James Olsen Case

James Olsen was a very good speaker and I really appreciated his message. I like that he risked his life and his family's to protect the good of our country. He did a very good job on the way he presented his story and portraying patriotic character.

James Olsen grew up in Ohio and was just an average kid. He later went to college and was studying to become a lawyer. During his college years he received a mysterious letter that just said to meet at a certain place and that they could not tell him why. He was very suspicious of what the letter was but he decided he would be brave and go anyway. He went and found out that the people he was meeting with were members of the CIA. The men offered him the opportunity to become a CIA agent. He was very shocked about what had just happened to him so he went home to think about his decision. He later decided that he would accept the opportunity. He went to Washington D.C. secretly to interview, take many extensive tests, and go through background checks. They selected him to be in the CIA and then he went to live his career. After he became a CIA agent, he met his wife, Meredith, and they ended up working as a couple and having three children. James and Meredith moved around a lot and had many missions that they completed all over the world. Then they eventually retired and live a full and happy life.

James did a lot for his county and showed everyone that there are ways to defend America without being in the military. Many people do not think that they can protect The United States without being in the military but James proved with his stories that there are other ways. He did have to go through a lot of training which may be very similar to a boot camp but it is not as extensive as the military. Don't get me wrong I think that the people in the military are doing a great and noble thing for their country but there are other ways. He was never afraid to do a mission and knew that by doing tasks, no matter how dangerous, he was doing it to help others. When he told the story about getting a spy from the KGB, he had to have great courage because he had to 1). Get out of the range of the KGB's that were tracking him at all times, 2). Trust the KGB employee when it could have just been a trap or 3). Possibly get killed. He had enough courage in himself to let his children get that close to the enemy and know that he could protect them if anything bad were to happen.

This convocation was very important because we need to know what the people in the CIA are doing and they really are striving at all times to protect us. James Olsen taught us that we need to protect our country and to also be careful in everything that we do. I learned that being patriotic is always good and we need to be able to want to defend our country if we have the opportunity in some way.