1950s CIA missions a secret no more

BY CHARLES RABIN

crabin@herald.com


The living room of his Redland home is full of memories: pictures of the war veteran wearing medals on his pressed uniform, trophies for prized catches during African hunts.

But none depicts the most indelible image in Allen L. Pope's life: a night mission in May 1958 when his B-26 was shot down over Indonesia as he worked for a company secretly under contract to the Central Intelligence Agency.

''I broke my thigh when I bailed out. We were on fire,'' said Pope, 76, brushing a thick, rugged hand across his blue eyes and through his white flat-top. ``I'm coming down with my leg flapping in the breeze and no friendlies within 100 miles. I hid in a coconut tree.''

Within hours Pope was captured. He was jailed in Jakarta for the next four years, until U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy helped get him released.

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