John Gaither Merriman (21 October 1929 – 20 August 1964) was a Central Intelligence Agency pilot who died of injuries sustained when his plane was shot down while flying for the Agency in 1964 in the

Congo Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa: * Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...

. He was serving in Africa as an instructor for Intermountain Aviation, a CIA front company, training Cuban exile pilots to fly armed T-28 Trojan piston aircraft against communist-backed Simba rebels. Prior to serving in the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

, Merriman had served in the

82nd Airborne Division The 82nd Airborne Division is an Airborne forces, airborne infantry division (military), division of the United States Army specializing in Paratrooper, parachute assault operations into denied areasSof, Eric"82nd Airborne Division" ''Spec Ops ...

. On July 26, 1964, against Agency orders, Merriman flew a strafing mission against a Simba convoy. His T-28 aircraft was hit by ground fire and he managed to reach an airfield before crashing. He was recovered the following morning and taken back to base where he died of his injuries several weeks later. Medical evacuation of the wounded Merriman was not considered a priority for the U.S. embassy, who were seeking to conceal

involvement in combat operations in the region. As a result, reports indicated that the crashed pilot was actually a Cuban and he was checked into a local hospital under the name 'Mario Carlos'. Inattention and lack of medicine contributed to his detertoraiting condition, eventually dying of a

lung embolism Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blockage of an artery in the lungs by a substance that has moved from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream (embolism). Symptoms of a PE may include shortness of breath, chest pain particularly upon breathin ...

aboard a U.S. Air Force transport plane as he left the country on 20 August 1964. Upon his death, Merriman's wife was told that her husband had died in a hospital in Puerto Rico as a result of a car accident. Merriman was posthumously awarded the Intelligence Star in a closed ceremony at the Agency's headquarters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merriman, John G. 1929 births 1964 deaths People of the Central Intelligence Agency People of the Congo Crisis Aviators killed by being shot down

See also

References