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by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian
MAJ. ADKINSON INVESTIGATES THE CIC IN PUERTO RICO
On 10 August 1942, Maj. Neville K. Adkinson submitted a report of his investigation of the U.S. Army Puerto Rican Department’s (PRD) Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) detachment. His report launched training developments that made the Puerto Rico Detachment the standard for base CIC training during World War II.
Counterintelligence activities in Puerto Rico began in 1933, when the Intelligence Section, 65th Infantry, began supplying “regular reports concerning subversive activities on the island” to the War Department. In November 1939, this role transferred to Sgt. (later Lt. Col.) Jack B. Cameron, an intelligence officer with the Corps of Intelligence Police [CIP became the CIC in January 1942]. Cameron was assigned to the Domestic Intelligence Section, G-2, PRD, a small office quickly overrun by numerous investigations and complaint cases between 1940–1941. Ignorance of—and hostility toward—the CIP’s role on the island further hindered its operations. Military and civil authorities often performed intelligence work internally and refused cooperation with CIP agents.
In May 1942, 1st Lt. Laurence T. Bayley submitted a report to the chief of the CIC expressing serious concerns over the detachment’s activities. He detailed the mishandling of intelligence reports and complaints; manpower shortages and superficial background investigations leading to unqualified staff working in sensitive intelligence positions; dismissal of any report containing “a preponderance of derogatory information;” compromising agent identities and confidential information; and much more. The report was forwarded to Maj. Gen. George V. Strong, the assistant chief of staff, G-2, at the War Department, who ordered an immediate investigation into the CIC in Puerto Rico.
Major Neville K. Adkinson arrived in San Juan on 26 July and spent eleven days interviewing agents and commanders. On 10 August 1942, he submitted his final report to the War Department. Adkinson noted several problems described by Bayley had improved in the months following his initial report when Col. Francisco Parra became the PRD G-2. However, some serious problems remained: understaffing, inadequate training, improper investigation techniques and procedures, and inappropriate use of the agents as chauffeurs and secretaries. Adkinson made several recommendations to the War Department G-2, including transferring Bayley, who had been “subject to considerable criticism and threatened with punishment” as a result of his original report, out of Puerto Rico and requiring more training for the remaining officers.
These recommendations were quickly accepted by the War Department. In December 1942, the PRD began operating a preliminary training course “designed to prepare agents for the [CIC] advanced school at Chicago.” [See This Week in MI History #15 10 Nov 1941] Initially, the program taught the standard courses of all intelligence schools: Methods of Investigation, Safeguarding Military Information, Counterespionage and Counter-sabotage, etc. In mid-1943, the construction of a small-arms firing range near the San Juan CIC office allowed weapons instruction to be included in this training program. By the end of 1943, CIC Puerto Rico officers had all completed this program and the advanced school. The detachment produced the Puerto Rican Handbook for the Counter Intelligence Corps, an overview of the island’s geography, politics, and culture for newly-arrived agents, as well as providing island-specific investigative problems and aids. The handbook became a model by which other location-specific CIC handbooks were developed during the war, and the PRD’s CIC training program set the standard for many CIC basic courses that came after.
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| Date Taken: | 08.02.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 08.02.2024 17:06 |
| Story ID: | 477692 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 66 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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