"Our
house is a very, very, very fine house
with two cats in the yard, life used to be so hard,
now everything is easy cause of you..."
— "Our House" by Crosby, Stills, and Nash
HAVRE-Glasgow (pop. 3500) is another nice little town on the Burlington Northern Hi-line. It's close to the Milk River, Fort Peck Lake, and a string of clandestine airstrips near Porcupine Creek. Not much to observe in the flat snow covered town as you pass through in January .
Still, as one drives along Highway 2 one can't help but catch the Valley County Museum. It's got a big airplane in front on a steel pedestal reflecting the halcyon days when Glasgow had an important military air force base. Those days are gone. The air base stands empty. All that remains is just a lot of memories, an enormous network of landing strips, and rows of empty condominiums. Housing is very cheap in Glasgow,
The condominiums are laid out a lot like an old ghost town. Call it a space-age Virginia City. I suppose the St Marie Condominium Association feels like that, too.
Just the other evening a fellow was sitting down the street looking through star-light night vision goggles when he turned his gaze along Country Club street . Nobody was there !! Same on Hickory - only two lights.Same also on Cedar Street, Poplar Street, and Ash. Eerie.
Puzzled, the man, a researcher, trudged down the street to St Marie Bowling Lanes and asked around to see if anybody knew anything "unusual" about the condominiums; or if anybody had heard anything about "unusual flights" into the area over the last few years. Glasgow is an isolated town and a stranger asking those questions at the bowling alley doesn't get very far.
Of course no soul had seen anything. But one of the young ladies beside a large cardboard Brunswick display wrote down the phone number for the Village Association. The girl, "Thelma", smiled and said , "They'll be able to tell you....anything you'll need. I'm sure....." Thelma put on her white glove then bounced off to bowl with two friends. Bowling alleys are popular this time of year in Montana and Canada.
The next day the researcher began to ask more questions. Soon through subterfuge he obtained the St. Marie Condominium Association deeds list. He also obtained a top secret phone listing of all the tenants. Puzzled the researcher found that the two lists didn't match. He noticed an unusual listing at 205 B Willow Street, "John and Joyce Tatum". Hmmm..... this name Tatum sounded familiar. The man continued to ask questions for several days and turned up a lot more unusual information.
Several of the old time residents in the area remembered a "Tatum" who occasionally flew into the area. This Tatum's comings and goings were very low key. One caretaker remembered that Tatum had come through the area once with "a Russian. Strange guy...the Russian." And then the caretaker told the researcher something that made the researcher's hair crawl on the back of his arms.
The caretaker was blunt. "Wise up, man. These condominiums have been used for black ops for years. That John Tatum is a phoney name. Many of the condos out here are owned under aliases and assumed names," the man said looking over his shoulder as he spoke. "For example, FBI agent Terry Nelson out of Florida put pilots up here for a long time. They were flying in from Canada on a regular basis. Hell, its like home-coming sometimes with all the pilots out here."
"Well, who then owns these condos and buildings ?" the researcher asked.
"Well, go to Chip Tatum..... ask him what would happen to him if he tried to stay in "his" condominium,"the caretaker spoke with a grim smile. "That deed may say John and Joyce Tatum but the condominiums are owned by a government agency. If you start pinning down the ownership of the properties you'll find that Nelson's people had lots of condos up here, too..People around here remember seeing local FBI agents Scott Cruise and James Wixon taking the pilots around like they were kings.....some people even recall Terry Nelson.Nelson's been up here a few times himself...they say he was undercover, but I don't know what to believe anymore..." the caretaker paused then went a little further.
"There was talk that Tatum was NSA...talk that the condos were used out here to ferry people and arms in and out of the country. You know, if a newsman were to start digging up here he'd find all kinds of things," at that point the caretaker pushed his fingers to his mouth.He didn't want to say anymore.
As of January 9, 1998 there were 228 deeded units in the St Marie Condominium Association. "John and Joyce Tatum" own a nice property at 205 B Willow Street. A "Nelson" has a purchase interest in a property at 305 A Cedar Street. (The caretaker's story of the Russian will be discussed at a later time.) The St Marie's Condo Association telephone number is (406)228-3337. The Valley County Clerk and Recorder's office has a list of all the deeded owners of record. A spirited day at the Court House or abstract office will turn up lots of out-of-the-area owners. Some of the ownership trail will trace back to interesting people in Florida.
Meanwhile, back in palm-tree Florida, a former government operative "Swordfish99" has just been released from prison."Swordfish99" had infiltrated the Ochoa drug cartel operations. "Swordfish99" flew drug shipments occasionally for Island Air Services. "Swordfish99" knows a lot about flying drugs to Canada and Montana. He has documents he wants to show to folks on the Internet.
"Swordfish99" also desperately needs to take a good anger management course. He's seething with rage. Seems "Swordfish99" was arrested in a US Customs plane. Seems that Island Air Service was involved too. "Swordfish99" managed to get into trouble when he began to feed information about some powerful politicians. Why, "Swordfish99" had even met with FBI agent Terry Nelson at his home near Miami."Swordfish99" says Nelson's house is really fancy.
Then there's a pilot named Curt Emmert down in Florida too. He'd been in a Florida federal pen, awhile. Emmert had flown some of the drug routes from the Caribbean into Canada. Curt Emmert is a funny guy. Agent Terry Nelson was kind enough to get him out of jail on a federal writ; then Curt Emmert ran off to the South Pacific. Poor Curt. Terry Nelson wasn't happy when they found him. Still Curt Emmert is eager to tell his story.
Not to be undone, Canadian undercover operative Brian Mizan has a story to tell also. Brian Mizan knows about the Canadian operation of Terry Nelson. He tried to stop it himself and ended up tangling with the law. Brian Mizan is a good drug agent. Sometimes Brian would use a disguise and call himself "Tony DeGenzos " in Florida. But Brian Mizan is in Canada now and he's feeling great. Brian Mizan would love to talk to journalists (or investagators) about Terry Nelson and multi-ton shipments of heroin and cocaine flowing from Canada to Montana.
Wonder if these pilots ever came to Glasgow, Montana ? Maybe not. But guarenteed they know others in the Ochoa operation who did.
It's difficult to realize that NSA operations could involve small town Glasgow, Montana. It's even more difficult to understand that a notorious Russian double- agent would be moved out of the USA through the remote Glasgow AFB airport . One of the condominiums was used as a spook safe house. Others were used by FBI agent Terry Nelson to house pilots who flew tons of heroin and cocaine into the United States from Canada. Who knows, maybe the spook houses at the St Marie Condominium Association, near Glasgow, will become a tourist Mecca.