The Hunt for Tom Clancy

The Hunt for Tom Clancy

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The Hunt for Tom Clancy
The Hunt for Tom Clancy
The Saga of Sock

The Saga of Sock

Fiction based on Fact

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The Hunt for Tom Clancy
Jan 31, 2025
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The Hunt for Tom Clancy
The Hunt for Tom Clancy
The Saga of Sock
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Dear Crew of the USS Tom Clancy,

I’ve been—as you know by now—deep into the files of Frank Gardiner Wisner (looking at some exciting stuff about his work with spy novelists in the mid 1960’s, I’ll have more dispatches on that by summer!) but my fascination for that period extends to other figures, as well.

One of them is John V Grombach, who I’ve written about here:

The Saga of Sock I

The Hunt for Tom Clancy
·
March 6, 2024
The Saga of Sock I

Over the past couple years, I’ve developed a fascination with two American Spy Viceroys from the 1940’s & 1950’s—Frank Gardiner Wisner and John V “Frenchy” Grombach. Both of them headed intelligence agencies you’ve probably never heard of; OSS veteran Wisner ran the Office of Policy Coordination, a sort of proto-CIA operations directorate in the days before CIA (and indeed went on to run CIA’s plans directorate), while Grombach ran the Army’s crown jewel intelligence organization called “The Pond”—an ultra secret Army shop set up by the the man the Army considered God’s own representative on earth, General George Catlett Marshall, a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia and the Chief of Staff of the Army.

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For the paid subscribers this month, I’m going a little different here, with a scene as intended for a television show or film featuring John Grombach I wrote a while ago…I think the period is great aesthetically…so really try to imagine the place, the time, the smell of it all. Get into it. No reason learning about the subterranean power structure that has reached tendrils into all facets of American life by now, two generations after World War II can’t be fun, right?

For the free subscribers this month…I appreciate you reading, thank you so much. You should, if you have the means and the inclination, subscribe! Even if it’s only for one month and then an unsubscribe (really the best way to do it if you just want to read through the most bananas true stories you’ve read in your life, three whole years worth at this point, it’s really a good value. I’ll have to assemble them into a proper book at some point, but I really appreciate everyone coming along for this ride. I’ve learned a lot, it’s been a lot of fun, and I plan to continue doing it for the forseeable future.

Support quality independent weirdos. Support “The Hunt for Tom Clancy”

And I hope you enjoy this…something a little different. Sound off in the comments.

-Matt

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