James Stanton
I go all the way back to Thailand, to 1968, when I first arrived there as a 23-year-old Laotian translator-interpreter with the U.S. Army Security Agency, which is now long defunct. After a brief stint in Bangkok, I was sent to Ramasun Station, a signal intelligence spy base in Northeast Thailand not far from the Lao border. I was there for more than two years, doing the job I was trained to do, and doing it well. It was the most interesting job I ever had, even though it involved providing a blow-by-blow account of how we were losing the Vietnam War. I didn’t continue my work as a spy, by the time I got back Thai and Lao 'lingies,' as we called ourselves, were no longer in demand. So I took up computers as a programmer, and later, systems analyst. The wife I married in Thailand saw to it that I retained my early interest in the Kingdom. We have returned often over the years. Now that I have retired from the world of computers I have been writing about my experiences in Thailand, both ancient and recent.
