Dino Brugioni, RIP

[Joseph McBride]

I was surprised to learn today that Dino Brugioni had died -- on September 25 of this year. I read
the New York Times and the Washington Post and numerous other papers and websites carefully each day but had not
seen his obituary. I found the death notice below in the Post. Evidently the Post
could not be bothered to write an obituary of such an important and famous man, so his
family had to take out a paid death notice! I searched the New York Times Archives
but could find no obituary. You have to wonder if Brugioni's candid revelations to Peter Janney and Douglas
Horne about the Zapruder film and Horne's discussion in his books of the film's alteration in light
of Brugioni's comments about working on blowups for briefing boards from the unaltered film during the assassination weekend at the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) of the CIA, etc., had made
Brugioni a non-person in the eyes of the MSM. Brugioni's account differs
from that of Homer McMahon, the head of NPIC's Color Lab, who worked
on briefing board blowups of a different version of the film that weekend, in a compartmentalized operation.
According to Horne, McMahon "personally thought he saw JFK reacting
to 6 to 8 shots fired from at least three directions." Brugioni said that in
the version of the Zapruder film he worked on that weekend, he
saw debris from the President's head flying much farther in the
air and for longer than is shown in the altered Zapruder film. Both men
thought they were working from an original film. Brugioni was a brilliant and much-respected photographic expert
with what Horne calls "impeccable credentials" -- Brugioni had made the blowups of the Cuban missile installations for JFK and
wrote the excellent book EYEBALL TO EYEBALL, about the missile crisis, among other works. Here
is a link to Horne's eye-opening video interview of Brugioni: [size=12]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_QIuu6h...-0ZCeIINmt[/SIZE]
And here is the death notice from the Washington Post:

Dino A. BrugioniDino A. Brugioni BRUGIONI Dino A. Brugioni Dino Anthony Brugioni, 93, passed away Friday, September 25, 2015 of natural causes, at his home in Fredericksburg. Mr. Brugioni, a son of Italian immigrants, was a native of Missouri who attended schools in Bevier and Jefferson City. During World War II, he served in the Army Air Corps, flying 66 bombing and numerous reconnaissance missions over Europe. He received the Purple Heart, nine Air Medals and a Presidential Citation. After the war, he received B.A. and M.A. degrees from George Washington University. Joining the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency in 1948, Mr. Brugioni became an expert in Soviet industrial installations. In 1955, he was selected as a member of the cadre of founding fathers of the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC). As an NPIC senior officer, he was involved in the exploitation of U-2, SR-72 and satellite imagery in strategic and crisis situations. In 1949, Mr. Brugioni married Theresa Harich. Together they had two children, Theresa B. Tabak of Atlanta, Georgia, and John P. Brugioni, of Manassas, Virginia. Theresa died in 2004. Mr. Brugioni is survived by his children, six grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, his sister Arlene Schwaller and his brother Delmo Brugioni. In his professional life, Mr. Brugioni received many awards for his work, including a citation from President John F. Kennedy for his performance during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was also awarded the CIA Intelligence Medal for Merit, the CIA Career Intelligence Medal, and the prestigious Pioneer in Space Medal for his role in the development of satellite reconnaissance. He was twice awarded the Sherman Kent Award, the CIA's top award for outstanding contributions to the literature of intelligence. During his career with the CIA and during his retirement, Mr. Brugioni published five books and over 100 articles, mainly on the application of overhead imagery to intelligence and related fields. His first book, Eyeball to Eyeball, is the definitive account of the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. His monograph The Holocaust Revisited: A Retrospective Analysis of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Complex, revealed and analyzed photographs of the death camp in operation. A Civil War buff, he wrote extensively on the war in the West, including The Civil War in Missouri: As Seen from the Capital City. His last book, Eyes in the Sky: Eisenhower, the CIA and Cold War Aerial Espionage, was published in 2010. It was Mr. Brugioni's joy to share his extensive knowledge with others, from high school students to intelligence professionals. He lectured at more than fifty colleges and universities, as well as military organizations, societies and industrial organizations. In 2002, he was a member of the ten-person U.S. delegation to Havana to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. On April 13, 2005, he was inducted into the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency's Hall of Fame. Mr. Brugioni remained active and actively interested in the lives of his large extended family and many friends. He took great pleasure in relaying news, always enriched with anecdotes and humor, via phone calls and email. As one of his nephews has remarked, "There's some great storytelling going on in heaven today." Funeral services and inurnment will take place at Arlington National Cemetery in Spring 2016. Memorial donations may be made to the Gary Sinise Foundation (https://donate.garysinisefoundation.org/) or the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank (http://www.fredfood.org). Online guestbook is available at covenantfuneralservice.comcovenantfuneralservice.com

Published in The Washington Post on Oct. 2, 2015