David vs. Goliath
(An Autobiography)
Rodney Stich
Former Government Agent
Confidant to FBI, CIA and other Government Agents,
And to Former Drug Smugglers and Mafia Figures
Copyright 2010 by Rodney Stich and Silverpeak Enterprises,
a Nevada Corporation. PO Box 4, Alamo, CA 94507.
This book: David vs. Goliath: 9/11 and Other Tragedies
(ISBN 978-0-932438-25-6)
1. Whistleblower—United States—FAA. 2. United States government—corruption. 3. Airline disasters—9/11. 4. Corruption (in politics)—United States.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: pending
Stich, Rodney—Author
Titles by Rodney Stich. with ISBN for print books:
America’s Housing & Financial Frauds (978-0-932438-57-7)
Blowback, 9/11, and Cover-ups, 1st ed. (978-0-932438-15-7)
Congress and Other Cesspools (978-0-932438-29-4)
Crimes of the FBI-DOJ, Mafia, and al Qaeda (978-0-932438-59-1)
David Vs. Goliath: 9/11 & Other Tragedies (978-0-932438-25-6)
Defrauding America, 4th ed. Vol. One (978-0-932438-18-8)
Defrauding America, 4th ed. Vol. Two (978-0-932438-19-5)
Disavow: A CIA Saga of Betrayal (978-0-932438-17-1)
Drugging America, 2nd ed. (978-0-932438-11-9)
Explosive Secrets of Covert CIA Companies (978-0-932438-23-2)
FBI, CIA, the Mob, and Treachery (978-0-932438-24-9)
History of Aviation Disasters: 1950 to 9/11 (978-0-932438-65-2)
Iraq, Lies, Cover-ups, and Consequences, (978-0-932438-22-5)
Lawyers and Judges (978-0-932438-16-4)
Lockerbie to 9/11: (978-0-932438-67-6)
Subverting America, Vol. One (978-0-932438-20-1)
Subverting America, Vol. Two (978-0-932438-21-8)
Terrorism Against America, (978-0-932438-14-0)
Those Ugly Americans: 20th & 21st Centuries (978-0-932438-01-0)
World’s Greatest Financial Frauds: (978-0-932438-63-8)
Each book is available in E-book and print formats at amazon.com and other locations. They are periodically revised. This edition: November 1, 2010.
Purpose of This Book
This book—not intended to be written for profit—and the dozen-plus others written by Rodney Stich, is written for several reasons, some of which include the following:
To provide factual information obtained by the author and his coalition of other former government agents—some in the intelligence, law enforcement, and other agencies—and other insiders, concerning a half century of continuing corruption and the tragic consequences of that culture.
To focus their entire attention from political ideology, and with obsession with trivia, to the real source of harm to Americans and national security, with the hope that there will be sufficient people exercising courage and character to help expose this largely unrecognized source of most harm to the people.
So that no one in the United States can ever say, upon learning of these matters years later, “I did not know!”
David vs. Goliath: 9/11 and Other Tragedies
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Life in Depression Years
Navy Life in World War II
Civilian Life After World War II
Interesting Career as Airline Pilot
Becoming Federal Aviation Safety Inspector
Starting a New Life: Real Estate Entrepreneur
The Imposters: Who were they? 5
Airline Disasters Motivated Becoming an Activist
Lawsuits Addressing Corruption Related to Airline Crashes
Inside Sources Reveal Other Criminal Activities
Using the Courts to Report High-Level Criminal Activities
Suing Members of Congress for Their Cover-Ups
Parallel CIA Action to Halt Exposure Activities
Seeking Civil Rights Relief in Chapter 11 Courts
People Close to Me Became Victims
Warning of Disasters and Terrorism
Blowback: September 11, 2001
Final Attempt—Prior to 9/11
Post 9/11 Cover-Ups by Federal Judges
Endemic Cover-Ups Everywhere!
Wacky Conspiracy Theories Protected the Guilty
Continuing Legal Attempts to Halt Exposures
The Future the Public Made Possible
The Author's Background and Credentials
The author and activist against corruption in government, Rodney Stich, has an unusual background for exposing corruption in the various government entities that adversely affects the security of the United States and the lives of the men, women and children in America.
Basically, his sophisticated background and capability of discovering the source of these problems relies on his extensive experience, starting in the U.S. Navy in 1941 (prior to Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941). The highlights include:
Sixty years of sophisticated aviation experience (as detailed below).
Occupied key government positions where he was able to document hard-core corruption in the three branches of the federal government. The federal government assigned to him the task of correcting the conditions causing the worst series of airline crashes in the nation's history. It was here that he first discovered the gravity of the deep-seated culture of corruption in the FAA that continues to this day. The aviation tragedies of September 11, 2001, were simply a continuation of the cause and consequences of what he has been documenting for years.
He became a confidant to dozens of other former and present government agents who discovered, or were part of, activities involving corrupt and criminal activities inflicting great harm upon the security of the United States and great personal and financial harm upon countless numbers of men, women and families.
These sources include present and former agents of the FBI, DEA, Customs, CIA, including former heads of secret CIA airlines and secret CIA financial operations, that were part of covert activities in which corrupt and criminal activities were occurring.
As a result of his David versus Goliath role in attacking corrupt government personnel in the three branches of government, he acquired knowledge and documentation to prove his charges. He also acquired hundreds of government documents supporting the corrupt and criminal activities from his sources.
Details of Aviation and Other Activities
Over 50 years of aviation experience covering many sophisticated areas of air safety. In World War II he was a Navy pilot, flight instructor, and patrol plane commander (PPC). After the war, he was an airline captain in domestic and overseas aviation, one of the first pilots licensed by Japan (# 170), helping to start up Japan Airlines. He was a federal air safety inspector, holding air safety responsibilities for the most senior program at the world's largest airline at that time, United Airlines.
Piloting experience in the Middle East during the 1950s, flying as captain from Beirut, Jerusalem, Tehran, Abadan, Bagdad, Jidda, and landing in the desert outside of Medina with Moslem pilgrims on the Hajj. He lived in the Middle East during these periods and visited Palestinian refugee camps.
Navy pilot and flight instructor in multi-engine aircraft from 1943 to 1946. He received his Navy wings at Pensacola when George Bush, Sr. received his wings at Corpus Christi. He started his 60 years in sophisticated military and airline aviation as a radioman on a Navy PBY prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. After the war, he was a pilot for the newly formed Japan Airlines, and had as copilots some of the Japanese pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor and with whom he fought halfway between the islands of Midway and Wake. He is believed to be the youngest Navy Patrol Plane Commander in World War II, being commander of Navy Liberators and Privateers and pilot instructor in PBY advanced flying, all at the age of 21.
Airline pilot from 1950 to 1967, flying in domestic and overseas operations. (Transocean Airlines; Seaboard and Western Airlines/Seaboard and World Airlines; California Eastern; California Central; California Western; United States Overseas Airline; Flying Tigers; Japan Airlines; Air Djibouti; Air Jordan. The reason for multiple airlines was due to occasional pilot farming out from original airline (Transocean Air Lines) and due to the frequent pilot furloughs in the earlier days of commercial aviation.) Stich was in Iran the morning in 1953 when another undermining of a foreign government occurred: the CIA-backed overthrow of Mossadegh and installation of the Shah.
Middle East experience as an airline captain, which includes flying Muslim pilgrims to Mecca and Medina, visiting Palestinian refugee camps, residing in Ramallah, Jerusalem, Beirut, and other Middle East countries. This experience provides him with a more accurate understanding of the Middle East problems.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air carrier operations inspector, responsible for air safety at several major airlines, conducting flight checks of airline pilots, issuing aircraft ratings to airline pilots, making safety recommendations, inspecting and insuring that airlines meet federal air safety requirements, investigating aircraft incidents and accidents and making reports on them. Airlines at which Stich conducted pilot and flight engineer checks included United, TWA, Eastern, Northwest, among others.
Acted as special prosecutor while an FAA inspector-investigator, forcing an unprecedented four-month-long hearing upon the FAA during which time testimony and hard evidence were presented that proved the existence of corruption related to a series of fatal airline crashes.
Filed federal lawsuits authorized and required by federal law to prove the relationship between serious air safety and criminal violations and a series of specific airline crashes.
Made several safety procedures while an FAA inspector that are standard today at many airlines. These include high altitude jet upset avoidance procedures, procedures to avoid inadvertent descent into the ground, procedure to minimize the large altitude loss following stall of air carrier aircraft, pre-takeoff briefing procedures.
Author of books intended to inform the segment of the public capable and interested in being informed of hardcore corruption in government and seeking to motivate the few who can exercise courage and responsibility that is so lacking in today's America. His books include multiple editions of Unfriendly Skies, Defrauding America, Drugging America, and others.
Television series were twice considered for his books. The first occasion was when producer Jackie Cooper planned a three-part television series following release of the first edition of Unfriendly Skies and twice in the late 1990s.
Guest and air safety expert on over 3,000 radio and television shows in the United States, Canada, Germany, Holland, and Mexico.
Devoted over 40 years to addressing crash-causing aviation problems.
While he was an FAA air safety inspector, among his many reports and recommendations, he reported the dangers of hijackings and the two common-sense steps that would have prevented almost every hijacking that subsequently occurred, including the hijackings of September 11, 2001. The deep-seated culture within the FAA, including malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance, resulted in the repeated disregard of the reports and recommendations of the highly qualified FAA air safety inspectors. As detailed in Unfriendly Skies and its replacement, History of Aviation Disasters: 1950 to 9/11, this conduct caused or made possible the September 11, 2001, hijackings, earlier fatal hijackings, and many other fatal air disasters. A prior airline crash into New York City that generated worldwide attention, a United Airlines crash, arose from this culture of FAA misconduct.
Expertise in Other Areas of Corruption in Government
Acquired dozens of sources over the past 20 years who provided him with precise information, documentation, affidavits, relating to other areas of corruption in the three branches of the federal government and in the California courts. These sources include present and former government agents, including agents of the FBI, DEA, Customs, Secret Service, CIA, including the former heads of secret CIA airlines and secret CIA financial operations. This corruption is detailed in the various books that he wrote and on the following Internet sites: www.defraudingamerica.com; www.druggingamerica.com; www.unfriendlyskies.com.
Acquired huge quantities of documentation relating to widespread hard-core corruption in the federal courts, including obstruction of justice, widespread violations of civil and constitutional rights as part of the judicial pattern blocking the reporting of criminal activities in key judicial and other government offices. These are matters inflicting great harm upon national interests, and the evidence could be used to force badly needed changes to the courts and in the interest of justice.
Documented material that exposes the corruption in the Federal Courts, Justice Department, and Congress, that has been kept from the public.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Certificates
Airline Transport Pilot certificate (503896).
TYPE RATINGS in the DC-8 jet; Convair 880/990 jet; Curtis C-46; DC-3, DC-4, Convair 240-340-440; Martin 202-404; Boeing Stratocruiser (B-377); Lockheed Constellation (749-1049-1649); and considerable flying experience in the Lockheed Electra (from which the Navy EP-3 was derived), Boeing 720, DC-6, and DC-7.
Japanese Airline Transport Pilot (# 170), one of the first Airline Transport pilot licenses issued by Japan, issued in 1952.
Navy aircraft flown: PBY―as instructor in advanced PBY training at Jacksonville, Florida; Plane commander (PPC) in Liberator (B-24) and Privateer (PB4Y2); SNB (D-18); SNJ (AT-6); BT-13 and Stearman.
Background for discovering covert activities
Starting in 1989, Stich became a confidant to a large number of CIA and other deep-cover operatives, during which he spent over 2,000 hours in deposition-like questioning, receiving thousands of letters, documents, and affidavits describing and supporting the activities which he writes about in his books and which supplement what he personally discovered as a federal and then private investigator (and as an international airline pilot).
Included in his many insider friends and sources are the heads of former CIA proprietary airlines and financial institutions, pilots who flew arms from the United States and drugs back, people who were involved in drug-money laundering, looting of savings and loans, and other activities ordered by their deep-cover superiors.
This combination of government investigator background and large number of friends and confidants involved in deep-cover activities for the past forty years gives the author an unusual amount and source of information and insight into the normally highly compartmentalized area of covert activities.
Possibly because of his military pilot and airline pilot background, combined with his considerable work in exposing government corruption, dozens of present and former government agents and operatives, former drug traffickers, and others, have provided Stich during the last ten years with huge amounts of data, documentation, and clarification on corrupt activities in government. This is the detailed information that is found in his various books.
Chronology of Stich's Background Activities
Over 50 years in sophisticated aviation positions.
Navy pilot and instructor in World War II. Instructed in PBY seaplanes, and was Patrol Plane Commander in four-engine Liberator (PB4Y-1) and Privateer (PB4Y-2) aircraft before the age of 21. Received Navy wings at the same time as George Bush received his. (Bush received his Navy wings at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi and Stich received his at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, in December 1943.
Prior to going to Navy pilot training, Stich was a radioman in PBY aircraft flying in the Pacific. This was only a few years after Amelia Earhart lost her life in the same general area. Stich's initial flying was in the Pacific, with primitive PBY aircraft and equipment, flying in the same general area as Amelia Earhart ran out of fuel. His understanding of navigational problems existing at that time makes it easy to understand why she became lost and exhausted her fuel supply. Stich was flying patrols out of Midway Island before the great battle of Midway Island, missing the battle by being sent to the United States for Navy pilot training.
This training occurred in 1943 at the University of Georgia at Athens, primary flight training in the Navy's yellow Stearman at the Naval Air Station, Dallas (Grand Prairie, Texas), and at various airfields in the Pensacola area, ending with pilot training in PBY seaplanes. Upon finishing training, he received two pilot designations: the first was as a Naval Air Pilot (Chief Aviation Pilot) and ten days later, received a commission in the Navy and designation as Navy Aviator.
Following the receipt of his Navy wings, Stich went to the Naval Air Station at Jacksonville, Florida, for advanced PBY training. At the end of this training, he was selected to be a pilot flight instructor, which continued for several months before being sent to Hutchinson, Kansas, for training as Patrol Plane Commander in Liberator and Privateer aircraft. This was followed by various assignments to the Naval Air Stations at Whidbey Island in Washington and at San Diego, before being sent to Tinian Island in the far Pacific. Upon the ending of World War II, Stich left the Navy and eventually started flying for various airlines.
Stich flew as an airline pilot in domestic and international operations with several different airlines. In those days, pilot furloughs were common and frequent. His main airline was Transocean Airlines based in Oakland, California. Others included Pioneer Airlines based in Dallas; California Central Airlines in Los Angeles; Seaboard and World Airlines; California Eastern Airlines; Overseas National Airlines.
His primary airline, Transocean Airlines, started up Japan Airlines in 1951, furnishing Martin 202 and DC-4 aircraft and captains. Stich was part of this startup and received Japanese pilot license number 170 in 1952. Some of the Japanese copilots that flew with Stich were pilots based on Wake Island when Stich was based on Midway Island. During patrol flights, the PBY aircraft on which Stich was a crewmember was attacked by Japanese "Betty" bombers, and very possibly piloted by some of the same pilots who were now his copilots. It was ironical that the Japanese planes carrying the rising sun emblem on the side of the fuselage were the same emblems on the aircraft shooting at him.
Because of Transocean's international operations, the flight operations covered many unusual incidents and type of operations. For instance, he flew several DC-4 trips from Oakland to New Delhi, India, carrying 1600 monkeys for delivery to the Midwest where they were used for the Salk polio vaccine program. He flew Moslem pilgrims to Mecca from various Middle East locations (Beirut, Jerusalem, Bagdad, Teheran, Abadan, sometimes landing in the desert outside of Mecca. During one such operation in 1953, while residing at a hotel in Abadan, Iran, he was caught up in the CIA-initiated revolution that toppled Mossadegh and brought into power the Shah. The Iranians has previously ordered the departure of British and Americans, and Stich and his small group of airmen were only tolerated because they were flying Moslems to Mecca. When the revolution occurred, Stich and his small group were at great physical risk. With the help of a Dutch national responsible for security, this small group had a machine-gun escort to their aircraft for an immediate departure.
During his flying days for the airlines, Stich was captain on virtually every type of piston aircraft flown by the airlines since the end of World War II. These included, for instance, DC-3, DC-4, C-46, Martin 202, Convair 340, Lockheed Constellation, and Boeing Stratocruiser.
All types of emergency situations were part of these activities, including for instance: engine fires and engine failures in flight and during takeoff; shutdown of all destination and alternate airports by fog on the North Atlantic run; un-forecast high winds on long over-water flights that made reaching an airport questionable.
Taking Employment As
Federal Air Safety Inspector-Investigator
In 1962, upon the bankruptcy of Transocean Airlines, Stich went to work for the Federal Aviation Administration (called the Federal Aviation Agency at that time). His initial assignment was in the Los Angeles office, working with American Airlines, Western Airlines, and others. These airline safety duties included conducting flight checks of airline pilots, issuing government ratings so they could fly that particular aircraft, checking for safety problems, making safety recommendations, and anything else involving air safety.
Start of Discovery of Deadly Corruption in Government
In 1963, while United Airlines was experiencing a string of brutal airline crashes, including a DC-8 that crashed into New York City and which was the worst world-wide crash at that time, FAA officials asked Stich to volunteer for the most senior program at United, where many of the crashes were occurring. Stich accepted, and went through an arduous ground and flight training that culminated about four months later with Stich passing and receiving a type rating in the DC-8 aircraft. Stich was replacing another inspector who had repeatedly reported that United Airlines management was violating and not complying with important federal air safety laws and then falsifying government-required records to cover up for these violations. That inspector had been blocked by the local District Office manager at Denver, and the regional FAA officials in Los Angeles, and had been so concerned by the accidents and near-accidents that he traveled to Washington and complained to top officials at the FAA and with the NTSB (at that time the NTSB was called the Civil Aeronautic Board Bureau of Safety). United Airlines management pressured FAA management to transfer that inspector, and this was done. He was transferred to an undesirable location in Puerto Rico, and his DC-8 experience and training was thereby wasted.
Stich promptly discovered what other inspectors had discovered. United Airlines management was repeatedly violating important and federally required air safety requirements that explained the long series of senseless crashes experienced by United Airlines. He discovered, as others had done, that FAA management at the local, regional, and national level was making these violations possible by harassing, threatening, and removing inspectors who reported the problems and tried to correct them as required by their federal job responsibilities and as required by the Federal Aviation Act. Stich inspected, discovered, and reported very serious air safety and criminal violations throughout the United Airlines flight activities, discovering their relationship with several prior fatal crashes. United Airlines management threatened to get Stich fired or removed, as they admitted they had done to Stich's predecessor.
Stich discovered, as many federal inspectors discovered and experienced earlier, that FAA management:
Knew of the crash-related pattern of air safety and criminal acts by key management personnel at United Airlines.
Instructed inspectors not to file reports of air safety or criminal violations that were discovered at United Airlines. This and similar misconduct made possible most of the many crashes experienced by United Airlines over a 20 year period.
Removed from the official government records and returned official reports of these problems to the reporting inspectors, telling that that these reports were not wanted, and that they would make the office look bad when there was an accident investigation.
Destroyed inspectors' reports that revealed the serious violations at United Airlines.
Harassed and threatened federal inspectors who continued to report the accident-causing air safety and criminal violations.
Took retaliatory actions against federal inspectors who took required corrective actions, such as conducting a record inspection opposed by United management personnel, reporting a crew members needing corrective training for such problems as high-sink-rate approaches, poor knowledge of the aircraft, poor pilot performance.
Discovering Cover-ups Throughout Government
Stich provided evidence to various members of Congress, to the FBI and to U.S. Attorneys where the federal violations were occurring. They did nothing except cover up.
The prior brutal crashes, the continuing crashes and near-crashes, caused Stich to escalate his attempts to carry out the federal air safety responsibilities. He was blocked by FAA personnel at every level, who sought to protect the serious air safety and criminal activities at United Airlines. In desperation, Stich used federal laws in an imaginative manner seeking to force corrective actions. These included:
While an FAA inspector-investigator, he acted as a special prosecutor, forcing a four month long hearing upon the FAA, introducing testimony by various FAA personnel and hard evidence to support his charges of corruption related to a series of fatal airline crashes implicating management personnel at United Airlines and within the Federal Aviation Administration. The hearing officer at the adversary hearing was a member of the FAA Administrator's staff and held his position only as long as he pleased his boss. He then engaged in a cover-up. During the hearing, several other fatal crashes occurred at United Airlines, which were linked to the federal violations and corruption that Stich and other inspectors were reporting.
Stich continued to keep top officials with the National Transportation Safety Board informed of the air safety and criminal activities that he and other inspectors had discovered, and which had played a key causative role in prior crashes investigated by this accident investigating agency. Stich reported the criminal perjury and subornation of perjury by FAA management personnel at the hearing that was causing continuation of the air safety and criminal violations. NTSB management, despite their responsibility under the Federal Aviation Act, refused to become involved. This refusal, this cover-up of major accident causing air safety and criminal violations, then made the NTSB officials implicated in several other United Airlines crashes that occurred during and after the hearing. These officials then had to cover up the behind-the-scene corruption that they themselves were a part of. This practice of NTSB would continue for years, and be evident during the TWA Flight 800 disaster caused by a missile and others.
Circumventing Corruption and Obstruction of Justice
Stich circumvented Justice Department block by appearing before a federal grand jury in Denver seeking to produce evidence of criminal acts related to a series of recent airline crashes. The mostly unsophisticated men and women composing the grand jury relied upon the U.S. attorney who was present while Stich was offering his evidence, and no action was taken by the jury foreman. Several individual members of the Grand Jury approached Stich as he was packing up his evidence and said they felt that he was revealing serious problems. But their lack of sophistication kept them from seeking further evidence.
Because Stich had made many real estate investments as an airline pilot that made him a millionaire, he did not have the financial need to back off, to abandon his federal job requirements as other inspectors were forced to do. They had to remain quiet or suffer personal and financial retaliation. Stich decided to quit the FAA and try to expose the aviation corruption from the outside as a private citizen.
Stich filed federal lawsuits in the U.S. district courts seeking to expose the federal corruption that he and other inspectors and CIA whistle-blowers had uncovered. In the first two lawsuits, the federal judges sympathized with Stich, ignored the federal laws requiring them to allow the case to proceed, and then dismissed the lawsuits. This practice made possible the continuation of the air safety and criminal activities and led to other crashes.
Stich published books, the first one in 1978, being the first edition of Unfriendly Skies (which is now in the third edition). The purpose of the books were to inform and motivate the public. He appeared as guest and expert on over 3000 radio and television shows during the past 18 years. Television networks from Germany, Holland and Mexico have flown camera crews to the United States for the sole purpose of interviewing Mr. Stich.
Joined By Dozens of Other Government Agents
His aggressive exposing of serious corruption implicating federal officials exposed further government corruption. In addition, other federal agents started revealing to Stich the corrupt activities of federal personnel in other areas. This information and documentation provided caused Stich to write other books, again attempting to inform and motivate the public to exercise some form of personal responsibility.
Over a period of years, since the mid-1980s, these sources included agents of the CIA, FBI, DEA, ONI, Customs, INS, and other government agencies, and other insiders. Today, his sources number in excess of fifty and continue to increase.
During this 40-plus years of fighting a David versus Goliath action against corrupt federal personnel, Stich suffered incredible retaliation from corrupt government personnel, and especially corrupt Justice Department personnel and federal judges (assisted by California judges and a covert CIA law firm). By the corrupt misuse of federal office, Stich was stripped of his life's assets, which in 1987 consisted of $10 million in real estate (of which $6 million was equity). His home was taken and he was ordered out of it, his various businesses that funded his exposure activities were taken, along with his twin-engine Beech Twin Bonanza aircraft and all of his assets. These acts were intended to strip him of the assets that funded his exposure activities.
During this saga, virtually no one provided any assistance, despite the fact that his battles addresses major national issues that were inflicting great harm upon the entire country. The only financial help came from people whose numbers could be counted on the fingers of one hand. So much for risking everything in an idealistic effort to fight arrogant and vicious enemies.
The author in his plane, before it was seized, along with his home and all of his life’s assets, as part of multiple schemes to block his exposure of corruption in government offices.
Nearing the end of his life, he continues the fight against the arrogance and corruption in government, and the legal attacks from the legal fraternity that continues its efforts to silence him. He faces an uglier enemy than any he faced in World War II. More information on these legal attacks and the termination of all legal rights and protections can be found at one of the many legal pages on this Internet site. The judicial attacks upon him and the total deprivation of legal and constitutional defenses are described in some of his books.
After over ten years of companionship, which provided considerable help to Stich while suffering great personal and financial losses, Midas passed away on April 3, 1997. Unless one had that kind of relationship with a near-human-like four-legged creature, and while undergoing brutal attacks from powerful government thugs, that bond may be difficult to understand.
INTRODUCTION
This is a true story of a David vs. Goliath battle that spanned almost half a century, during which a courageous but foolish person sought to expose corruption in the three branches of government. That corruption caused and enabled to occur many tragic events adversely affecting major national interests, and gravely affected the lives of many people. That corruption, and that harm, continues to threaten and inflict needless tragedies and harm to national security.
This book is a thumbnail approach to many of these events, which are detailed and documented in greater detail in other books written by Rodney Stich. Stich has had an extremely varied background, in and out of government. His activities caused him to become a national focal point for other insiders wanting to expose corruption similar to what Stich had discovered.
Stich was a Navy pilot during World War II, during which he was a flight instructor in the PBY Catalina flying boats and a patrol plane commander (PPC) in four-engine Liberators and Privateers. It is believed that he was the youngest navy pilot during World War II holding these positions: he was 20 and 21 years of age at that time.
After the war he became an airline pilot in worldwide operations, flying as captain in virtually every aircraft flown by the airlines. These include DC-3, DC-4, C-46, Martin 202, Convair 340, Lockheed Constellation, and Boeing Stratocruiser. He was also rated in the jets: DC-8 and Convair 880.
He was one of then first pilots licensed by Japan, holding pilot license number 170, and one of the first pilots for Japan Airlines. ,
He left airline flying to become a federal aviation safety inspector-investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), where his responsibilities involved every aspect of airline operations. He conducted flight checks of airline pilots, issued ratings to flying specific airline aircraft, conducted investigations, and made many recommendations for reducing the number of airline crashes and disasters that were occurring.
He was given the hands-on safety responsibility for the most senior program at the world’s largest airline, and also given the assignment to correct the conditions responsible for the worst series of airline disasters in the nation’s history at that time. That is where he had to make a decision that affected him for the remainder of his life. Tackling the corruption responsible for the deaths of many people in a long series of airline disasters.
Stich has written numerous books,1 some in multiple editions, seeking to inform the people of important matters in government offices responsible for some of the nation’s worst tragedies and biggest scandals, many withheld from the public. He has appeared as guest and expert on over 3,000 radio and television shows since 1978, many of them being repeat appearances.
As a result of his books and radio-TV appearances, many other former and present government agents and other insiders contacted him, providing him with information and evidence of corruption that they discovered as part of their official duties. Some of the information and documentation that they had provided to Stich was placed into his books, adding to what he had himself discovered as a government agent and then as an activist against corruption in government offices.
The insiders providing Stich information included agents from such government agencies as the CIA, DEA, FBI, FAA, U.S. Customs, Secret Service, and state and county law enforcement offices. Also providing him with insider information were former drug smugglers—carrying out drug smuggling assignments for people in government, and former Mafia figures.
This book, somewhat similar to an autobiography, describes some of these covert activities. In attempting to halt Stich’s exposure activities, many actions were taken against him through the misuse of powerful government offices. A literal David versus Goliath battle continued for years, revealing what can happen to anyone who attempts to report and expose corruption in government offices.
Stich was a successful real estate entrepreneur. Starting with $400, he accumulated over $10 million in real estate assets before all his assets were seized by corrupt federal judges seeking to halt his exposure activities. He had foolishly used his assets to fund his attempts to expose the people and the corrupt activities that were and are subverting vital national interests.
This book starts out with a preliminary description of Stich’s life in the depression years, then his Navy piloting duties during World War II, his post-World War II activities, and then gets into the heart of the corruption.
David vs. Goliath
9/11 and other Tragedies
(Also, an Autobiography)
CHAPTER ONE
Life in Depression Years
The Great Depression years of the 1930s were extremely difficult financial times for many people. I was born in a house in West New York, New Jersey, on April 11, 1923. Over the subsequent years I lived in Palisade Park, Fort Lee, and North Bergen. In those days, these were middle-class neighborhoods occupied mostly by people who migrated to the United States from Europe; mostly Italians and Germans.
Pompton Lake Trips
In the late twenties and early 1930s, during the summer months, my father drove the family in a 1923 Nash automobile every Sunday to Pompton Lakes, where we spent the day picnicking, boating, and fishing. I sat in the back seat of the Nash during these trips eating Cracker Jacks. The after-effect of most of these trips to Pompton Lakes was that I developed a bad case of poison ivy.
During the winter months, my father would frequently take the family to dinner at a small formal restaurant in Hoboken, where a well-dressed waiter served the food.
Summer Entertainment
During my early teens I spent many days at Palisade Amusement Park in Fort Lee, where I had a summer pass for the park’s salt-water swimming pool. There was another amusement park in Union City called Luna Park, but that was shut down in the late 1920s.
Formal Life Style of the Europeans
My family dressed and followed some of the formal dress and practices from Europe. Both my father and mother were born in Austria, and migrated to the United States in 1912, before the start of World War I. When my father and mother went anywhere in the car, my mother sat in the back seat, making it look like my father was a chauffeur.
Stock Market Crash of 1929
The family had been fairly well off financially until the stock market crash of 1929. That event caused my parents to lose the house at 418-31st Street in North Bergen. Subsequently, my father opened a hardware store on Bergen Boulevard in North Bergen. I remember it being well stocked with hardware that seemed to go from the floor to the ceiling.
My father hired a cousin to work at the hardware store, Joseph Nagel, who reportedly absconded with money. The hardware store business was later sold, and my father became a salesman for heating oil and oil burners, which he did until he died in 1940.
Buying Groceries with Indian Head Pennies
The depression period required stringent measures to survive financially. I remember going to the corner grocery story on Bergenline Avenue and paying for groceries with Indian Head pennies. Despite hard financial times, my parents enrolled me in piano lessons, which wasn’t for me and which didn’t last long. My father then enrolled me in an athletic program, where I was expected to do gymnastics on a set of double bars, another task I didn’t care for. That didn’t last long.
When I was very small, maybe six years old, my parents took me to nearby Teterboro Airport and paid $1 dollar for me to be taken up by a barnstormer. I still remember the plane; another person and I sat side by side in the seat behind the pilot.
As a young boy growing up during the depression years, I worked to get money for the extra things in life. My parents simply did not have funds for anything but basic necessities. I delivered newspapers six days a week for the Hudson Dispatch. After picking up 100 newspapers, I had to walk about eight blocks just to start the route. The rout consisted of walking six long steep blocks, each about three blocks long, without a car, and often during rain storms or snow. That required getting up about 5 a.m. every morning, delivering the newspapers, and then going to school, which consisted of a bus ride from North Bergen to Jersey City, where I attended Dickerson High School.
In those days, having a motor-powered vehicle was the dream of teenagers, which was often barred by lack of money. Also, New Jersey had a minimum age of 18 to obtain a driver’s license. I got around the age limit by obtaining my license in Pennsylvania, using the New Oxford address of a friend, Kenneth Shull.
Teenagers Activities in a More Peaceful Time
A common Saturday pastime in my early teens, during the financial depression, was walking the main business street, Bergenline Avenue, from North Bergen to the Sears Roebuck store in Union City. This included looking in all the store windows at goods that were often beyond my financial reach. I window-shopped in the stores on one side of Bergenline Avenue going to Sears, and then window-shopping the stores on the other side of Bergenline Avenue on the way back. Those trips took all afternoon.
Near the Sears store were a couple of nickel and dime stores (Kressge and Woolworth), where I stopped and ordered a bag of my favorite candy. I don’t remember the name of the candy, but it was in a hard sheet about one inch thick. The clerk broke the sheet into little pieces with a small hammer. The candy came in several flavors; strawberry and chocolate, among others. When the pieces were placed in the mouth, they would gradually soften. I have never again seen that type of candy anywhere else. Another favorite treat in those days was frozen Milky Ways that were stocked in the freezer by all the ice cream stores.
It was at a very young age, in one of these stores on Bergenline Avenue, that my father bought me a Lionel standard gauge train set for Christmas. I and several other neighborhood kids set up our trains on a six by eight foot plywood sheet, on “horses,” in the cellar, and decorated the platform with hills and villages, either in the basement or attic. We would build miniature landscapes on the platform, using window screen material to which was applied a brown-colored material similar to plaster that dried hard and had the color of soil. I still have that Lionel train.
Schooling
I attended Robert Fulton school in North Bergen, New Jersey (which was on 31st street at that time, and since renamed 77th street) from kindergarten to the eighth grade. I remember the school had an entrance marked for boys and another one marked for girls. Seventy years later, those embedded-in-concrete signs still exist.
After graduation from the eight grade, I went to Dickinson High School on Palisade Avenue in Jersey City. Due to bad economic times, I eventually quite to take various jobs as a teenager. Due to finances, college wasn’t an option for many of us. However, as things worked out, I felt I did even better than if I had gone to college.
Theatre Organ Enthusiast
I had a great fondness for the romantic-sounding theater organ ever since I heard the fabulous theatre organ at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The Wurlitzer played before the Radio City Rockettes put on their performance and before the subsequent movie started. What a fabulous sound! I would ride the bus to the 42nd street ferry terminal at Weehawken, cross the Hudson River on the ferry, and walk from the ferry terminal to Radio City Music Hall. That theater organ sound really captivated me, a sound that I enjoyed for the remainder of my life.
Movies and Musicals That Uplifted the Spirits
Before my interests changed in the mid-teens, going to the local Loews movie theater on Bergenline Avenue was standard routine on Saturdays. My spirits were always uplifted after coming out of a musical. It was so different from the negative reaction provided by most movies produced today.
Burlesque
As I was getting older, around the age of 16, I went to a burlesque theater in Union City. In those days, the films were very restrictive about nudity. I almost had to sneak in so that no one would recognize me. In those days, going to a burlesque theatre was risqué.
Newspaper Delivery
As a young teenager growing up during the depression years I started working at the age of 15 to get money for personal things that would otherwise be unobtainable. One job was delivering newspapers for the Hudson Dispatch. I got up about 4:30 a.m. every morning, six days a week, walked a half-mile to the newspaper pickup point, and then walked about ¾ of a mile to where my route started. I didn’t have a car at that time.
The entire route was on steep hills and covered four long blocks, from Bergen Boulevard to what was called Tonnelly Road, each stretch being about five long blocks. In the winter, with the ground covered with snow and ice, below freezing, and with the wind blowing, carrying 100 newspapers was hard work. I had to carry 100 newspapers for about ten blocks before I even reached my newspaper route. But the depression days motivated people to work hard. I also had a part-time evening job as a soda jerker in a drugstore on Bergen Boulevard in North Bergen.
Young “Einstein”
In the basement of one of the two-story flats where I lived I frequently experimented with high voltage devices powered by Model T ignition coils—and probably ruining radio reception for people nearby. I experimented with making gunpowder and fireworks, and also dabbled with the early radio sets. My first radio was a crystal radio, which I purchased in lower New York City.
Homosexual Neighbor
In 1939, the family rented a two family “flat” on 76th street, a common form of residence in the New York-New Jersey area. The couple that lived on the second floor owned an ice cream parlor immediately next to the Lowe’s theatre on Bergenline Avenue in North Bergen. They had a son who draped off a section of the attic with bed sheets, where he took pictures and frequently had young boys his age with him. I did not understand at that time homosexual behavior and it wasn’t until years later that I realized he was a homosexual. Years later I heard that he had committed suicide by jumping over a railing on Hudson Boulevard in North Bergen.
Cushman Motor Scooter
In the late 1930s, having a vehicle was a rarity among teenagers. Also a rarity was motor scooters. My first powered vehicle was a used Cushman motor scooter. It was so rare that whenever I stopped somewhere, people would come around, look at it, and ask me questions. To the best of my memory, I did not have a driver’s license for the motor scooter, and possibly none was required.
The Cushman motor scooter had a major design defect in the Briggs and Stratton gasoline engine. The connecting rod was made of soft material, which might have been OK for propelling a lawn mower where there was very little resistance encountered by the engine. But in a motor scooter, where the connecting rod was under more stress, such as when the motor scooter went up a hill, the connecting rod often bent. That required that I take the engine apart and install another connecting rod—made of the same soft material.
Circumventing New Jersey’s Minimum Driver Age
At that time the minimum age for a driver’s license in New Jersey was 18. I got around that by obtaining a Pennsylvania driver’s license where the minimum age was 16. I used the address of a friend, Kenneth Shull, whose parents lived in New Oxford, Pennsylvania, and they allowed me to use their address for obtaining the Pennsylvania driver’s license.
Motorcycles
My next vehicle after the Cushman motor scooter was a Henderson motorcycle, which I purchased in lower New York City, near Canal Street. It was a rainy day when I bought it and drove it to the 42nd Street Ferry, and then to North Bergen, New Jersey. I had never driven a motorcycle before, and had to teach myself. I remember the attendant on the 42nd Street ferry complaining about the noise I made as the motorcycle engine revved up too much. He didn’t know that I was just learning to ride it. I eventually sold the Henderson and purchased a Harley Davidson 74 motorcycle.
Motorcycle Friend, Kenneth Shull
During my motorcycle days, I went on frequent sight-seeing motorcycle trips in the wooded area of Northern New Jersey with my close friend, Kenneth Shull, who was about six years older than I. Kenneth and I had kept up that routine for about a year, and upon returning in late afternoon, we had dinner with Kenneth’s sister, Reba, and her husband, Willy, at their very modest apartment over a candy store on 79th street in North Bergen. That meal would always be roast pork, potatoes and sauerkraut.
I lost contact with Kenneth after I joined the navy. When I attempted to contact him at his New Oxford home in 2000—sixty years later, I found he was in an advanced Alzheimer stage and would not recognize me.
Dangers of Motorcycle Riding
Most people riding motorcycles could cite one or more accidents or near-accidents that they had; including me. One day as I was driving in West New York, New Jersey, a car turned into me, hitting the motorcycle, causing me to fly off the motorcycle and onto the hood of the car. Luckily, my motorcycle had crash-bars, which the car hit, rather than my legs. I was unhurt.
The next near-accident could have been fatal. I was traveling on Route 4 near Hackensack, New Jersey, coming out of the final turn off a circular roundabout, when the motorcycle, while heavily banked in the turn, passed over an oil slick. The motorcycle slid onto its side and into fast-moving oncoming traffic. Thankfully, the motorcycle, with me on it, slid between the oncoming cars. Enough close calls on the motorcycles convinced me to sell it and get a four-wheel vehicle.
America’s First Small Automobile
After selling the motorcycle in 1940, I purchased an old 1929 American Austin, the first small car made in the United States. It was made in Butler, Pennsylvania, in one model: a small coupe, seating two people in a snug environment. The small Austin always attracted a crowd wherever I went. Small cars were a novelty at that time, and very few were built. I purchased that car for $20, which was about twice the price that conventional old cars were being priced in 1940.
I drove the Austin to Dickerson High School in Jersey City. More than once, as a prank, students would carry the car from where I parked it and put it down somewhere else.
The Austin had a few design flaws. The small four-cylinder engine was underpowered. Once, while climbing a hill near New Oxford, Pennsylvania, I had to ask my passenger, Kenneth Shull, to get out so that I could make it up a hill. (I waited for him at the top.)
The engine did not have a water pump—relying on the hot water rising from the engine and descending in the radiator, for cooling. It may have worked in the winter in Pennsylvania, but the theory certainly didn’t work in the summer months, and I’m sure, not at higher altitudes.
The brakes were marginal. Once while going up a steep hill in North Bergen, where I used to deliver newspapers, the engine simply did not have enough power to continue the climb, even in low gear. The engine stalled, and the car started sliding backwards. I applied the brakes, and discovered they were not powerful enough to stop the car from rolling backwards on the steep hill. I quickly turned the backward-moving car ninety degrees into a driveway. I then proceeded down the hill to Tonnelly Avenue and found a more gradual hill going from Fairview to North Bergen.
The engine was well worn, and emitted a fair amount of fumes from crankcase blowback. Once, while driving in West New York, I saw my father on the sidewalk and offered him a ride. After one block of smelling the crankcase exhaust fumes, he had to get out of the car.
My next vehicle was an old Willys, which I bought in 1941. My memory indicates the purchase price was $10.
Dennis the Menace to the Neighbors
As I look back, I must have been a Dennis-the-Menace to the neighbors. First, I did all types of experiments with high-voltage Model T Ford ignition coils; I frequently did maintenance work on my motorcycles and cars, often in the street, including removing the engines. I’m sure the neighbors must have been pleased when I moved to another location. Or did they recognize me as a potential “Einstein”!
Dreams of Being a Pilot
In the late 1920s I had my first airplane ride. I must have been six or seven years old at the time. It cost $1 and I remember being seated side by side with another passenger, at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.
In the late 1930s, after Charles Lindbergh’s highly publicized North Atlantic flight caused attention to be focused on aviation, the Richfield service stations put out periodic pamphlets on how to fly a plane. I would eagerly pick up a pamphlet every time there was a release, and carefully studied the detailed procedure for various phases of flight, including takeoffs and landings.
Stefanie and Irene Stich at Teterboro Airport, 1929
I even requested information about a flying course from a flying school at Floyd Bennett airport in New York, although I certainly didn’t have the money to enroll. I believe the price was around $700 for training to qualify for the private pilot license, and $1500 for training to obtain a commercial pilot certificate.
Father’s Serious Health Problems
My father had serious health problems with stomach ulcers, which eventually developed into cancer. At that time it wasn’t known that most stomach ulcers were caused by a bacteria. Further, they didn’t have antibiotics in those days so it wouldn’t have helped even if they had recognized the cause of stomach ulcers.
He had a painful period in the hospital until he fortunately was released from his misery by death. Watching him suffer needlessly showed me the right of anyone in such great pain and suffering to bring their life to an end. I have no tolerance for those opposed to preventing someone from ending their lives when they are in a terminal condition enduring excruciating pain. Nor for those who demand that they suffer such pain so as to accommodate their objection to relieving such misery.
Leaving School to Work
Because of the economic situation during the 1930s, I left high school and had several jobs. One was driving a motorcycle and sidecar for the Consolidated Film Company in Fort Lee, New Jersey, delivering film to various locations in New York City. This continued until December 1940, when I joined the U.S. Navy. That decision changed my entire life and led to many unusual experiences.
Rodney on the Right
CHAPTER TWO
Navy Life in World War II
In early 1939, at the age of 16, I tried to join the navy, feeling that would provide more meaning to my life. My alteration on my birth certificate, to show I was 17, wasn’t very good, and the recruiting officer said for me to come back when I was of age. When I reached the age of 17, my mother signed the papers allowing me to join the navy. I enlisted in the Navy at Newark, New Jersey. That was a year before the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor, which occurred on December 7, 1941.
Upon enlisting, the Navy sent me to boot training at the Newport Naval Station at Newport, Rhode Island. The requirement to sleep in hammocks had just been ended and I missed that probably hilarious period. The pay for enlisted sailors at that time was $21 a month. After 90 days, the pay went up to $36 per month for Seaman Second Class, and then to $54 a month for Seaman First Class.
After I finished boot training, the navy, in response to a questionnaire that I filled out, sent me to the Naval Air Station at Jacksonville, Florida, for training as an aviation radioman. I learned to type and read the Morse code during several months of training. I was then rated as a radioman third class, making what I seem to remember to be $60 a month.
Standing for Review Before President Franklin D. Roosevelt
During my stay at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station, I stood in formation for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who I can still picture passing in front of me in his touring car, about 100 feet away. I also seem to remember him having the long cigarette holder in his mouth.
I also remember the chiggers that were common in Florida, which caused itching in the ankles after standing in the sand that was all over the naval station.
Fueling my Desire to be a Pilot
At Jacksonville, Navy pilots were training in the noisy single-engine trainer known as the SNJ (called AT-6 in the Army). Every time one took off and passed about 100 feet above me, I longed for the chance to be a Navy pilot. I felt that for me, just 17 years of age, that would never happen. Little did I know that within three years I would not only be a Navy pilot, but an instructor in advanced pilot training in the PBY flying boats at that same naval air station.
Jim Crow in the South
While growing up in New Jersey, there wasn’t anything like the “Jim Crow” that I encountered in the South. In Florida, Blacks sat in the back of busses; they had separate drinking fountains and separate toilets, and separate eating establishments. I was only 17 at the time and the significance of this disparity did not sink in, as I was in the learning process.
Another social matter that I learned was how homosexuals were treated; they were arrested. I never paid any attention to the problem at that time, as it did not become such a social issue as it became in the late 1990s. I had learned that many homosexuals had many sexual encounters a night, in almost any location.
From Jacksonville to the U.S.S. Albermarle
Upon finishing training at Jacksonville, the navy transferred me to a naval supply ship, the U.S.S. Albermarle, where my job was to listen to and type reports that came in Morse code. I spent hours at a time typing the information coming in the form of dots and dashes, to where, after so many hours, I had trouble telling the difference between a dot and a dash.
Shipboard Life
Life on a ship wasn’t to my liking; I wanted to be in naval aviation. I put in a request to transfer to the aviation section of the navy and before long I received orders transferring me to PBY squadron 71 at Quonset Point Naval Air Station near Providence, Rhode Island. My pay at that time, as radioman third class, was enough for me to purchase from a sailor being transferred a Plymouth with a rumble seat.
Dating in Navy
I was dating a girl at nearby East Greenwich; Ethel Matheson. One Sunday, while I was on a date with Ethel, word arrived that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor; that was December 7, 1941. Within two weeks, the squadron and I were transferred from Quonset Point to the Kaneohe Naval Air Station on the Island of Oahu in Hawaii.
Most of the Navy patrol planes in Hawaii had been destroyed during the December 7 attack and we were needed to start flying patrol flights west of the Hawaiian Islands. I never saw Ethel again until years later, under unusual circumstances. More later.
Rodney Stich, December 1941
Wreckage from December 7, 1941 Japanese Attack
When I arrived at Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station, many of the wrecked aircraft from the December 7th attack had not been removed, nor the damage to some of the buildings repaired. We showered with cold water, as the water heating plant had been destroyed. Otherwise, the crew quarters were intact and the food was good.
Blackouts in Hawaii
In Hawaii, the headlights on vehicles were totally blacked out except for a narrow rectangle about two inches wide and ¾ inch high, to minimize visibility in the event of a Japanese attack. In those days, Waikiki Beach was not crowded like it is today; the only hotels being the Moana and the Royal Hawaiian.
Downtown Honolulu was also low-key, with the main street only several blocks long. At a Honolulu music store I purchased a small accordion and took accordion lessons, and practiced in a remote boiler room at the navy base so I would not disturb anyone.