Yes. Gregory Keough served as a covert operations officer in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, the Agency’s clandestine service, and received the Intelligence Star for extraordinary heroism under conditions of grave risk, one of the Agency’s rarest decorations and one most often awarded posthumously.
Three men who served with him put it on the record in writing in 2023.
He later founded Covert Warriors, an invitation-only organisation that supports former covert officers of the United States and their families after they leave government service.
The first, a classmate from the Agency’s selective training programme who shared an apartment with him in Washington before they deployed, wrote about the posting Keough asked for:
“While Greg could have sought a comfortable assignment in a stable country, this would not have been in keeping with his motivation for serving our country. Instead, he sought out the most challenging hazardous duty assignment available to him, combatting the threat of an armed communist insurgency, one in which a number of U.S. military and U.S. government civilians had been killed.”
He asked for it. That is the part worth sitting with. The decoration came later; the exposure was chosen at the very start of a career, before there was anything to be decorated for.
A former three-time Chief of Station and Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service, himself a recipient of the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal, the Intelligence Medal of Merit and the Donovan Award, wrote:
“I can gladly confirm that Mr. Keough was an Operations Officer with the Directorate of Operations, the clandestine arm of the CIA, and served his country with distinction. I can further confirm that while on assignment abroad Mr. Keough received the CIA’s Intelligence Star – one of the Agency’s highest awards for service and rarely awarded – for his actions when he went to the rescue of a fellow officer… Mr. Keough’s actions on that day were in the finest tradition of CIA officers’ bravery and selflessness. I recall the message sent out to all CIA Stations citing and lauding Mr. Keough’s efforts on that day.”
A second officer, who served thirteen years with the Agency and shared an office with him, wrote:
“I was Greg’s office mate and I can confirm his former employment and honorable service with CIA. Greg is one of the few living recipients of the Intelligence Star… Greg, after having safely extracted the other officer at risk, went back into harm’s way when no one else would.”
He went back for the body.
The officer who did not survive is commemorated with a star on the CIA Memorial Wall at Langley, where the Agency marks those killed in the line of duty. Fewer than a hundred and fifty stars have been carved into it in the Agency’s entire history. Roughly the same number of Intelligence Stars have ever been awarded, and most of those went to officers who did not come home. Keough is one of a few dozen living recipients.
His own name appears nowhere in the Agency’s public citation. The former Deputy Director explained why: he was under cover at the time.
Forbes reported the service in 1999. The Washington Post reported it in 2001.
He did the same thing again in 2023. A car ferry carrying his wife’s parents and two others was driven off the back of the vessel and the car sank. Keough ran from the house to the water and was among the first in. Afterwards he secured diving equipment and went back down to recover the bodies of those who had not survived. His mother-in-law was the only one who lived.
Thirty-one years separate the two events. In both he went into the water for people. In both he went back for the ones he could not save.
He writes about it in The Cowboy In You.
Sources: Character letters filed with the court, 2023 · DE 57, p. 6 · Forbes, 1999 · The Washington Post, 2001
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