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About John G. Merriman
- John Gaither Merriman (21 October 1929 - 20 August 1964) was a Central Intelligence Agency pilot who died of injuries sustained when his plane was shot down while flying for the Agency in 1964 in the Congo.
- He was serving in Africa as an instructor for Intermountain Aviation, a CIA front company, training Cuban exile pilots to fly armed T-28 Trojan piston aircraft against communist-backed Simba rebels.
- Prior to serving in the CIA, Merriman had served in the 82nd Airborne Division.
- In 1964, against Agency orders, Merriman flew a strafing mission against a Simba convoy.
- His T-28 aircraft was hit by ground fire and he managed to reach an airfield before crashing.
- He was recovered the following morning and taken back to base where he died of his injuries several weeks later.Medical evacuation of the wounded Merriman was not considered a priority for the U.S.
- embassy, who were seeking to conceal CIA involvement in combat operations in the region.
- As a result, reports indicated that the crashed pilot was actually a Cuban and he was checked into a local hospital under the name 'Mario Carlos'.
- Inattention and lack of medicine contributed to his detertoraiting condition, eventually dying of a lung embolism aboard a U.S.
- Air Force transport plane as he left the country on 20 August 1964.Upon his death, Merriman's wife was told that her husband had died in a hospital in Puerto Rico as a result of a car accident.
- Merriman was posthumously awarded the Intelligence Star in a closed ceremony at the Agency's headquarters.
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