In Memory of Tashi Chutter and Roy Clarkston

Sadly, two members of the CIA's Tibetan Task Force passed away last week; Tashi Chutter on April 18, and Roy Clarkston on April 20. Both served at the CIA's main training base in Camp Hale, Colorado as translator and instructor, respectively. In honor of their memory, I'm showing some excerpts from the ceremony held there last September honoring the Tibetan freedom fighters.

Tashi Chutter devoted much of his life to the Tibetan resistance; with the CIA's operation and later with the Tibetan government in exile. For more information, you can download this short biography sent to me by his daughter, Tashi Chodon. I first met him in October 2009 at a CIA ceremony in Langley, VA where a small group gathered to witness the unveiling of a painting commemorating the operation (commissioned by Bruce Walker, one of the Camp Hale instructors and later a case officer in India). Among a few speeches by various attendees, Tashi made an impassioned plea to help resettle the Tibetan refugees in Nepal to the US, who have not been allowed to leave in an increasingly dangerous political climate there. He repeated that same request to Colorado Senator Mark Udall after his speech at the Camp Hale ceremony (click here for my digested video from that day). Remembering that Tashi Chutter never stopped fighting for the Tibetan cause, his appeal for help is shown in today's video.

And in memory of Roy Clarkston, who couldn't attend the Camp Hale ceremony having just undergone heart surgery, the video closes with a few words from his friend Cmd. Sgt. Major  Harold E. Caldwell. Just before the ceremony began, I enjoyed a conversation with his daughter Kelly Witchey and granddaughter, Brianna. My deepest sympathies to both families in this time of loss.

(On a side note: One of the attendees at the ceremony was Todd Stein, Director of Government Relations for the International Campaign for Tibet, who later informed me that Senator Udall had contacted the State Department regarding this issue, and in an ICT report last February he gave details of a visit to Kathmandu by Under Secretary of State Maria Otero and US Ambassador to Nepal, Scott DeLisi.)