Khrushchev in Los Angeles

I didn’t know, nor did I learn later if the Army Security Agency had anything operationally to do with Khrushchev’s California visit. However, two of our maintenance team sergeants at Two Rock Ranch Station, near Petaluma, CA, were sent to the Los Angeles area on temporary duty just prior to his arrival.

I didn’t know then, but learned later that we had two monitoring units in the LA area. Even if they were not TDY to one of the stations, I know quite well that the sergeants were very skilled at setting up electronic surveillance. They were my instructors for training sessions in those techniques.

There was no video surveillance, but the some in the intelligence community were well trained in movie and still photography for the same purpose.¹One of my electronics school classmates at Ft. Devens transferred to that training and used some of his electronics training for remote camera work.

I had a choice to volunteer. However, not knowing how long the TDY would be, with my wife being five months pregnant, and she not being able to drive, I didn’t take the offer.