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March 23, 2025
In 2011, my son Mike was a high school student taking Russian as an elective all four years.
His school, Langley High, happens to be just a stone's throw-1.7 miles, to be exact-from the CIA headquarters in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
As some of you know, my dad, may or may not have spent more than thirty-five years working for that particular agency.
One day, Mike had a substitute teacher for his Russian class and after class the substitute pulled him aside and asked if was related to my father - also named Joe Koshuta.
Mike said that indeed he was, and the substitute said that he knew my father and had worked with him.
It turns out, the substitute was a gentleman named John Sullivan who was a polygraph examiner with the CIA for thirty-one years.
During this time he conducted more tests than anyone in the history of the CIA's polygraph program.
He even wrote a book about his experience entitled Gatekeeper: Memoirs of a CIA Polygraph Examiner.
By 2011 he had been retired from the Agency for a number of years, and he gave Mike one of his business cards to give to me.
My father being a good spy, never really talked about his job and since he had passed away in 1995, I decided to contact John to learn more about how he knew my father and see if he had any stories to share.
We agreed to meet at a local Irish Pub in Great Falls, Va called the Old Brogue - where CIA staff may or may not frequent.
When we met, John had a copy of his book for me and he shared a story about a trip he took to Rio de Janeiro back in 1969 where he met my father.
It turns out that a check written by secretary working at the US Embassy in Rio had been found in the company of a drug smuggler and John had been called to Rio to conduct a polygraph test with the woman.
When he arrived in Rio someone from the Embassy was there to greet him and take him to the Embassy.
That someone was my father, who at the time was technically a Finance Officer at the Embassy but apparently had other significant operational responsibilities.
After conducting the polygraph exam with the secretary - she was cleared of any wrongdoing - my father invited John to our house for dinner.
That is when John revealed that he remembered visiting our house and meeting the family that evening - including an 11-year-old me.
More than four decades later, we were sitting across from each other at a pub, both of us connected through the life of a man who had kept so much hidden.
What do you say in that situation?
I smiled, took a sip of my beer, and said - "Nice to see you again John. It's been a while."
