Loren Thomas Walsh – Colonel, United States Air Force Reserve Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Officer

From contemporary press reports:

Loren Thomas Walsh, 75, a retired Central Intelligence Agency clandestine service operations officer who also had been a colonel in the Air Force Reserve, died December 2, 1997 at the home of a daughter in Marion, Kansas, after a heart attack. He lived in Montclair, Virginia.

Colonel Walsh, an Iowa native, was a journalism graduate of the University of Iowa. During World War II, he served in the southwest Pacific theater in the Army Air Forces and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). He joined the CIA when it was established in 1947.

An authority on psychological warfare and political action, he took part in the suppression of pro-communist forces and the presidential election of Ramon Magsaysay in the Philippines in 1953.

He later served in Pakistan, Panama, India and Ecuador, where he supervised operations of renegade CIA agent Philip Agee. Agee wrote of Col. Walsh in his book, “The Company,” which divulged classified CIA information.

Colonel Walsh was stationed in Egypt when he retired in 1977. For the next two years, he wrote, contributing articles to such publications as the Armed Forces Journal and American Legion Magazine. From 1979 to 1986, he returned to the agency as a consultant, working on plans and operations involving the Afghan resistance.

His wife, the former Wilma Jean Geiger, died in April 1997.

Survivors include three daughters, Kathy Lynn Henemier of Bera, Ky., Sheri Belinda of Marion and Dr. Stephanie Ann Wagner of Davis, Calif.; a brother, retired Air Force Col. Howard Walsh of California; a sister, Kay Kallani of San Antonio; seven grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.


WALSH, WILMA J. (Age 72)

On April 16, 1997 at her residence in Dumfries, Virginia. She is survived by her husband, Col. L. Thomas Walsh, U.S.A.F., Ret; daughters, Kathy L. Henemier, S. Belinda Engler, Stephanie Wagner and preceded in death by Terry Michelle Walsh Schaeffer. She is also survived by seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, April 21 at Dumfried United Methodist Church, 110 Cameron St., Dumfries, VA. Interment Tuesday, April 22 at 10 a.m. at Arlington National Cemetery.

Read our general and most popular articles

Leave a Comment

error: