For Nancy, Elaine, Julie, Jane, Douglas, and Mark.
PREFACE
An attempt at writing a memoir, however honest the effort to stick to the cardinal facts, at best falls short of the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The need for being selective (particularly in the case of so brief an account as this), vanished records needed to pinpoint events, the urge to put the best face on what happened, fallible memory, all conspire to yield a result short of what one might hope for. Moreover, there looms constantly the shadow of the reader for whom the effort is undertaken. He or she has the right to expect prose presented in digestible form and bites.
What follows, then, is an account, largely self-oriented, undertaken as a labor of love to inform my children and grandchildren of some of the events in my life. The account reflects in part the way I saw things then, in part the way I now believe they were, a mix of mental picture and of impression.
This effort may even encourage other members of the family to undertake something of their own for those who come after them.
The poems in this volume have previously appeared among those in the author's Fragments of Rhyme and Reason, published in 1985, some having been first published or later republished in the quarterly journal of the Central Intelligence Retirees' Association, the CIRA Newsletter.
In the chapter Road to Berlin, eighteen of the letters were first published in the author's Letters from WW II, 9 April 1985; six appeared in "Letters Home," Kansas Alumni magazine, June 1985.
The text covering material on the Central Intelligence Agency, Pilgrim in the CIA, was cleared for publication by the Publications Review Board of that Agency pursuant to CIA Public Affairs Regulation HR 6-2: Non-official Publications and Oral Presentations by Employees and Former Employees (Revised 7 August 1984). Such clearance for security reasons does not, of course, imply any official Agency endorsement of this manuscript.
Paul A. Borel
Great Falls, Virginia
Fall 1986
Updates:
July 2006 -- Note: Paul and Miriam Borel, ages 94 and 91 respectively, presently live in Southern Pines, North Carolina. JJB
March 2007 -- Update: Paul turned 95 this month. JJB
April 2007 -- Update: Miriam turned 92 this month. JJB
July 7, 2007 -- Paul passed away in his home in Southern Pines, North Carolina, at age 95. JJB
PREFACE
An attempt at writing a memoir, however honest the effort to stick to the cardinal facts, at best falls short of the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The need for being selective (particularly in the case of so brief an account as this), vanished records needed to pinpoint events, the urge to put the best face on what happened, fallible memory, all conspire to yield a result short of what one might hope for. Moreover, there looms constantly the shadow of the reader for whom the effort is undertaken. He or she has the right to expect prose presented in digestible form and bites.
What follows, then, is an account, largely self-oriented, undertaken as a labor of love to inform my children and grandchildren of some of the events in my life. The account reflects in part the way I saw things then, in part the way I now believe they were, a mix of mental picture and of impression.
This effort may even encourage other members of the family to undertake something of their own for those who come after them.
The poems in this volume have previously appeared among those in the author's Fragments of Rhyme and Reason, published in 1985, some having been first published or later republished in the quarterly journal of the Central Intelligence Retirees' Association, the CIRA Newsletter.
In the chapter Road to Berlin, eighteen of the letters were first published in the author's Letters from WW II, 9 April 1985; six appeared in "Letters Home," Kansas Alumni magazine, June 1985.
The text covering material on the Central Intelligence Agency, Pilgrim in the CIA, was cleared for publication by the Publications Review Board of that Agency pursuant to CIA Public Affairs Regulation HR 6-2: Non-official Publications and Oral Presentations by Employees and Former Employees (Revised 7 August 1984). Such clearance for security reasons does not, of course, imply any official Agency endorsement of this manuscript.
Paul A. Borel
Great Falls, Virginia
Fall 1986
Updates:
July 2006 -- Note: Paul and Miriam Borel, ages 94 and 91 respectively, presently live in Southern Pines, North Carolina. JJB
March 2007 -- Update: Paul turned 95 this month. JJB
April 2007 -- Update: Miriam turned 92 this month. JJB
July 7, 2007 -- Paul passed away in his home in Southern Pines, North Carolina, at age 95. JJB
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