1. a. (James Hineline) Interview, History 150 Spring 2019, Conducted by Patrick Hineline, March 9, 2019
b. Interview setup
To setup for the interview I created a list of questions I wanted to cover. I shared these questions with my grandfather a week in advance so he had time to read over and think about some answers. I interviewed him in his house in Midlothian, Virginia. I used GarageBand on my laptop to record this interview. He got very sick over break and asked if I could just call him when he felt better. So to cope with this I recorded the audio from my phone with GarageBand. Everything went smoothly and I think my questions were all answered well. The audio was easily transferred and transcribed.
c. Short biography
James H. Hineline was born in Easton, Pennsylvania on April 9th 1935. He joined the Florida national guard in 1953. He went on active duty in 1956. Deployed to Alaska where he served on an arctic outpost above the arctic circle. In 1958 he was reassigned to the office of the joint chief of staff secretary of defense at the Pentagon, where he worked in the special security office. In 1960 he met his wife Doris Hineline on a blind date in Washington DC. On January 2nd 1962 they got married and started a family. They had 2 sons in the following 2 years. James and his family relocated in 1966 where his wife’s parents lived prior to his deployment to Vietnam. He was deployed in the fall of 1966 and returned in 1967. When he returned he was restationed to Fort Bragg in North Carolina for 10 months. After that he moved his family once again to San Francisco, California where his wife’s older sister lived. For a second time he was deployed to Vietnam in December of 1968. He returned in January of 1970. Following his second deployment he was stationed in Fort Huachuca in Arizona. In 1974 he moved to Fort Bliss, Texas. A few months later he returned to DC where he worked in the national photographic interpretation center under the CIA. He worked in the CIA until 1996. James retired in 1996 after close to 45 years of service, he moved to Richmond Virginia to be with his newly born grandchildren.
d. Background
During the 1960’s America as a country was going through a rough patch. There many riots due to racial tensions and Civil Rights movements. President Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy were in office at time and were faced with a lot of problems. To add onto this the US was fighting in the Vietnam War. In 1961 JFK sent 3,500 troops to Vietnam. While at war in Vietnam the US also had to deal with the cuban missile crisis. On November 22, 1963 JFK was assassinated which sent the country into even more turmoil. Lyndon B. Johnson, the previous vice president, took over as president and signed the Civil Rights Act into law in 1964. To only make things worse at home the US began to show opposition to the Vietnam war by having anti-war protests, and Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King was also killed in 1968. During the 1960’s the US was able to successfully put a man on the moon and
SOURCES:
Journals from JMU libraries: https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/ircl.2017.0218
https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/ircl.2017.0218
Timeline of the 1960’s: https://www.pbs.org/opb/thesixties/timeline/timeline_text.html
e. Transcript
P: Patrick (the interviewer) JH: James Hineline
P: So to begin. Can you just introduce yourself and describe where you grew up.
JH: Ok, my name is James H. Hineline. I was born in eastern Pennsylvania in Nineteen forty two, moved to Boston during the war because my father didn’t have a job. We lived in the Boston area for 10 years. Before the weather got so bad for my father’s business we moved to South Florida. South Florida was a hoot, had a lot of fun. Finished high school went to the University of Miami for a while. (inaudible) (worked for national guard)
P: All right.
JH: Where I work as an assistant golf professional. With no prospect on the horizon and being a member of the National Guard I decided to go on active duty.
P:All right. Can you tell me a little bit about your family and parents. Which you already talked about a little bit.
JH: My father was born right outside of eastern Pennsylvania on a farm which was part of a land grant from William Penn where our family came to this country in sixteen eighty two my mother was a first generation Irish immigrant his family lived in Boston Massachusetts. From that union a mixed marriage a dumb crout. From that you became me (inaudible) Ranger Regiment Asian and was very neat and tidy about a place for everything and everything it was a way out of south florida where there was no future.
P: All right. So what branch were you in.
JH: Army.
P: Army, and what was the hardest part for you about being in the military.
JH: (thinking) No I really didn’t have any difficulties.
P: Nothing? Being away from your family. Maybe
JH: No. I kind of was always a loner anyway.
P: All right. What kind of training do they make you go through.
JH:Training is military intelligence different aspects of it. On being a image and analyst cryptographer. (thinking) (didn’t want to go into too much detail).
P:You don’t want to go into too much detail?
JH: No, how to open locked doors and.
P: All the fancy stuff.
JH: All the fancy stuff
P: How many years did you serve for.
JH: In the military?
P:Yeah.
JH:Twenty three.
P:Twenty three. And where redeployed deployed mainly.
JH:Mainly?I spent most of my military career in WashingtonD.C. and Vietnam.
P:Another thing so I kinda already asked but was it hard for you to be away from your family and kids and how did you communicate with them and how often.
JH: It was very difficult in that we were very close and I got to tape recorders one that Doris (his wife) had one that I had and we communicated by tapes.
P: Sending tapes?
JH: Sending tapes back and forth to one another.
P: That’s cool. Next would be do you think the military had any effect on your health?
JH: On my health?
P: During a time or now.
JH: Not that I’m aware.
P: Well that’s good. What would you say the scariest part was of everything?
JH: The scariest part was being judged on how many times that happened to you or having somebody shoot a rocket on you. And rockets all of those mortars falling on us.
P: Yeah that sounds pretty scary.
JH: Yeah. Especially when you could… you know it was funny. Side story. We were we were Bruce Blake had come in. He was our Mohawk pilot and Mohawk is a reconnaissance aircraft. It is photography infrared and side looking airborne radar movement. So we’re out there trying to find them in the jungles. We were in there and we were briefing getting ready to go and all of a sudden he looks at me and I look at him and both of us go out the door the other guys stand there saying “what’s going on”. We went to the bunker and Bruce says did you hear some and I said yeah did you. He said Yeah. Bruce used to be in the infantry he had come to Vietnam on the 25th Division first name and then when he left he went to flight school and became aviator and came back. He says what did you hear. I said I heard very ominous ping.He sent me to when a mortar round leaves the tube of the mortar it make a ping you hear pingggg you know what I mean. If you’ve ever heard it you know exactly what it is. And both of us went pooom to the bunker and everybody said what the hell’s the matter with them. And then when it landed ohhhh we had lots of company
P: Yeah.
JH: Good experiences though.
P: Would you say that you’re glad that you decided to join the military.
JH: Absolutely. I had the time of my life.
P: What did you do after the military.
JH: I did the same thing that I did in the military.
P: For the CIA?
JH: For the CIA. I had worked for the CIA while I was in the military. So I just was doing the same thing. I was in imagery I was primarily the Middle East it was my area of expertise and I had a skill that they wanted. So they hired me back I didn’t even get to clean out my desk.
P: So how many years did you work with the CIA?
JH: Twenty Twenty a little over twenty.
P: All right. And then can you describe what like a normal day at work at the CIA would be like. Like was it similar to like a normal like 9 to 5 job. Just kind of like the general what you would do.
JH: Well I did were like eight years at a remote facility where we work 24 hours a day.
P: And how many hours do you work?
JH: Twelve hours twelve hours twelve hour shifts. But also I was I was considered essential personnel so no matter what the weather was or anything else I had to pack up my sleeping bag and my gear and go sleep on the chairs or floor or whatever.
P: All right. Well that’s pretty much it. Do you have anything else that you want to add.
JH: No, for me it was exciting was very rewarding. It gave me the opportunity to learn the culture history of other people.
NOT RECORDED.
P: Well, Thank you very much for your time and service I am proud to have a grandfather like you.
JH: of course thank you for taking time to interview me, glad I could help you.
REST OF INTERVIEW IS ADDITIONAL TALKING/STORY
f. Recap:
I think my interview went well. It was cool to have a chance to interview and talk to my gpa about his service and time in the military. He was grateful that he could help me and share his experiences. I could have used a better mic and more structure in my interview. I just asked questions that I thought was fit for the conversation. We didn’t use a script but I think I got everything answered that I wanted to.