The novelist John le Carré may have written the fictional Cold War thriller, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” but one of Estes Park’s quiet, but interesting citizens has lived a real-life version as both a sailor and real life spy.
Captain Richard “Dick” Life (Ret.) was a U.S. Naval Intelligence Officer for 24 years and a diesel submariner for four years. During his career, Life interacted with Soviet officers, worked as an intelligence analyst at the Pentagon, served in country during the Vietnam War, and was the Assistant Naval Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. His work, spanning 33 years, took him to countries around the world.
Life was born into a military family March 10, 1940, in Parkersburg, West Virginia. His dad was an instructor pilot, who taught Army enlistees how to fly. His father was also in the Army Air Corps branch and served in the China-Burma-India theater of war for 10 months.
While his father was overseas, Life and his mother lived with her parents in Parkersburg. After his father returned to the states, his family moved to a military base south of Detroit. In 1952 the Life family moved to Athens, Ohio, where he went to high school.
When Life was eight years old, he saw “The Spirit of West Point,” the story of two West Point cadets, Doc Blanchard and Glen Davis, who both won the Heisman Trophy and who both played themselves in the movie. While the low-budget black and white film was not a blockbuster and did not win any awards for acting, directing or cinematography, it did inspired the young Dick Life to pursue a career in the military.
“When we left the theater, my dad said, ‘Well, what did you think?’ I said, ‘Dad, I want to go to West Point,’” recalled Life.
At 14, Life decided that he wanted to pursue a career in the Navy. A conversation with his aunt solidified his desire to attend the U.S. Naval Academy when she offered her opinion regarding the difference between West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy.
“If you graduate from West Point, you will sleep on the ground, in a tent in the snow and you’ll eat out of a tin can. However, if you go to Annapolis – the Naval Academy – when you graduate, you will go to a ship. You will have a bed with clean sheets. A young, enlisted fellow is going to shine your shoes, and do all these kinds of things – clean up the room, and all that. You’re going to have three hot meals a day,” Life remembered being told.
With this goal in mind, Life began working on his leadership experience. He was a Boy Scout and earned the rank of Eagle Scout. He sought as many leadership opportunities as he could, including running for student council and serving as class president.
“One week after I graduated from high school in 1958 I got a telegram from Naval headquarters in Washington D.C. saying, ‘you have been accepted to the Naval Academy, report to the Naval Academy in seven days,’” said Life.
Four years later he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and found himself assigned to a landing ship tank first used in World War II to invade beaches such as Normandy. The amphibious ships were designed to transport troops, cargo, vehicles, and tanks right up to the shoreline.
Life spent two years aboard the landing ship in the Mediterranean Sea as an officer in charge of the radio operators and other sailors in the communications role. “They assigned me to be the communications officer and the operations officer of the landing ship,” said Life.
Life went on to serve three tours of duty in Vietnam. During his first tour, he worked on a submarine, carrying out special operations against the Viet Cong. He worked closely with Underwater Demolition Teams — the predecessors to Navy SEALs — to gather intelligence from the ocean to the coastline and into the forest stretching inland.
The submarine transported Navy frogmen, as they were called, and their boats close to the shoreline where the teams would quietly move ashore, slowly checking the ocean and forest for any natural or human-made obstructions to make sure the area was safe for landing if an invasion was conducted.
“We would get those photographs [through the periscope], and we would stay submerged, maybe 500 or so yards out. And then they would have the senior of the two officers come up and look through the periscope. And we would show them exactly the center of the beach,” said Life.
The submarine, with its titanium hull, was then purposely run aground.
“We were now in sand or gravel that was 55 feet deep. We would go as far as we could, and then we would settle down, and sit there until it really got dark. n the meantime, the frogs (Underwater Demolition Teams), were getting all prepared,” Life recalled.
In addition to his three tours of duty, Life earned a master’s degree in Russian Area Studies from Georgetown University. He put that education to use working as an intelligence analyst at the Pentagon when he was assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency where he studied intelligence reports on the Soviet Union and oversaw Navy human intelligence around the world.
Between 1984 and 1988, Life was the Deputy Director of Intelligence at NORAD (North American Aerospace Command) in Colorado Springs. During those four years, Life’s family occasionally camped in Estes Park, inspiring his eventual move to Estes Park.
Dick retired in August 1991, in Munich, Germany. He eventually settled with his wife Sandra, in Fort Collins, Colorado. In 2013, he relocated to Estes Park.
In retirement, Dick has continued to pursue his passion for foreign affairs. He has been a consultant with two major cities near Siberia, helped establish programs to strengthen democracy and observed presidential elections in North Macedonia (formerly known as Macedonia), Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia.
Life, now age 84, has volunteered for a variety of organizations and causes. He has volunteered with the Rooftop Rodeo and worked on Navajo and Cheyenne reservations.
Through his nonprofit, Life’s Perspectives: Foreign Affairs and Leadership, Dick has spoken at conventions, universities, training programs, and Rotary Clubs. He stays active in several different organizations, which include the American Legion, Friends of the Museum and the Estes Valley Library.
When it comes to national security, the polarization between political parties is of particular concern to Life. “I’ve been an independent for some 35 years and am very concerned about disrespectful competition within our political parties that is slowly dismantling America,” he said.
Dick Life has lived a long and accomplished career, but according to him, his most important achievement was marrying his wife, Sandra, and having six children, one of whom is Estes Park police Captain Rick Life.
Life and his wife raised six children, two who were biological children and four adopted Korean orphans. All were raised in several U.S. states, which included Virginia, Connecticut, Florida, California, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. His family also lived abroad, in the Philippines, Russia and Germany.
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