Interdasting
Meet the real life 'Q': Former CIA chief of disguise - whose husband inspired the movie 'Argo' - divulges the tricks of the trade, from wigs to masks, and details her 27-year career at the agency
Jonna Mendez was introduced to the CIA by her first husband, who was part of the agency, in the 1960s
She started as a secretary but switched to the operational side - first becoming a photo operations officer and then also a disguise officer, eventually rising to chief of disguise before retiring in 1993
Mendez described where she worked, the Office of Technical Service, as being to the CIA what 'Q' is to MI6 in the James Bond movies
Mendez met her second husband, Antonio 'Tony' Mendez, at the agency and together they have written several books, including one that chronicles their exploits against the KGB in the late 1980s
Tony Mendez had a storied career at the CIA and is the basis for the character Ben Affleck plays in 'Argo'
There are some tricks of the trade when you are a spy in need of an easy identity change: a little bit of stubble or facial hair, some makeup, glasses, a dental facade, a wig.
These are known as light disguises – think Philip and Elizabeth Jennings in the recently ended TV show, ‘The Americans.’
‘Those are things that would be considered everyday in the disguise world. They didn’t require really special efforts to do those things,’ Jonna Mendez, the former chief of disguise for the CIA, explained.
But then, ‘there were occasions when we needed much much more than that. There were occasions when we needed a person to really transform into someone else – that would take a lot more time, that would take a lot more resources, and it would take a lot more skill to do it believably.'
Those are known as advanced disguises – and Mendez herself used one at the White House.
(Jonna Mendez is shown above next to her disguise case at the International Spy Museum in Washington DC. She was at the CIA for 27 years, and it was her first husband who introduced her to the agency. She started out at as a secretary - that was the only job available. She was going to quit when her boss suggested she join the Office of Technical Service - the 'Q' of the CIA - and she became a photo operations officer in the late 1970s)
In the early 1990s, the CIA had a program that produced convincing masks, and Mendez went to the Oval Office to brief then President George H.W. Bush about the agency’s ‘newest, latest, greatest device,’ she said. Before becoming the 41st president, Bush had been the director of the CIA and had worn disguises as well.
‘I was sitting in my chair when I was talking to him, I said, I’m actually wearing the disguise that we’re talking about and I’m going to take it off and show it to you,’ Mendez recalled.
‘He lit up like a Christmas tree. I had always thought George H.W. Bush was kind of very contained but he was really interested in this. He said don’t take it off, nope, and he got up from the Resolute Desk, came around and he walked around me and he’s looking, looking, looking and then he went back to his desk and he said, okay, take it off.’
This was just one of the many stories Mendez – who was in the CIA for 27 years – shared with DailyMail.com.
She started as a secretary but switched to the operational side - no small feat in the 1970s when that was considered men's work - and became a photo operations officer with the Office of Technical Service, which she described as being to the CIA what 'Q' is to MI6 in the James Bond movies.
‘We were like ‘Mission Impossible’ - if you wanted to bug someone, if you needed counterfeit documents, if you needed a disguise. Anything technical, you would come to see us.'
Mendez then became a disguise officer - disguising herself and others both abroad and in Washington DC. By the time she retired in 1993, she was the chief of disguise. After the end of her first marriage, she married Antonio 'Tony' Mendez, a fellow intelligence officer and the inspiration for the 2012 film ‘Argo’ and the character Ben Affleck played in the movie.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6472507/Real-life-Q-Former-CIA-chief-disguise-divulges-tricks-trade.html