Who was (is?) CMDR Manship, USN ?

[timhunter at juno.com]

CMDR James Manship is (was?) a US Navy officer commanding a group that
was engaged in electronic monitoring in the 1980s.  He was one of those
"fast track" officers picked out early for special grooming and
development and believed he would become an Admiral at an early age.
Ironically, in spite of the great hopes placed in Manship (a charismatic
leader-type) the USN chose to grind Manship into shreds.  Manship was
working on intercepts which revealed large-scale drug trafficking.
Manship repeatedly and annoyingly urged that these intercepts be turned
over to entities such as the Drug Enforcement Administration.  Manship
was concerned that highly insightful information was not being
disseminated to aid in the war on drugs.  In 1983-85 (?) there was some
sort of whistle-blowing incident with Manship simply being locked out of
whatever bureau he was a part of.  His cause was taken up by a Republican
Representative from Florida and Rear Admiral James Carey (also Chairman
of the Federal Maritime Commission later), both of whom took a number of
inept steps.  Manship said there never was a clear termination from the
USN but that one day, after suffering several outrages and experiencing
increasingly magnetization, he simply took his USN ID card and cut it up
and threw it in the trash and dared the Navy to come after him. The USN
never choose to locate and arrest this Commander, who possessed access to
the most advanced electronic methods and means at a time when the Cold
War was still at a fever pitch. Ironically, after Manship's career's
demise Navy policy shifted to providing intercept information to
drugs-fighting entities. Manship later became a protege of USN CAPT (or
Admiral?) "Red" McDaniels, the famous ex-POW in Vietnam.

All of the foregoing is from memory alone.  I regret any misinformation.

Tim Hunter




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