by Dr. Iain
Corness
Some people are described as “good listeners” -
Kurt Farnham was such a good listener that it took him around the world to
countries and places that some of us would only dream of. It also took him
right into the heart of NASA and the space shuttles.
Kurt was born in the whaling town of New Bedford in
Massachusetts. The product of a broken home when he was only 2 years old,
he was enrolled in a private military school when he was six, where he was
raised and schooled with military discipline. It comes as no surprise to
find that when he was 17 he joined the American military proper.
The
Army welcomed the new recruit and as a friendly gesture sent him for an
all expenses paid trip to Korea. He was an infantry rifleman and spent 18
months there as a sniper.
Returning to America he was fairly undecided as to
which direction he should follow. He tried Jump School to be a
paratrooper, but after five jumps decided the $50 extra each month was not
worth it and transferred to the Signals unit. This was more to his liking
and the young Kurt was trained as a Morse Code and Radio operator.
After completing his specialist training he was sent to
Germany. He was 21 years old and saw his first Porsche car. Kurt was an
enthusiast from then on, “It really turned me on.”
After three years in Germany he was returned to America
and was assigned to the Army Security Agency, under the aegis of the
National Security Agency (NSA). There he was trained as a Morse Intercept
technician, a sophisticated form of “listening” whereby communications
by others can be monitored with frightening accuracy. With these new
skills he was sent back to Germany for another three years where he was
involved in monitoring East German communications. Whilst this could be
thought of as a form of espionage, Kurt was quick to point out that while
one side was listening to the other, the reverse was also happening. It
was more a case that being forewarned is to be forearmed.
Following Germany he returned to the US and was given a
plane ticket to S.E. Asia as his reward. Destination Saigon. There he was
involved in monitoring Viet Cong communications, flying in specially
outfitted planes and helicopters that would skim along just above the tree
tops, downloading information into on-board computers which in turn sent
the information to special data processing units in Thailand.
This was to be his first contact with the Kingdom. For
his R&R he was asked if he wanted to go to Thailand. “I’d never
heard of the place. I came to Pattaya, it was 1969 and I fell in love with
it. A tropical paradise with lovely ladies!”
However, the army kept him on the move and he went back
to Germany after a brief (or perhaps “debrief”) spell in America. He
took with him to Europe a rather special vehicle - a Z28 Camaro. In this
vehicle he made his debut in motor racing and he went to driver training
schools in France and Germany. Following this he raced with some
considerable success after teaming up with a Swiss national who also had a
Z28 and who did the racing modifications to the car.
He may have been a fast mover on the tracks, but the US
government also had him moving. This time it was back to Vietnam as an
advisor to the South Vietnamese intelligence units. However, by 1974 and
after 20 years and 2 months in the Army he took his retirement.
So what did he do? Did he retire to sit on his front
porch in downtown New Bedford? No, he returned to Vietnam as a civilian.
“It was a great place to work and party. There were a lot of different
and interesting people in Saigon. Everything was so exciting. I just
couldn’t imagine myself working in a mundane job in the US.” However,
as Vietnam fell to the North Vietnamese he had to get out in April 1975.
Back in America he joined Rockwell International and
went to Iran where the Shah had contracted them to build “listening”
posts around the border. This was not without drama either, with three of
his workmates killed by terrorists. He was given the option of a transfer
back to America, but refused. “Hell no. I’d just come back from
Vietnam. I said to just give me a gun and I’ll stay here.”
He found this time in Iran fascinating. “We went to
places where they’d never seen white people. It was incredible, dodging
wild camels out in the desert. I never knew camels were so aggressive and
stink so bad.”
After Iran he returned to America to work with Rockwell
International at NASA. This was an experience which although exciting,
being part of a 10,000 strong workforce involved with space exploration,
was also devastating in some aspects. “I was there the morning the
Challenger blew up. Everyone had tried to do their job so well. It was
horrible. We had to wait 2 years to see why it had blown up.” It was
obvious talking to him that emotionally there was still a huge impact from
that disaster.
Kurt retired in 1991 and knew he wanted to come here to
live. He sold his beloved Corvette that he’d had for 17 years and came
to Pattaya. For him, success is, “Being satisfied with what you have
done, that you have done the best that you can and you’ve done
(something) in your lifetime to provide for a fun retirement.”
That “fun retirement” is what Kurt is enjoying now,
including golf and the Hash and in his spare time he reads. Generally he
likes books with espionage and intrigue. I wonder why? Kurt’s last words
were, “If I were to die tomorrow I wouldn’t regret anything.”
Let’s hope that tomorrow never comes!
