The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames Read Online Free Page A

was very meticulous about his clothing,” remembered Wilson. “His fatigues always somehow looked like new. His khaki cap, however, was worn enough for the sweatband to show.” But Ames never laundered his cap because to do so one had to remove the wire band threaded at the top of the cap. The caps never kept their shape after laundering.
    On the other hand, Ames didn’t take the U.S. Army too seriously. One day the soldiers had to put on dress uniforms and pass inspection prior to a parade in honor of Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie, who was visiting Asmara. As the commanding officer passed down the line of men standing at attention, he suddenly stopped in front of Wilson and commented,“Fine-looking soldier!” At that, Ames snorted loud enough that Wilson thought the two of them would be reprimanded. “I don’t think Ames really ever had the soldiering spirit,” recalled Wilson.
    Ames was a steady, solid character, but there’s also evidence that he was impressionable. One day he happened to be in the Oasis Club when a local hypnotist came to entertain the men. The performer chose Ames as his subject, and to the astonishment of everyone, he hypnotized Ames and had him riding an imaginary bicycle on the stage. “I never thought he would give up control to that extent,” said Wilson.
    One extraordinary thing happened during Ames’s stint at Kagnew Station. In December 1957, the cryptographers in the classified Operations Company launched a virtual mutiny to protest the post commander’s decision to institute compulsory inspections and parade duty. The men grumbled that as they were getting off their long shifts theywere forced to get ready for an inspection.“After a week or so of this bullshit,” recalled one Kagnew veteran, George E. Matthias, “they rebelled.” The Morse code intercept operators claimed that there was too much static and they couldn’t hear anything; the automatic Morse code and telex operators claimed they couldn’t find the network that they were monitoring. In effect, it was a work stoppage—unheard-of in the army. After about a week, the National Security Agency headquarters realized what was happening and immediately dispatched a group of new officers to relieve Kagnew’s commander.
    After this incident, Kagnew’s chaplain announced that he was organizing a morale-building trip to the Holy Land. “Ames talked me into going,” Wilson said. “I’m still very grateful.” They managed to spend several days in Jerusalem, walking through the narrow lanes of the Old City, visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock, one of Islam’s most sacred sites. On the flight back, the plane had to land in Cairo, and the airline put the men up in a hotel and arranged a tour of the Pyramids of Giza. Ames and Wilson got to ride a camel. The entire trip took less than a week, but it left a deep impression on young Ames.
    Toward the end of his assignment, he began to study Arabic. It was a curious choice. “Sometime before we were to leave Africa,” Wilson recalled, “Ames began to learn Arabic. I don’t know whether he had outside help or not, but I remember him sitting cross-legged at his footlocker, using it for a table, and making those Arabic characters.” He had heard the guttural but melodious language spoken during his brief visits to Jerusalem, Cairo, and Dhahran. In addition, he had certainly heard Arabic spoken in the streets of Asmara. (Tigrinya and Arabic were the official languages in Eritrea from 1952 to 1956.) Perhaps this was enough to motivate him to tackle Arabic—one of the most difficult languages for an English speaker to learn. It was a fateful decision.
    After one year, one month, and three days at Kagnew Station, Ames was flown back to America. His two years of service were up, and he expressed no interest in an army career. He was no longer the boy from an insulated working-class neighborhood in Philadelphia. He’dseen a bit of the