R.G. Ainslee's Blog, page 3
July 1, 2018
July - This Month in the Cold War
July 3, 1976 - The raid on Entebbe airport in Uganda by an Israeli commando unit. An Air France airliner had been hijacked en-route from Tel Aviv to Paris when by pro-Palestinian guerrillas. Three hostages, seven hijackers and twenty Ugandan soldiers were killed during the operation. 103 hostages were rescued.
July 26, 1953 - The beginning of Fidel Castro's revolutionary "26th of July Movement." In 1959, Castro led a rebellion that drove out dictator Fulgencio Batista.
July 29, 1953 - A US Air...
June 24, 2018
ELINT
ELINT – Most novelists get it wrong. Too often someone refers to a message picked up by an ELINT intercept. They should say either COMINT or SIGINT.
ELINT is an acronym for Electronic Intelligence, that is, non-communications intelligence derived from collection, processing, and analysis of radar and various guidance control systems.
Intelligence derived from the collection of spoken or written communications is called COMINT or Communications Intelligence. SIGINT, or Signals Intelligence, is i...
June 17, 2018
The Story Behind The Ethiopian Intercept
My first full-length novel, The Ethiopian Intercept, the second book in the Secret Cold War Series, was released on Amazon on June 11th. Kindle and paperback editions are available. The publication of the book was the end of a forty year odyssey.
Now available at Amazon.com
The 1970's was the golden age of overland travel, a time when one could go in relative safety to exotic off-the-beaten-track destinations. In 1977, I set off from London on a four-month overland journey across Africa. I...
June 10, 2018
The Ethiopian Intercept
My first full-length novel, The Ethiopian Intercept, the second book in the Secret Cold War Series, will be released on Amazon on June 11th. Kindle and paperback editions are available.
Let The Ethiopian Intercept transport you to the secret front line of the Cold War.
Available Now at Amazon.com
Ross Brannan finally has his dream job, a civilian employee at the Army Electronic Proving Ground at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
1975: J. Andrew Marsden, the brains behind the Cochise Project, disappears...
June 1, 2018
June - This Month in the Cold War
June 5: 1967 - Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula, beginning the Six-Day War.
On June 8, 1967 - The USS Liberty, a United States Navy signals intelligence ship, was attacked by Israeli jets and torpedo boats off the Egyptian coast. 34 sailors were killed and 171 wounded.
June 11, 1994 - The Soviet military occupation of East Germany ended after 49 years.
June 15, 1954 - A US Air Force RB-29 was shot down either over the Sea of Japan near the Kamchatka Peninsula. No remains or survivors were rec...
May 27, 2018
They Served in Silence
Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving in the armed services. Among them were Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the security services who manned the front line of the Cold War. Assigned to isolated foreign outposts, naval vessels, or flying along the Iron Curtain, they collected signals intelligence and gave an extra layer of early warning. All too many died by accident or enemy action. The first American combat death in Vietnam was a soldier of the Army...
May 20, 2018
May - This Month in the Cold War
May 1, 1960 - CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers, flying a U-2 spy plane, was shot down over Russia on the eve of a US/Soviet summit meeting. The meeting was cancelled and intensified Cold War tensions. Powers survived the shootdown and convicted by a Soviet court. He was released two years later in exchange for a Soviet spy.
May 7, 1954 - The French fortress of Dien Bien Phu, fell to Vietnamese forces in northern Vietnam, effectively ending the French/Indochina War.
May 12, 1949 – The Berlin Blocka...
May 13, 2018
The Cold War
Today, commentators speak about a new Cold War between the U.S. and Russia. The original Cold War lasted forty plus years. It was a time of tensions between two super-powers with the capacity to destroy each other and the world. If war is hell, the Cold War was purgatory. Not peace, not war, something in-between. The best of times, the worst of times.
Let us not forget that time and its impact on our world today. The words of the Spanish philosopher and novelist George Santayana are even more...
May 6, 2018
The Battle of Latakia
My debut novel, The Latakia Intercept, takes place in the days leading up to and including the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. A naval engagement, the Battle of Latakia, is the signature event of the story.
The Battle of Latakia was a small clash involving small ships, but it was historic nevertheless. It was the first naval battle fought with missiles and is as historic as the Battle of the Coral Sea, the first carrier-versus-carrier battle. The naval engagement involved an exchange of anti...
April 29, 2018
The Latakia Intercept
My debut novella, The Latakia Intercept, the prequel to the Secret Cold War Series, is now available on Amazon. Kindle and paperback editions are available.
The Latakia Intercept is a story of Cold War Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) long hidden behind a curtain of secrecy. ELINT is intelligence derived from collecting, processing, and analyzing radar and guidance control systems.
The story was originally conceived as a prologue to The Ethiopian Intercept but later expanded to provide the rea...
