Thomas Fosmire

Thomas "Tom" Fosmire joined the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Operations Group in the 1950s and was given responsibility (along with Tony Poe) in training Tibetan tribesmen to fight against the Chinese Communists in the early part of his career. The training occurred first at a base on Saipan in the Marianas islands but was later moved to a colder mountainous climate at Camp Hale, Colorado. One battalion was trained at Camp Peary, near Williamsburg, Virginia. After the Tibetan operation concludes, Fosmire landed with Tony Poe in Sumatra, Indonesia to supply and train mutinous forces there in an effort by the Eisenhower administration to destabilize the communist-leaning regime of Sukarno. He and Poe were evacuated from Sumatra by US Navy submarine when the troops they were training fled to the mountains. In the 1980s, Fosmire served in El Salvador and Honduras, training Nicaraguan rebel troops opposed to the Sandanista government.

References

• Conboy, Kenneth J., and James Morrison. Feet to the Fire: CIA Covert Operations in Indonesia, 1957-1958. Naval Institute Press, 1999. ISBN 1557501939, 9781557501936.