Hog's Exit - (Modern Southeast Asia) by Gayle L Morrison (Paperback)

About the Book

A portrait of the rowdy life and mysterious death of a former CIA officer, as told by those who knew him

Book Synopsis

It just didn't sit right. The American Embassy had reported the accidental death of Jerry "Hog" Daniels by carbon monoxide poisoning. Three decades later, his family, friends, and coworkers remain unconvinced that the U.S. government told them the truth. A former CIA case officer during the "secret war" in Laos, Jerry Daniels was experienced, smart, and careful. Raising even more doubts, his casket was "Permanently Sealed" before being shipped home to Missoula, Montana, where he was honored with a three-day funeral ceremony organized by his former comrades-in-arms, the Hmong hilltribe warriors from Laos. First-person accounts from Americans and Hmong, ranchers and refugees, State Department officials and smokejumpers capture the life of "Hog" Daniels and offer speculation on the unsettling circumstances of his death. Equally important, Hog's Exit is the first complete account in English to document the drama and beauty of the Hmong funeral process.

Review Quotes

Hog's Exit instantly vaults into the top five books on the CIA's covert war in Laos and its long, long aftermath. It's a wonderful work of storytelling and scholarship, and it opens up the spiritual world of the Hmong tribe as few have done before. -Roger Warner, author ofShooting at the Moon: The Story of America's Clandestine War in Laos

In Hog's Exit, the poetry of the hills of Montana and of Laos speaks to us through the memories of those who knew him, leaving all the questions and explanations and memories to follow in a stream. Jerry Daniels the CIA officer becomes Jerry Daniels the human being, someone we can understand. -Rebecca Weldon, anthropologist

Expertly told through the voices of those who knew "Hog" best--fellow Montanans, smokejumpers, CIA personnel, US Embassy officials, and the people of Southeast Asia Jerry worked so hard to protect. Raw and unapologetic, Daniels's life tells us much about the human cost of covert operations. --Timothy N. Castle, former CIA Staff Officer and author of At War in the Shadow of Vietnam and One Day Too Long: Top Secret Site 85 and the Bombing of North Vietnam

No other American is more recognized and beloved to the Hmong than Mr. Jerry Daniels. In the battlefield, he ate and lived the way they did. He took care of them and in return they treated him like a brother. He was one of them. Gayle Morrison has done an excellent job of weaving together the stories of those who knew him best and exposing us to his humanitarian work as well as the mysterious circumstances surrounding his untimely death. This book is a great tribute to Jerry Daniels and those who served with him during the Secret War of Laos. --Lee Pao Xiong, Director of the Center for Hmong Studies

This is not just a good, interesting read, but a must read on the life, amazing career, and untimely death of one of the greatest CIA field operatives of all time.--Alan Dawson, Bangkok Post

About the Author

Gayle L. Morrison has worked with the Hmong community since 1977 in education, refugee services, private enterprise, and as an oral historian, researcher and writer. Her first book was Sky Is Falling: An Oral History of the CIA's Evacuation of the Hmong from Laos (1999). Based on the quality of her oral history research, she received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in 2003-2004. She lives in Santa Ana, California, and Missoula, Montana.