Categories
Uncategorized

What Happens to a Wartime Whistleblower?

Whistleblowing Fact 898:

If my father was a wartime whistleblower, which now seems certain, it occurred to me that the missing pieces of what happened to him may lie not in enemy actions but in allied retaliation. As a result, I turned to a popular whistleblowing theory and its ancillary theoretical model explaining retaliation against whistleblowers to help me fill in the possible missing pieces and help me understand what may have happened to him and why. The results of content analyses and my archival and field research, combined with what is known about whistleblowing theory, have resulted in my ability to amazingly fit the pieces of a complex theoretical puzzle together. The completed puzzle has allowed me to understand why he did the things he did and why he was retaliated against” (p. 98)

James B. Wells – Writer
James b. Wells's avatar

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.

Leave a comment