Jerry Daniels
| Jerrold B. Daniels | |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Hog |
| Born |
June 11, 1941 Palo Alto, California |
| Died | April 29, 1982 (aged 40) Bangkok, Thailand |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Service/branch | Central Intelligence Agency (U.S.) |
| Years of service | 1960–1982 |
| Relations | Bob (father), Louise (mother), Ronald, Jack, and Kent (brothers) |
Jerrold B. Daniels or Jerry Daniels (June 11, 1941 - April 29, 1982) was a CIA officer who worked in Laos and Thailand from the early 1960s to the early 1980s. He was known by his self-chosen CIA call-sign of "Hog." In the early 1960s, he was recruited by the CIA as a liaison officer between Hmong General Vang Pao and the CIA. He worked with the Hmong people for the CIA's operation in Laos commonly called the "Secret War" as it was little known at the time. In 1975, as the communist Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese Army advanced on the Hmong base at Long Tieng, Daniels organized the air evacuation of Vang Pao and more than two thousand of his officers, soldiers, and their families to Thailand. Immediately after the departure of Daniels and Vang Pao, thousands more Hmong fled across the Mekong river to Thailand, where they lived in refugee camps. From 1975 to 1982 Daniels worked among Hmong refugees in Thailand facilitating the resettlement of more than 50,000 of them in the United States and other countries.
Daniels was born on June 11, 1941 in Palo Alto, California. His parents were Bob and Louise Daniels. He had three brothers: Ronald, Jack, and Kent. The family moved to Helmville, Montana in 1951, where he graduated from Missoula County High School in 1959. When he was 17 years old, Daniels became one of the youngest smokejumpers in Missoula's history. He parachuted to fires in Montana, New Mexico, and California.
In 1960, while Daniels was a smokejumper, the CIA recruited him as a loadmaster or "kicker" for air operations based in Thailand. Kickers were often smokejumpers as they had familiarity with parachutes and jumping and surviving in rough terrain. Airplanes were loaded with cargo, flown into areas accessible only by air, and cargo was then "kicked" out the door and dropped or parachuted to locations on the ground. The CIA's assistance to the Hmong who lived in the mountains of Laos, was largely delivered by air. The Hmong forces supported the Royal Lao government against the communist Pathet Lao rebels and the North Vietnamese Army which supplied its troops in South Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
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