James B Wells

In the Name of the Father…

Post author By James b. Wells
Post date May 8, 2025
2 Comments on In the Name of the Father…

Last night at the Poetry at the Table event, I shared a poem I recently wrote about my feelings regarding a FOIA denial appeal I filed eight years ago with the CIA. I received word last month that they will continue to withhold information due to national security, foreign policy, and privacy concerns. Here are the last two verses of that poem:

The CIA’s shadows stretch far and wide,

Guarding their secret of how one man died.

Sixty years pass, yet still they hold tight

To the truth of how a just man was lost in the

fight.

But I press on, for my peace demands

That I expose our crimes with trembling hands.

A memoir to share, a son’s quest unveiled,

In the name of the father whose truth was curtailed.

By James b. Wells

JAMES B. WELLS is a retired criminology and criminal justice professor in the School of Justice Studies in the College of Justice, Safety, and Military Science at Eastern Kentucky University, and is the recipient of the 2025 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences John Howard Award, an award given intermittently, upon significant demand, to recognize an individual who has made significant and sustained contributions to the practice of corrections. A former carpenter, soldier, and correctional officer in a super-maximum-security prison and later as a researcher/planner assisting architects in prison design, he has multiple degrees, including an M.S. in Criminal Justice, a Ph.D. in Research, and an MFA in Creative Writing. He’s authored or co-authored over sixty-five books, chapters, articles, and essays, as well as over a hundred and fifty research reports for various local, state, and federal agencies. Recent essays from his research and memoir work appear or are forthcoming in Collateral Journal, About Place Journal, Wild Roof Journal, Military Experience and the Arts, The Wrath-Bearing Tree, Shift, Proud to be: Writing by American Warriors, Trajectory Journal, and From Pen to Page III: More Writings from the Bluegrass Writers Coalition.

His investigative memoir about his father's still CIA-classified death in Vietnam in 1965, titled Because: A CIA Coverup and a Son’s Odyssey to Find the Father He Never Knew, will be launched on Father's Day weekend, 2025. Links to publications, presentations, trailers, social media, blog, and other information can be found at https://jamesbwells.com. James enjoys spending much of his leisure time with his spouse on their Lexington, Kentucky farm located on the palisades of the Kentucky River, where he is an organic gardener and beekeeper.

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