps the most defining moment for me, and I suspect the first real clue that I was onto something much bigger.
LR: And when did you start to realize the scope of this project—how deep it would become?
JBW: I believe it was my trip to the Air America Archives at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), that made me begin to realize there was a coverup when I ran across multiple pieces of evidence that contradicted what we were told about the number of passengers on the plane, as well as mysterious and different versions of what happened to those guarding the crash site afterward. It's important to realize that although the CIA makes available and sends declassified but redacted documents about Air America to the archives at UTD, many Air America personnel give or donate documents in their possession to the archives upon their death. These documents are not redacted, and you can't help but laugh when you see the same document from the CIA heavily redacted, literally, in one hand, and in the other hand, the same document from Air America personnel with no redactions. And it was my field research, my invitation to attend the 2017 Air America reunion, where I first heard personal testimony from former chief pilots, flight managers, and other personnel, who said this was the most covered-up and mysterious crash of the war, and that no one ever got a chance to see and review the crash investigation report as they usually were able to do.
LR: Did you foresee the emotional toll this project (seeing some of the transcripts and photographs) would take on you?
JBW: No, I didn't foresee or anticipate that at all. Seeing that information hit me so hard. Seeing what looks like a burnt slab of brisket in a plane's wreckage and thinking it may be your father would probably make any son or any daughter emotional. While I have written about how emotional and miraculous it felt at the time to uncover these documents and photographs, which were prompted by what my father wrote in his letters 50 years earlier, I now see it as even more miraculous. In retrospect, I find it amazing how all the various forms of evidence—the letters, archived documents, and interviews from the field research—seem to support one another and contradict the government's official story.
As I repeatedly say in my memoir with many of the bizarre discoveries, "What are the odds?"
LR: You’ve dramatized or “put into scene” some of your father’s actions, as well as the actions of some of the people in his orbit. What was that like, for you, as a writer? Did it deepen and/or change your understanding of events?
JBW: It’s interesting, but in each of those scenes in the book, over a thousand different versions of each one have played out in my head and perhaps hundreds in my writing. Those scenes were drafted and revised countless times, as new evidence emerged. Many of those scenes I wrote about originated and were developed and polished while I was engaged in some monotonous physical activity that allowed me to think and try them out in my head. Much of Because originated during four-mile runs from our house down to the Kentucky River and back. Now that I’m starting to have knee issues, I’ve switched to coming up with writing things in my head while hiking our farm property along its Kentucky River palisades or while mowing, bush hogging, weed eating, and working with our honey bees in our apiary. But yes, I've taken extreme care not to write about what might have happened, but to write about what likely did happen. As a trained and experienced researcher, I take great pride in being committed to the truth as I best see it. This commitment to truth ensures that the closest proximity to reality is obtained, adding a layer of authenticity to my work. Suppose the CIA or anyone else provides valid information contradicting what I wrote in Because? In that case, I welcome it since science is designed to change its findings based on new evidence. However, I cite my sources, use real names, and provide hundreds of content notes to further corroborate my writing is the truth. The last time I checked, I had about 8 to 9 thousand words in my content notes, which my Milspeak Publisher tolerated and appreciated, given my book’s subject.
LR: Because of the fallibility and limitations of memory and record, each writer of creative nonfiction must, in the end, present their version of a story. When I teach creative nonfiction classes, I often use the phrase “true to the writer.” You say in the preface that you’ve “taken the liberty of hypothesizing, imagining, and ‘perhapsing’ decades-old events.” Can you give us a sense of how you went about navigating the “perhapsing” of these narratives in a way that felt as true as they could be?
JBW: Even as a child, when hearing stories about my father told by my mother, relatives, or others, I would often imagine the scene and recreate in my own mind, the conversations he might have been having. After learning from my MFA in Creative Writing program that “perhapsing," popularized by Maxine Hong Kingston in the "No Name Woman" chapter of her National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Warrior Woman: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, and one of TIME magazine's top nonfiction books of the 1970s, is a legitimate literary craft technique used in nonfiction, that validated and legitimized for me what I had been doing all my life. However, I go further with “perhapsing” in Because. Rather than imagine from a single clue what might have occurred in a scene as Kingston did, I use my skills as a researcher (my Ph.D. is in Research, Measurement & Statistics) in using triangulated research, a proven scientific technique for enhancing the credibility and validity of findings, using my father's letters, and the results of my archival and field research, all corroborating one another, to not simply create what might have happened, but what likely did happen.
LR: Your research, as readers learn, led you to believe that there was a coverup pertaining to your father's death. Was there a particular detail that first made you suspect things weren’t as they seemed?
JBW: I think it was the discovery in the National Archives in College Park of the declassified report written by my father's superior in Vietnam indicating that the day my father was killed in the plane crash was the same day he began to pilot his nationwide program to monitor and more accurately count and track the number of refugees, to reduce the corruption and fraud in it. My father had written my mother about the fraud he had exposed in that program, how some of his Vietnamese counterparts were profiting from it, and how his American superiors had to know about it. That, combined with the discovery in the Air America archives of the unredacted document from the Flight Information Center, the heart and brain of Air America operations in Vietnam, that my father was not the only passenger, really impacted my thinking. Furthermore, the discovery of the document revealing that, even two months after the crash, Air America still did not know the reason for the plane's crash. Yet, my family and the media were told the day after his death by the government that the cause of the crash was due to the plane being shot down by small arms fire and that my father was the only passenger.
LR: And a follow up: Once you started to “pull on that string,” so to speak, was it difficult to stop?
JBW: Yes, very much so. As I devote a chapter to“The Toll,” this project has dramatically affected my life, marriage, and family. For most of my life, I haven't been able to move forward and leave the past behind me. But then again, look what I've learned and gained as a result? Had I not started my quest for the truth, my family and others would have never learned about the government lies and the coverup of my father's death. They would not have learned about my father's character, morality, and actions. Even more importantly, I would have never developed the relationship with my father that I have now. For a long time, I thought a good title for my investigative memoir would be Postmarked Angels and Demons because the letters have been both a blessing and a curse on my life. But that title is too close to Dan Brown's best-seller, Angels and Demons; plus, I've now become wed to the main title and subtitle of Because for multiple reasons revealed in the book.
LR: One of the most interesting parts about this text is how you establish premises that suggest your father might be a whistleblower against corruption---such as having a strong moral code, an intense loyalty to honesty, the tendency of behaving a bit like a maverick, a willingness to push back against authority figures. One remarkable story about your father was that he essentially beat up a teacher who had shoved his girlfriend. Can you tell us about these connections and how you landed on your hypothesis that he was, indeed, a whistleblower?
JBW: As revealed in my book, my father had a strong moral code even as a young adult. He believed in doing the right thing and protecting and defending those who could not defend themselves. How many class presidents in any high school are likely to face the consequences for beating up a teacher for ridiculing and humiliating a classmate they are fond of? After obtaining evidence of his personality and character that many whistleblowers possess from his letters and my field research, I began to realize that they aligned with the classic and popularized 1985 definition of whistleblowing by the academic scholars Near and Miceli: Whistleblowing is the disclosure of information by organization members (current or former) of illegal, immoral, or illegitimate practices under their employers' control, to persons or organizations that can take action. As a result, I became more interested in a popular whistleblowing theory and its ancillary theoretical model explaining retaliation against whistleblowers. This model has helped me to fill in the possible missing pieces and help me understand what may have happened to him and why he was retaliated against.
LR: The title Because carries special meaning as it relates to your mother and father. Can you talk about that title and how you came upon calling this book by that name?
JBW: As I mentioned earlier, I originally had a different title in mind. However, over time, what my father wrote in his letters had a growing impact on me since the various clues he revealed in them were panning out to be valid. And as readers will find out, my father had a unique talent for writing to my mother as if she were sitting across from him at a table. And just all of us engage in multiple conversations with our loved ones each day, he would continuously share his thoughts with her throughout the day—starting before breakfast, then at midday, then at night, and sometimes after waking in the middle of the night. I find myself getting caught up in that, feeling as though he is communicating with me, giving me clues as to how he lived…and how he died. My father closed and signed many of his letters with the word "Because." Come to find out, it was a popular love and wedding song for much of the 20th century (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Because_(Guy_d%27Hardelot_and_Edward_Teschemacher_song). My mother told me it was their song ever since they were a couple. That, combined with the fact that his wedding ring I wear—the same ring that belonged to the hands that wrote those letters, and that I scraped the burnt flesh off it inner circumference when I found it in his effects—and whose inscription contains the title of my book—adds to the impact his letters have on me as I read them. I devote part of a chapter to that discussion, and close it with what I think the word meant to my parents:
In addition to “Because” being my parent’s song from high school, its single word communicates something much deeper and more revealing than just love. Though difficult to explain, it was a word that attempted to answer whatever questions its recipient might have had, no matter how emotional, sensitive, complex, and difficult they might be. No explanation or reason was needed. It was simply … “Because.”
LR: At a certain point in your research, you traveled to Vietnam. You were able to stand in the same spot where your father's plane went down and hold a memorial with your siblings. You connected with some of the local Vietnamese residents. The experience was incredibly profound to you and your siblings, yet it didn't provide you the closure you sought. Can you articulate why?
JBW: Even after preparing and printing out several copies of an Episcopal Burial service program with the aid of our priest and taking them to Vietnam, I anticipated that at the end of our ceremony at what I hoped to find his once classified site of his death, which I did by an unbelievable coincidence I describe in the book, I would be at peace. That didn’t happen. I suspect the book would have been a hundred pages shorter if it had, and would have ended in a similar fashion to other books with a similar theme. I think it was my obsession and desire to be true to myself, about everything I had done and written, and all of the unresolved questions I still had, that made me realize I was not yet at peace. Keep in mind, while in Vietnam, I, and later my siblings who joined me, encountered numerous new revelations that contradicted what our government told us about our father’s death, plus we witnessed several, beyond coincidental, discoveries, we all considered miraculous. To be at pace, I needed lots of answers, including some explanation for all of these miracles we witnessed and how it all began with what my father wrote over 50 years later.
LR: Toward the end, this book becomes much more about faith and spirituality as you connect with and are mentored by an Episcopalian priest. Could you talk about that shift and what took you down that path?
JBW: I find it quite remarkable that I never intended for my book to take on a spiritual theme. However, during my time in Vietnam, beginning while visiting various shrines, I witnessed how the Vietnamese believe in a symbiotic relationship between the living and the dead. They believe that the dead continue to exist but in a different realm, where they can still influence and guide the living. In turn, the living strive to lead good lives, make their deceased loved ones proud and happy, so they can continue to receive their wise guidance. While in Vietnam, I began to feel a deep connection with the Vietnamese people. My relationship with my father was allowing me to be a part of their world.
My father and I also shared a symbiotic relationship; we were working together to discover the truth about what really happened to him, so that we could eventually find peace. You can't imagine how powerful it was for me to discover, time after time, things, or rather clues, he had written about were true and corroborated by my research. It was during about 20 hours of counseling by our priest and the church's pastoral care team, which included reading the work of some world-famous theologians that I came to learn that Christianity does indeed embrace similar beliefs, especially about those who died early and unexpectedly, in tragic, still unresolved circumstances. Learning that provided so many answers for me and helped me understand what is necessary for both my father and I to get to peace.
Peace requires forgiveness, and forgiveness requires the truth. This book is my confession, my version of the truth about what I believe happened to my father. Perhaps once my father and I share our confession with the world, the two of us can forgive and finally find peace.
LR: Your father’s story, though specific, might encourage some folks to investigate the unsolved mysteries in their own family tree. What advice can you give to people seeking to understand the truth of the past?
JBW: I’m glad you asked that question, Luke. Given the wealth of information I’ve uncovered through archival data, I hope many readers become interested in researching their own family history. I encourage readers to reach out to family members, acquaintances, or others who might have some knowledge of the mystery you are investigating…before it’s too late. It was miraculous in some regards that I started searching archival records when I did...after they were declassified, and began my field research interviewing family members and those familiar with the crash of my father's plane before they passed away. The In Memoriam page of my memoir is a long one, and there others who provided me with valuable information that have passed away since the book went to press.
If readers have family members who served in the US military, I encourage them to go to the National Archives website on Military Service records at https://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records, and request their loved one's records. When I requested my father's, I received a 2" thick file containing everything about my father, including details about every physical, evaluation, promotion, medal, duty station, etc.
One of the biggest lessons readers can take from my investigative memoir is that living with a lie can be more painful than dying with the truth. Like my father, more of us need to speak truth to power: stand up for what's right, confront those who condone wrongdoing, call out their injustices, and demand change. Coincidentally, seeking the truth is what I have also emphasized over my academic career to students in my research university classes. Given our world today, everyone needs to become a more critical inquirer. Don't simply believe what you are told, but gather and evaluate information, ideas, and assumptions from multiple perspectives to produce a well-reasoned analysis and understanding of some event, action, or person.
Secondly, for those of us who, unfortunately, are also faced with unresolvable questions, they, too, can take something away from my writing. In my case, has my odyssey for the truth been worth it? I can’t recommend that others do as I have. In my case, it’s been, and still is, a balancing act between what I refer to as blessings and curses. My strong, supportive wife has allowed our marriage to survive this ordeal. But, I can recommend that anyone who has experienced trauma like my family has and is seeking answers to unresolvable questions to seek professional help, counseling, or, at a minimum, simply talk to others. I did, but only after returning from my archival and field research trip to Vietnam, where I found myself still unsatisfied with what I knew and will probably never know.
LR: What’s next for you? Are you continuing with this project? Are you exploring something new?
JBW: Yes, Eastern Kentucky University's award-winning and highly ranked Bluegrass Writers Studio MFA program, has given me the skills to write in a variety of genre. Lately, I've been trying my hand at poetry, and I hope to have a short poetry collection ready for publication after our 2025 book tour ends late this year. Much of the poetry collection will pertain to what I’ve experienced while writing and promoting the book, including my growing frustration with the CIA in refusing to release any details of my father’s death due to “national security, foreign policy, and personal privacy concerns.” In some regards, their refusal to tell me everything they know, validates my story, and should tell me everything I need to know, and help me achieve peace. While in my MFA program I wrote a few 10-minute plays based on my relationship with my father and would like to see these, along with a three-act play yet to be written, performed on stage someday. And long-term, I want to write about my father's experiences when he returned home after his first Vietnam tour and served as a Provost Marshal for the US Army Corps of Engineers. His office investigated crimes on Corps property, including moonshining, bootlegging, and KKK lynchings in six southern states in the early 1960s, before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed. It was rumored the Dixie Mafia or its predecessor had put a contract on him due to his investigations interfering so much with their operations. Since he was home during that period, there are no letters from that period, I will need to rely on archival research to gather information for that book.
LR: Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us, James! We wish you the best of luck. Please check out Because from Milspeak Books. https://jamesbwells.com/pre-order-from-your-favorite-bookstore-or-one-of-the-following/
JBW: It's been a pleasure, Luke. I want to thank you and the Laurel Review…Because, with each telling of our story, my father and I come closer to achieving peace.