Richard Eric Pound
I Went Aviatin’ to China is Eric’s first book. Raised in his mother’s and father’s small Indiana hometown, he grew up in a family that was equal parts Hoosier and United States Air Force. Eric spent thirty-four years in the CIA, eighteen overseas.
His Story
Richard Eric Pound ("Eric") was born on 7 September 1950. He is the son of the late Joe Thomas Pound and Mary Jane Griffith Pound, both of Sullivan, Indiana. Like his parents, Eric is a graduate of Sullivan High School. He graduated from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana in 1972 with a B.A. in History. In 1973 he received an M.A. in History from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Eric and his wife Sharon, a talented artist, moved to Williamsburg, Virginia in 2017. They have three children and nine grandchildren. He speaks Swahili, French and German.
Eric joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1976 and retired from the CIA after nearly 34 years in 2009 with the rank of SIS-5 in the Senior Intelligence Service (roughly equivalent to "three star" military rank). He served 18 years in Europe and Africa in eight foreign tours of duty, five of them in command. He was Chief of Station four times and Chief of Base once. His headquarters assignments included global, continental and special operations responsibilities. In his post-CIA career Eric worked for Raytheon as Director of Program Development, Special Technologies and Operations, and as Vice President at Strategic Intelligence Group. He then enjoyed some time as a historian and mentor for junior officers, and retired for the second time in 2017.
Eric was awarded the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal, the Donovan Award, six Meritorious Unit Citations (five in command) and numerous Exceptional Performance Awards. The Greek government awarded him the Hellenic Coast Guard Medal of Honor and Merit. He was the only civilian and the only non-Greek ever to be awarded that medal.
Eric has traveled from Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar by open boat, visited the headwaters of the Nile River and, with Sharon, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. He is a past president of a chapter of the Central Intelligence Retirees Association. Eric previously served as a National Park Service Volunteer at the Colonial National Historical Park, Historic Jamestowne. He is also a member of a local writers' group in Williamsburg, the Emerson Society.